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Top China Stock Fund Says Hong Kong Best Place to Make Money

Top China Equity Fund Says Hong Kong Is Best Place to Make Money

Top China Stock Fund Says Hong Kong Best Place to Make Money
Pedestrians walk past a large screen showing financial data in Shanghai, China. (Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Zhang Jintao is sticking with the bet that’s made his stock fund China’s top performer: Hong Kong equities.

Harvest Fund Management Co.’s fund has returned 13.4 percent this year after putting 70 percent of its stock holdings in the former British colony, where the local benchmark has jumped 8.9 percent. With the market now near a 1 1/2-year high, Zhang says the rally can continue as earnings improve and China’s economy stabilizes.

Top China Stock Fund Says Hong Kong Best Place to Make Money

“The yuan is stable, the U.S. has paused its rate hikes and the entire Chinese macro environment is better,” Zhang said in an interview on Tuesday. “There’s more upside because earnings growth will be better than in 2016. Valuations will rise.”

Chinese cash has been pouring into Hong Kong’s stock market through links with mainland exchanges to take advantage of the city’s cheaper shares while also hedging against yuan weakness. Zhang’s fund is a testimony of such red-hot demand: its assets have doubled to 2.7 billion yuan ($393 million) this year alone, with inflows picking up over the past week amid a surge in interest from retail investors, he said.

The Harvest SH-HK-SZ Selected Equity fund is the top-performing active Chinese stock fund this year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The firm is planning a new fund that also invests in Hong Kong shares but with more flexibility across asset classes, Zhang said.

The Hang Seng Index -- which includes Hong Kong and mainland Chinese companies --slipped 0.6 percent on Friday after a technical indicator signaled the shares are overbought earlier this week. Mainland stocks now trade at an 19 percent premium over their Hong Kong listings, compared with 26 percent six months ago.

The fundamentals of Chinese and Hong Kong stocks have brightened. The nation’s January economic data from new credit to exports beat estimates, and the dollar’s pullback has fueled a rebound in the Chinese currency, removing a source of anxiety for investors. Earnings per share on the Hang Seng are projected to climb 14 percent this year, data compiled by Bloomberg show. Rising producer prices and capacity reduction will boost profits, Zhang said.

Shanghai Composite

For similar reasons, the Shanghai benchmark, which has risen 4.8 percent so far this year, will gain in 2017, Zhang predicted. Policy makers shifted their focus to curbing bubble risks in the second half of last year, raising rates on liquidity tools incrementally and adding restrictions on home buying.

“Money in the system is less loose, but it’s still ample,” he said. “So if the bond market is doing badly, property buying is curbed, then the stock market will be the target for investments.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Justina Lee in Hong Kong at jlee1489@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Richard Frost at rfrost4@bloomberg.net, Robin Ganguly