Latest news with #SummerZhen
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Hedge funds pile back into Japan stocks, add shorts on South Korea, Morgan Stanley says
By Summer Zhen HONG KONG (Reuters) -Global hedge funds ramped up risk appetite and added exposure to Japanese equities ahead of the Nikkei's surge to an all-time high as tariff worries eased, while stepping up short positions in South Korea, a Morgan Stanley note showed. Hedge funds boosted gross exposure to Japan "in relatively large size" last week, with long bets outpacing short positions, according to a Morgan Stanley prime brokerage team note sent to clients on Tuesday, following a July pullback in positions. A fund manager survey by BofA showed that within Asia, Japan continues to be the most favoured market by a significant margin. Japan's benchmark Nikkei rose above 43,000 for the first time on Wednesday, with the broader Topix index also hitting an all-time high. Uncertainty over Japanese exports to the United States has eased after Tokyo reached a framework deal with Washington on tariffs in July, helping to push the market higher. The U.S. government last week promised to amend a presidential executive order to remove overlapping tariffs on Japanese goods, Japan's trade negotiator said. Morgan Stanley said hedge funds built positions across Japan's technology and industrial sectors. Shares of Nintendo soared to a historic high this week on robust sales of the Switch 2, while tech firm SoftBank Group also raced to an all-time high on optimism around artificial intelligence. In other Asian markets, hedge funds were buying Taiwan and Australia but increased bearish positions toward Korea last week, Morgan Stanley said. Hedge funds' net allocations to South Korea at the beginning of August sat just under peak levels of the past decade, as investors significantly increased their long and short bets in the market since the country lifted short sale ban, Morgan Stanley said in a separate note. Korea is the best performing Asian market this year, up more than 30%. Flows into Chinese tech giants listed in Hong Kong, remained muted, as hedge funds awaited big tech earnings, Morgan Stanley added.
Mint
07-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
US investment firm Artisan Partners to liquidate China portfolio by end-June
Firm says liquidation comes amid uncertain geopolitical environment Spokesperson says Hong Kong office will remain operational US has heightened scrutiny of American capital flowing into China By Kane Wu and Summer Zhen HONG KONG, - U.S.-based investment firm Artisan Partners is liquidating a China-focused investment portfolio by the end of June, a company spokesperson said on Saturday. "This decision comes amid an increasingly uncertain geopolitical environment and a persistently challenging economic and market backdrop, which have put significant pressure on flows across dedicated China strategies," the Artisan spokesperson said. The spokesperson said its Hong Kong office will remain operational, housing investment and trading professionals. Two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday that the firm was disbanding the Hong Kong-based team responsible for its Greater China strategy. One said the decision was partly due to concerns about escalating Sino-U.S. trade and geopolitical tensions that have made investments in the world's second-largest economy riskier. The sources declined to be named as the information was not public. Reuters could not immediately ascertain how many people would be affected by the decision. The firm's China post-venture strategy, a fund that focuses on Chinese small- and mid-cap public and private companies, had $113 million of assets under management at the end of April, according to the firm's monthly update. In the same update, Artisan said the China-focused portfolio was in the process of winding down, without giving details. The firm's retreat from China-focused investments comes amid the U.S. government's tightened scrutiny of American investments in China and an ongoing trade war that has clouded the business outlook of many export-heavy companies from China. The U.S. government restricts U.S. investments in certain sensitive technology sectors in China, such as semiconductors, artificial intelligence and quantum computing. U.S. investors are also restricted from investing in companies that are on the U.S. sanctioned entity list that comprise a growing number of those from China. U.S. onshore investors were not able to buy shares of Chinese battery giant CATL in its $4.6 billion Hong Kong listing last month due to the structure of the deal, CATL's filings showed. CATL was placed on a U.S. Defense Department list in January of Chinese companies it says work with China's military. By March 2025, Artisan's China post-venture strategy posted a net loss of 10.4% since its inception in March 2021. "The largest risks for investing in China will continue to be geopolitics and domestic policy overshoots," Tiffany Hsiao, the strategy's portfolio manager, said in a client letter on the firm's website in April. Outside the U.S., Artisan also has offices in London, Dublin, Singapore and Sydney, according to its website. The move follows the exit or downsizing of several North American asset managers and international law firms from Hong Kong over the past few years. Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Canada's third-largest pension fund, announced the closure of its Hong Kong office in March. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Factbox-Hedge funds lifted by stocks, stymied by bonds in May, say sources
