Chinese stocks in US bounce back after record 14% slump

The bounce followed gains in Hong Kong-listed stocks, as the Hang Seng Tech Index climbed 3%. Foreign investors turned net buyers of Chinese stocks on Tuesday after record selling in the previous session, when they offloaded $2.5bn of mainland shares. China’s offshore yuan, however, set a fresh record low.

Some investors are standing behind Chinese equities even after near-term hopes of rapid economic reopening and mass-scale fiscal relief were dashed. JPMorgan Chase chief global market strategist Marko Kolanovic said Monday’s swift decline was disconnected from fundamentals and presented a buying opportunity. 

“At some point China will begin to reopen, which will put the economy on better footing,” said Scott Helfstein, head of thematic solutions at Global X ETFs. “China could turn out to be the unexpected good news story over the next few months.”

Still, the limited scale of Tuesday’s rebound showed that risk appetite towards Chinese stocks remained subdued, due to a sluggish economy and rising geopolitical tensions. Charles-Henry Monchau, chief investment officer at Banque Syz, said he is avoiding Chinese assets as consumers remain weak and the country’s property crisis drags on. 

“Chinese stocks are still seen as uninvestable by Western investors,” he said in emailed comments.

Societe Generale strategists including Frank Benzimra said the case for Chinese equities has weakened and called for a higher risk premium, as the Communist Party congress confirmed the policy direction and put a greater emphasis on national security.

“We have been overweight on China equities this year on policy divergence and the expectation of economic stimulus. We were wrong,” the strategists said in a note, adding that Chinese stocks will struggle to outperform global peers until the Covid-zero policy is relaxed.

Bloomberg News. More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com