Emerging Asian Stocks Are Attracting More Money Than Bonds

(Bloomberg) -- Foreign funds are turning more optimistic toward emerging Asian equities and less so for their domestic bonds amid an easing of trade tensions between the U.S. and China, with South Korea experiencing the biggest inflows in stocks and the most outflows in debt, exchange and official data for January available so far show. That’s a reversal from the trend seen in 2018 when international investors sought safety in the region’s fixed-income securities and shunned riskier assets. “In the early part of the year, people were more hopeful and then now that trade negotiations have started, we’ll probably wait and see again,” said Jasslyn Yeo, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management in Singapore.

--With assistance from Mark Cudmore and Matt Turner.

To contact the reporter on this story: Lilian Karunungan in Singapore at lkarunungan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tomoko Yamazaki at tyamazaki@bloomberg.net, Karl Lester M. Yap

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.