Franklin FTSE Taiwan ETF

FLTW

Market cap $593M

Despite mounting macro headwinds at the start of the year, Chinese equities have continued to deliver positive performance. While near-term flows can provide further upside, the durability for the equity rally will hinge on policy choices ahead.

Among APAC equity markets, Australia has a higher beta to oil prices while India, Indonesia and Thailand have lower betas. Domestic political uncertainties have been one main reason for the decoupling trend seen in Indonesia and Thailand.

Herald van der Linde from HSBC Global Research shares his Asian markets picks and explains why 'particularly cheap' South Korean equities could outperform Taiwanese equities this year.

Has the AI trade moved to China? Why Chinese chipmakers may soon change the semiconductor space.

Sentiment remains fragile in China and Hong Kong stock market even China services activities have improved in December. Weak market breadth and a persistent bearish trend of the Chinese yuan since November has added to more woes to the Hang Seng Index.

FLTW has a high exposure to technology stocks. These technology stocks benefit from many technological megatrends such as AI, cloud computing, AR/VRs, Internet of Things, etc. The fund is trading at an expensive valuation relative to its historical valuation range.

China's stimulus plan head lead to big fund flows in ETFs. The trend towards private asset ETFs continues to gain steam.

Data largely came in weaker than already cautious forecasts, and with a less supportive base effect, we will need to see a significant stimulus push to reach this year's growth target. Looking at the output of industrial products, we can see the clear impact of the property market decline play out.

The Shenzhen A shares index, a bellwether of mainland Chinese equities, is down 32 percent from its 2-year high set in February of last year. China's demographic problems begin and end with its dependency ratio - the number of retirees relative to the working population.

A surge in exports and a slowdown of imports led to a record high trade surplus of USD$11.5bn last month. The stronger-than-anticipated trade surplus should offer some support to Taiwan's third-quarter GDP.