The Haitong Asia Pacific (excluding HK) Fund will mainly invest in securities of approved stock exchange of Asia Pacific outside Hong Kong. The fund will invest mainly in listed equities and listed equity derivatives although it may from time to time invest in money market and/or other fixed income instruments. The fund will invest primarily in Australia, Taiwan, Singapore, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and the People’s Republic of China, although it may also invest in Japan and countries in the Indian Sub-continent and other Asian markets which become open to foreign investors in the future.
Fund Details
Latest Fund Expense Ratio: 1.83%
Launch Date(dd/mm/yyyy): 01/02/2001
Unit Price: HKD 14.06
Fund Size: HKD 38.03M
Asian-pacific (ex-Hong Kong) markets tumbled in the first quarter of 2020 amid worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 and a crash in oil prices, while most major indexes ended worst quarter since 2008. In Japan, the Nikkei 225 Index plunged by 20.04%, with most of the loss concentrated in the second half of February and the first half of March. To fight the coronavirus, Japan has announced two rounds of stimulus packages in March, including repurchase of 500 billion Yen of government bond to improve liquidity, a 1.6 trillion Yen (15 billion USD) worth of zero interest loan program for mid and small-sized business hit by coronavirus, as well as 430 billion Yen (4 billion USD) of fiscal spending to support companies and individuals. Meanwhile, Japan’s government was working on another “biggest ever” stimulus, according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Besides the COVID-19 impact, Japan reported the final GDP of -7.1% contraction for the fourth quarter 2019, worth than the initial estimate of -6.3%, reassuring the serious adverse effect of the value added tax hike last October. Singapore Straits Time index slumped by - 23.01%, mostly in March, while newly confirmed cases in the country started to show rapid growth. The government in Singapore has announced 55 billion SGD (38 billion USD) worth of stimulus package in the quarter in response to COVID-19. Thailand’s stock markets were among the worst performing in Asia Pacific in the first quarter, while the SET composite tumbled by -28.74% due to the spill-over effect of COVID-19 on tourism and exports. Thailand Ministry of Finance has introduced three rounds of stimulus packages which brought total policy easing to 1.02 trillion THB (31 billion USD). Other key stock indexes in the region saw significant decline over the quarter as well, as Indonesia Jakarta Stock Exchange Composite Index, Australia S&P/ASX 200 Index, and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI each fell by -27.95%, -24.05%, and -14.97% respectively