EM Asia markets saw foreign selling in last week’s rout, China battered- GS

Investing.com-- Emerging markets in Asia saw heavy foreign selling last week, Goldman Sachs analysts said in a note, with mainland Chinese markets seeing a bulk of the outflows amid persistent concerns over the country. 

EM Asia saw total outflows of $6.5 billion, led by a $2.1 billion outflow in China’s A-Shares market and $2 billion in Taiwan. South Korea and India also saw outflows of over $1 billion each.

The outflows came as risk-driven markets were battered by a string of negative signals, including heightened concerns over a U.S. recession and hawkish signals from the Bank of Japan. While most regional markets recouped a bulk of these losses, China had lagged its peers. 

China’s Shanghai Shenzhen CSI 300 and Shanghai Composite indexes remained close to near six-month lows, seeing little bargain buying as a string of weak economic readings for July undermined confidence in the country.

Top political meetings in the country also yielded few details about more policy support for the economy. 

But despite Chinese A-shares seeing sustained outflows, China’s southbound market, particularly Hong Kong, saw inflows of $2 billion in the past week.

Hong Kong stocks have fared relatively better than their Chinese counterparts, with the Hang Seng having recovered from near four-month lows over the past week- especially on bargain buying into heavyweight internet stocks such as Tencent Holdings (HK:0700) and Alibaba Group (NYSE:BABA).

Both companies are set to report their June quarter earnings this week.