Asia ETF News for the Past Year
Corporate Sector Vulnerabilities in Hong Kong SAR: Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region
May 6, 2025--Summary
Hong Kong SAR's corporate sector vulnerabilities appear manageable but have increased in recent years. Local non-real estate firms have seen weakening profitability and lower debt-servicing capacity, reflecting pandemic scarring effects and higher funding costs driven by the hiking cycle of U.S. monetary policy. While, on aggregate, their leverage level and liquidity appear manageable, there is high heterogeneity across firms, with smaller listed firms appear to be more vulnerable.
As for the local real estate firms, they are exposed to changes in property prices given their sizeable holding of investment properties and inventory. However, their relatively low leverage helps mitigate risks. Mainland Chinese firms listed in Hong Kong SAR show rising financial vulnerabilities, primarily due to weakening profitability and property market adjustment that have adversely affected property developers’ balance sheets. Proactive efforts are warranted to ensure effective monitoring and management of financial vulnerabilities in the corporate sector, including ensuring banks’ proactive management of nonperforming assets, assessing the impact of the ongoing property market adjustments, and calibrating policies to support small businesses appropriately.
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Source: IMF.org
ETF Monthly Trading Value via "CONNEQTOR" Reach Record 300 billion JPY
May 1, 2025--Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. ("TSE") launched CONNEQTOR service, a RFQ (Request for Quote) platform, in February 2021 with the aim of improving liquidity in the ETF market.
We are pleased to announce that the monthly trading value via CONNEQTOR reached a record high of 306.4 billion JPY (average daily trading value of 14.5 billion JPY) in April 2025.
As of the end of April 2025, more than 290 institutional investors are using CONNEQTOR.
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Source: Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc.
NFO Alert: Mirae Asset Mutual Fund launches Nifty50 Equal Weight ETF
April 30, 2025--Mirae Asset Mutual Fund has launched the New Fund Offer (NFO) for the Mirae Asset Nifty50 Equal Weight ETF, an open-ended scheme replicating/tracking the Nifty50 Equal Weight Total Return Index. According to a release by the fund house, the ETF aims to offer investors equal-weighted exposure across all Nifty 50 stocks.
The NFO is currently open for subscription and will close on May 6. The scheme will reopen for continuous sale and repurchase from May 12.
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Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com
Asia Can Boost Economic Resilience Amid Surging Trade Tensions
April 24, 2025-Stronger regional economic ties can help build resilience during a time of growing policy uncertainty
As the global economic system is being reset, US tariffs are the highest in a century-with some of the steepest aimed at Asia. A leader in global trade, Asia accounted for nearly 60 percent of global growth in 2024. However, the region's successful growth model, based on trade liberalization and integration into value chains, faces mounting challenges.
While some levies have been paused, tensions between the United States and China have escalated significantly, as has trade policy uncertainty in general.
Against this backdrop, the outlook for Asia and the Pacific has dimmed. In our reference forecast, we project growth will slow to 3.9 percent this year from 4.6 percent last year. The downgrade of 0.5 percentage point, our sharpest since the pandemic, reflects weaker global demand, reduced trade, tighter financial conditions, and heightened uncertainty. We project 4 percent growth in 2026, also slower than previously forecast.
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Source: imf.org
Low-Cost ETFs and Long-Term Capital Funds Drive High-Dividend Strategies in A-Share Market
April 24, 2025-In 2024, the A-share market achieved a historic milestone with total dividend payouts reaching RMB 2.4 trillion (US$ 338 billion). As of April 13, 1,156 listed companies had announced dividend plans amounting up to RMB 1.13 trillion (US$ 160 billion). Meanwhile, the dividend yield of the CSI 300 Index and CSI Dividend Index has reached 3.5% and 6.3%, highlighting strong cash distributions.
On April 28, E Fund Management ("E Fund"), the largest mutual fund manager in China, will launch E Fund CSI Dividend Value ETF (Code: 563700), the first ETF tracking the CSI Dividend Value Index, expanding its range of low-cost dividend ETFs.
In the midst of trade tensions, dividend indices such as the CSI Dividend Index and the CSI Dividend Low Volatility Index are gaining traction. These indices focus on domestically oriented sectors with low trade sensitivity-overseas revenue contributions in the first half of 2024 are just 6.3% and 4.3%, compared to 11% for the CSI 300 Index.
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Source: E Fund Management
China's top banks bulk up liquidity as global peers trim buffers US G-Sibs continue to trail with lowest median LCR since 2021
April 24, 2025--The median liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) across the 29 global systemically important banks (G-Sibs) fell by 2.14 percentage points in 2024 to 131%-the lowest level since Q1 2020.
A Risk Quantum analysis of the latest publicly available LCR disclosures shows that only two of the seven jurisdictions home to G-Sibs posted increases in their median LCRs over last year: Canada, with a modest rise of 0.5pp to 133%, and China, where the median surged 11.8pp to 140.3%- the country's highest reading.
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Source: oecd.org
South Asia's Growth Prospects Dimming Amid Global Uncertainty
April 23, 2025—Increasing domestic revenues key to stronger fiscal buffers
Amid increasing uncertainty in the global economy, South Asia's growth prospects have weakened, with projections downgraded in most countries in the region. Stepping up domestic revenue mobilization could help the region strengthen fragile fiscal positions and increase resilience against future shocks, says the World Bank in its twice-yearly regional outlook.
Released today, the latest South Asia Development Update, Taxing Times, projects regional growth to slow to 5.8 percent in 2025-0.4 percentage points below October projections-before ticking up to 6.1 percent in 2026. This outlook is subject to heightened risks, including from a highly uncertain global landscape, combined with domestic vulnerabilities including constrained fiscal space.
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Source: World Bank
KB Asset Management to Launch KB RISE US Natural Gas Value Chain ETF Tracking the Solactive US Natural Gas Value Chain Index
April 22, 2025- Solactive is pleased to continue its partnership with KB Asset Management with the upcoming launch of KB RISE US Natural Gas Value Chain ETF, tracking the Solactive US Natural Gas Value Chain Index. This ETF offers investors a comprehensive approach to the US natural gas sector, providing exposure to companies operating across the entire natural gas value chain, from production to infrastructure and export.
As natural gas plays an increasingly central role in the global energy transition, the sector continues to attract the attention of investors worldwide. In 2024, global gas demand is expected to increase by approximately 2.8%, significantly outpacing the average growth rate for the decade, driven primarily by rising consumption in Asia. With long-term LNG demand bolstered by global energy security concerns and decarbonization efforts, investment in gas infrastructure, such as pipelines and LNG terminals, has accelerated. The United States has made decade-long investments in LNG facilities, reaffirming the strategic importance of natural gas in energy portfolios.
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Source: Solactive AG
