Global funds pile back into Chinese stocks in April
The inflows come amid a broader tech rally, as investors focused on AI-driven productivity gains
Add BT as a preferred source
[HONG KONG] Foreign investors returned to Chinese stocks in April, signalling renewed appetite for the market after an initial sell-off driven by the Iran war.
Estimated net inflows into mainland equities hit roughly 200 billion yuan (S$37.6 billion) last month, the most since January, Bloomberg calculations show.
The estimate is based on China’s aggregate cross-border securities investment balance – an official dataset that tracks flows into and out of the country’s stocks and bonds. Bloomberg then strips out major components that can be observed separately, including mainland investors’ buying and selling of assets through trading links, net flows into foreign-currency bonds by Chinese financial institutions, and changes in overseas investors’ holdings of onshore bonds.
What remains is a proxy for foreign flows into mainland-listed equities.
This offers investors a way to gauge overseas appetite for Chinese stocks at a time when Beijing has limited access to direct flows data.
Authorities stopped publishing regular or detailed data on so-called northbound flows – overseas investors buying mainland shares through trading links – in mid-2024, leaving investors with only limited quarterly disclosure on holdings in individual stocks.
Navigate Asia in
a new global order
Get the insights delivered to your inbox.
The Bloomberg estimate accounts for most major sources of cross-border capital flows, and it does not strip out flows from quota-based schemes such as the Qualified Domestic Institutional Investor and Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor programmes, because there is no timely disclosure of quota usage.
The inflows in April came amid a broader tech rally, as investors focused on AI-driven productivity gains and looked past disruptions caused by the Middle East conflict. The benchmark CSI 300 Index climbed 8 per cent in April and is up another 0.9 per cent this month. BLOOMBERG
Decoding Asia newsletter: your guide to navigating Asia in a new global order. Sign up here to get Decoding Asia newsletter. Delivered to your inbox. Free.
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
TRENDING NOW
Yeo’s, Tiger Beer and now Gardenia – flight of food manufacturing from Singapore might be just as planned
Singtel H2 net profit down 20.9% at S$2.2 billion; telco open to Aussie minority partner in Optus
Xi Jinping has just rewritten the rules of US-China rivalry
Singapore shipping veteran, SBF chair Teo Siong Seng and others accused by US of price fixing
