An Opportune Moment to Reconsider Cheap China ETFs
This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com.
Now that investors can sift through the market wreckage, some should take a second look at the emerging markets, especially the cheap valuations in China.
Looking beyond this week's blood letting, Chinese markets has offered an attractive long-term entry point after this year's underperformance.
“There’s another feature of this year’s price action [in China] that investors should note – valuations. As one would expect, as the market has slipped in China the relative Price-to-Book (P/B) discount to the US market has widened. Or, put more simply, trade wars have put China on sale,” Robert Bush, ETF Strategist for DWS, told ETF Trends.
For example, the popular Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (ASHR) declined 25.5% year-to-date and is now trading with a 11.4 price-to-earnings and a 1.5 price-to-book. In contrast, the S&P 500 shows a 18.1 P/E and a 3.2 P/B.
Furthermore, many believe that China should play a larger role in a diversified global portfolio. The sentiment has been reinforced by the recent addition of Chinese A-shares into global benchmark indices under MSCI and FTSE Russell.
China A-shares Emerging Market Status
Following on the heels of MSCI’s decision to raise Chinese mainland stock exposure in its benchmark international indices, FTSE Russell also promoted China A-shares to emerging market status, fueling further demand for Chinese equity exposure.
FTSE Russell promoted China A-Shares to Secondary Emerging market status following its September 2018 annual country classification review.
Related: A Flurry of Hedging Activity Seen in a Big China ETF
MSCI has proposed plans to raise mainland-listed China company stock weights to 2.8% for the widely observed MSCI Emerging Index by August 2019 and 3.4% by May 2020.
"For investors who are underweight the A-share market, and agree with our long run prognosis that China needs to play a bigger part in portfolios, this could represent an opportunity to get up to weight at a time when the valuation discount is favorable," Bush added.
For more information on Chinese markets, visit our China category.
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