By Nell Mackenzie and Summer Zhen LONDON (Reuters) -Hedge funds made gains in May on a weaker dollar and by exploiting market dislocations following April's global trade shock but faced losses in whipsawed commodities and fixed income markets, according to sources and bank research. Stocks bounced back last month as tariff worries ebbed while bond markets sold off as worries about high debt levels in big economies such as the United States and Japan resurfaced. Hedge funds globally returned a positive monthly return of 3% as of May 29, a JPMorgan prime brokerage note sent to clients on Friday and seen by Reuters on Monday showed. Industry returns were up 5% for the year so far, the note said. Stock picking hedge funds posted a 3% performance in May, while multi-strategy hedge funds trading many different strategies under one roof returned 2.5% and quantitative equity funds using systematic strategies returned 4.2%, the note said. Singapore's $1.1 billion multi-strategy hedge fund Arrowpoint Investment Partners benefited from exploiting markets roiled by tariff shocks and sees more arbitrage opportunities ahead, its chief investment officer told Reuters. Billionaire investor Cliff Asness's $135 billion hedge fund AQR Capital Management saw gains from stock selection and corporate arbitrage in its Apex Strategy, which returned a 2.4% May return net of fees, said a source. Systematic and trend following programmes that traded in stock markets were helped by their stock holdings. AQR's Helix Strategy, which follows market trends, was flat in May but has delivered a 7% return for 2025 through the end of May, as positive returns from stocks were offset by reversals across interest rate derivatives and trades which play differences across different bond tenors, said the source. London-listed Man Group's AHL Alpha fund returned a negative 2.19% for May and is down around 11% while its multi-strat fund had a positive May and has returned around 5% so far this year, said the fund's website. Systematic funds, which have limits on how much volatility their fund can tolerate have in recent months had to ditch trades, both losing and winning, even when the uncertainty roiling markets has been temporary, said an article written by portfolio managers at Man Group's AHL strategy in April. Fund/Hedge fund May return YTD return Dymon Asia Capital 3.3% 8% Arrowpoint Investment Partners ~3% AQR Apex Strategy 2.4% 10.6% AQR Helix Strategy 0.0% 7.0% AQR Delphi Long-Short Equity Strategy 1.8% 13.9% Man Group AHL Alpha Programme -2.19% -10.61% Man Strategies 1783 1.11% 5.35% Transtrend -5.42% -19.07% Mount Lucas Management -0.80% 2.55% Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto platform FalconX partners with Standard Chartered
By Summer Zhen HONG KONG (Reuters) -Crypto prime broker FalconX and global bank Standard Chartered said on Wednesday they had formed a strategic partnership to serve institutional crypto investors. The partnership marks FalconX's first collaboration with a global traditional bank and suggests growing institutional demand for digital assets through traditional finance channels. FalconX will leverage Standard Chartered's banking and foreign exchange services - including its access to a wide range of currencies - to support its institutional clients, said Matt Long, FalconX's general manager of APAC & Middle East. "Our clients will be able to engage more efficiently in fiat currencies settlements, which means a lot faster settlement, better capital efficiency and overall reduced operational risk," he told Reuters. The California-based crypto-focused prime-brokerage services firm said its clients include some of the world's largest asset managers, sovereign wealth funds, hedge funds and family offices. Standard Chartered pointed to greater digital asset adoption by institutional clients as the driver for the partnership. Luke Boland, Asia head of fintech at Standard Chartered, said the bank's collaboration with FalconX would begin in Singapore and later expand to other countries in Asia, the Middle East and the United States. The Hong Kong-headquartered multinational bank has been expanding its digital asset business. Last year, the bank started a digital asset custody service in the United Arab Emirates. In April, it partnered with digital exchange OKX to enable institutional clients to use cryptocurrencies as collateral. The global cryptocurrency market surpassed $3 trillion in market value in November following the election of crypto-friendly Donald Trump as U.S. president, fuelling expectations of a golden era for digital assets. Standard Chartered expects the overall value of digital assets to reach $10 trillion by 2026. Founded in 2018, FalconX was last valued at $8 billion following a $150 million funding round in 2022. It is backed by investors including Wellington Management, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and Tiger Global Management. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CATL likely to offer less than 10% discount for $5 billion Hong Kong listing, sources say
By Summer Zhen and Selena Li HONG KONG (Reuters) -Prospective investors in Chinese battery giant CATL's Hong Kong listing to raise about $5 billion have been told the stock may be sold at a discount of less than 10% to the company's Shenzhen-listed shares, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the matter. The discount offered could be around mid-single digits, two of the sources added. CATL is meeting investors ahead of launching the book building for the deal next week that could be the largest new share sale in Hong Kong for four years. The pricing has not been finalised, the sources said. CATL wants to have cornerstone and anchor investors subscribe for around half the shares to be sold in the deal, two of the sources added. The sources could not be named discussing information that has not yet been made public. CATL did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters. (Reporting by Summer Zhen and Selena Li in Hong Kong; Writing by Scott Murdoch; Editing by Sonali Paul)
