The Investor's Guide to Asia

China has come out with a string of policies that are targeted to reinvigorate economic growth. Some of the policies are adding leverage to the government’s balance sheet. A question that investors are asking is: how much more will China realistically spend to stimulate the economy? So far, these policies have focused on shoring up demand - unlike after the financial crisis, when China spent trill...

In this bonus episode, we're hearing about three investment ideas that are exciting Fidelity’s Asia portfolio managers and how they play into the megatrends of artificial intelligence, the energy transition, and shifting supply chains. Marty Dropkin , Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, is joined by Monica Li , Fidelity International’s Director of Research for China. With additional contributions from...

In this episode, we turn our attention to something that affects almost every investor in China: a weakening renminbi. The Chinese currency has lost almost 10 per cent against the US dollar in the last 18 months. Is this a result of economic weakness in China or just another chapter in the strong dollar story? How is the renminbi performing against other currencies like the Japanese yen? Is curren...

Chinese healthcare is a vast universe, spanning everything from biotech to traditional medicine. It is also increasingly important as a growth driver for the economy as China's population gets older. But recent policy shifts - both domestically and internationally - have obscured that structural story. Is it time for investors to pause and rethink their approach to the sector? Or should they doubl...

The story of China's economy and stock market has long been one of rapid growth. But as policymakers pivot to focus on the quality - instead of the velocity - of growth, investors are turning their attention to something more long-lasting: shareholder returns. Dividends and buybacks are moving up the agenda of regulators and companies in China, generating interest for investors across the market,...

Where people live within China - and why - is fundamental to understanding the country’s changing demographics. That, in turn, has important implications for the Chinese economy, consumption trends, and where investors should be looking. In this episode, Catherine Yeung , Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin , Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, take you across China through the lens of Fidelity Int...

In this episode, Catherine Yeung , Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin , Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, tackle a topic that often flies under the radar, but could in fact hold great potential for investors: China’s bond market. Investors focused on the stock market, and the challenges Chinese property developers are facing, have often overlooked China’s bonds, which have boasted some of the be...

In this episode, Catherine Yeung , Investment Director, and Marty Dropkin , Head of Equities, Asia Pacific, explore the critical role of transition materials — minerals and elements, such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel, that are essential to developing and deploying clean energy technologies. Demand for these materials around the world continues to grow so securing a reliable supply of them is a p...

In this special edition of The Investor’s Guide to China, Catherine Yeung , Investment Director, is joined in Hong Kong by Louis-Vincent Gave , the founder and CEO of Gavekal, a leading independent provider of global investment research. They tackle questions from the development of China’s AI landscape and what it means for the country’s youth unemployment, to what the stellar performance of the...

When you look at some of the big economic issues China is dealing with today—lacklustre growth, a real estate slump, price disinflation, or an ageing population—you quickly realise Japan has been through a lot of the same challenges. What can we learn from Japan’s experiences? Is there a policy playbook there for how to respond to similar economic pressures for China, or indeed, any other country...

When it comes to currencies, it often feels like it's all about the US dollar. Although the greenback has dominated international trade and finance for decades, some subtle shifts have started playing out among the currencies of major economies. Rising geopolitical tensions and the changing structure of global trade are prompting some countries to rethink and scale back their reliance on the dolla...

China’s economic rebound hasn’t been as strong as many anticipated. But then, it’s not that surprising, as no one was expecting any major stimulus like in previous cycles, such as the global financial crisis. However, the Chinese consumer was really the one that was expected to underpin and power this recovery.  At the beginning of June, Fidelity’s global investment team embarked on a research tri...

2021 was a big year for the global fight against climate change. China's president, Xi Jinping, again pledged that China would hit peak emissions by 2030 and be net zero by 2060. Then at COP26 in Glasgow, over 100 countries pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions and eliminate deforestation. But that appeared to come to a screeching halt when the world was hit by the triple blow of Omicron spreadi...

Chip shortages at the start of the Covid pandemic threw semiconductors into the limelight. More recently, chips have been the focus of trade tensions between China and the US. Now, as China reopens and supply chains adjust, how will the ‘Chip War’ affect the future of the global tech hardware industry, and ultimately the prices of thousands of types of consumer goods?  In this episode, Catherine Y...

After three years, China has dropped its zero-Covid policy, and 2023 has brought a sharp rebound in activity. Road traffic, hotel bookings and many other indicators are approaching or even exceeding their 2019 levels. It's clearly good news for the economy but what does China’s reopening mean for regional and global supply chains? In the short term, Covid infections have been disrupting manufactur...

Tune in for a new series that gets under the bonnet of business and sustainability. From finance to energy to agriculture, how do business leaders balance the needs of all stakeholders and what are the trade offs they have to make in the process? Ned Salter, Global Head of Investment Research at Fidelity International, interviews chief executives in critical sectors about the difficult decisions t...

China's economy and its markets have faced a number of headwinds in 2022. Slowing growth, geopolitical uncertainty, the impact of the country's Covid policy, and how the PBOC, or the Chinese central bank, is manoeuvring how they ease monetary and fiscal policy as most other global banks move in a more hawkish direction. But despite all that, the opening up of China's onshore financial markets has...

Chinese equities markets have been volatile in the wake of last month’s Communist Party Congress in Beijing, where the country's leadership line up for the next five years was revealed. Investors have been looking for signs or signals in terms of what's going to happen as we enter a new phase of the Chinese growth story under President Xi Jinping's leadership. Against an evolving backdrop of signa...

So much of the investment conversation is dominated by companies that have already gone public. But it's not always just about listed companies. Investors in private assets, particularly in equities, for many years have considered Asia and especially China as one of the most exciting markets anywhere. And while there have been challenges and setbacks along the way, the private asset space in Asia...

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To many outsiders, Chinese equity investing might conjure up images of a huge momentum-fuelled market where investors revel in speculation and sustainability is an alien concept. But developments on the ground in China show how stereotypes like this are swiftly becoming outdated. The country's markets have been changing shape over the last decade as institutional influence expands in the onshore m...

Help us make podcasts that give you, our listeners, what you want. Take this short survey and we'll enter you in to a prize draw for £250 of Amazon vouchers or the equivalent donation to a charity of your choice. Entries close September 10th. Go on, click on the link - we really want to hear what you have to say. fidelityinternational.com/survey   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

The phrase "common prosperity" has certainly been getting a lot of air time recently, both domestically in China as well as around the world. Investors have come to know this campaign through a series of tighter regulations across a number of industries within China. But what does it really mean for companies and investors, or even the broader economy?   Hosts Catherine Yeung , Investment Director...

Now over two years into this pandemic and the world is still battling some serious supply chain disruptions - all the more so, of course, with the war in Ukraine and sanctions on Russia, plus Covid-related lockdowns in China. How are companies reacting to the constant stream of disruptions and what are they doing to help mitigate risk? What should China investors be wary of and where are the oppor...

A lot of the financial headlines we’re seeing about China lately involve debt of one form or another. It could be a real estate company that borrowed too much and got into trouble or a new macro policy aiming to rein in leverage in the banking system. But it’s important to differentiate between bad debt and good debt. While companies going bust may be newsworthy, this can also help in...