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Premia Insights
Premia Insights
Our perspectives on trends & issues that are reshaping the industry and the investment community

featured insights & webinar

China: Set to overtake the US economy sooner than expected
insightChina: Set to overtake the US economy sooner than expected

The only major economy to grow in 2020. China has turned adversity from the COVID-19 pandemic into the best growth performance in the world for 2020.

Jan 27, 2021

Green economy
insightGreen economy

According to the United Nation Environment Programme, an inclusive green economy is an alternative to today's dominant economic model, which exacerbates inequalities, encourages waste, triggers resource scarcities, and generates widespread threats to the environment and human health.

Jan 22, 2021

US inflation expectations: Implications for global markets
insightUS inflation expectations: Implications for global markets

The US Federal Reserve pumps out an endless stream of zero interest rate money to finance the Government’s deficit spending. The handouts make most American workers better off financially during the pandemic than before. Meanwhile, the stock market soars. Not bad for the worst pandemic in 100 years. What can possibly go wrong?

Jan 20, 2021

Where to find growth: Tailwinds from Asia Megatrends, and Playbook to participate in Asia Innovations and Technology-enabled Productivity Growth
insightWhere to find growth: Tailwinds from Asia Megatrends, and Playbook to participate in Asia Innovations and Technology-enabled Productivity Growth

We see the need to evolve from conventional geography centric or factor-based asset allocation models to sector and megatrend-minded models to capture secular alpha from structural changes.

Jan 13, 2021

Look East
insightLook East

The red-hot performers of the past 12 months have been the broad market indices from North Asia – Kospi (44%), CSI 300 (34%), TWSE (30%)

Jan 12, 2021

Frequent Topics – Market updates and positioning for 2021
webinarFrequent Topics – Market updates and positioning for 2021

Where to find growth and position for a fresh start in 2021 as we navigate through COVID recovery and geopolitical tensions?  In this webinar, our co-CIO David Lai discussed with our colleague Larry Kwok on key growth markets and growth sectors in Asia, how one could capture such megatrend-driven secular alpha efficiently via Premia strategies, and also some common topics of interest under the recent market environment.

Jan 04, 2021

Pressing on from the unprecedented 2020: Outlook 2021 (Part 3 – ASEAN)
insightPressing on from the unprecedented 2020: Outlook 2021 (Part 3 – ASEAN)

Outperformer from first news of successful vaccines. Emerging ASEAN has been one of the best performers among major global equity indices since the start of November. And that was likely due to the region’s high economic leverage to normalisation after the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and its high trend GDP growth rates relative to other Emerging Market economies.

Dec 24, 2020

Pressing on from the unprecedented 2020: Outlook 2021 (Part 2 – Global)
insightPressing on from the unprecedented 2020: Outlook 2021 (Part 2 – Global)

Global equities look likely to push higher in 2021, despite the pandemic’s economic and human toll.

Dec 23, 2020

Pressing on from the unprecedented 2020: Outlook 2021 (Part 1 – China)
insightPressing on from the unprecedented 2020: Outlook 2021 (Part 1 – China)

To summarize the year of 2020, the opening lines from Charles Dicken’s A Tale of twin cities sounds like an accurate description. It was certainly the best of times and the worst of times. Global equities have been doing reasonably well with developed market up by 12.0% and emerging market up by 11.7%. Fixed income managed to gain by 7.4% whilst gold price was up by 19.1%. On the other hand, real economy has been suffering from the pandemic with almost all major economies getting into recession. International Monetary Fund sees the world would contract by 4.4% in total output, the worst crisis since the 1930s Great Depression with -5.8% among advanced economies and -3.3% on developing countries.

Dec 02, 2020

[WORKING PAPER] Equity Duration: What cease to hold and what still does?  – Relative Perspectives on China vs. the US and the New vs. the Old
insight[WORKING PAPER] Equity Duration: What cease to hold and what still does? – Relative Perspectives on China vs. the US and the New vs. the Old

From a total portfolio perspective, global asset owners and allocators are increasing wary about the overall portfolio sensitivity to interest rate changes and ultimately risk diversification. The concept of “equity duration” was raised long ago and has been subject to debate for decades. While some absolute calculations fail to work in today’s markets, we believe the economic and financial intuition beneath still hold. In this working paper, we took a renewed approach to analyze the relationships from a relative perspective and with an overarching objective of total portfolio risks in mind.

Nov 26, 2020

Chart Of the Week

STAR50 going strength to strength in 2026
  • David Lai

    David Lai , CFA

    CFA

Chinese equities got off to a strong start in 2026, led by the STAR Market. Since onshore trading resumed, the STAR50 Index has risen 9.9% in dollar return, outperforming CSI300’s 2.9% and offshore Hang Seng Tech’s 3%. This extends the strong momentum seen in 2025, when the STAR50 delivered a dollar return of 42.6%, well ahead of CSI300’s 26.3% and Hang Seng Tech’s 24.5%. Policy signals remain supportive. In his New Year’s Eve address, President Xi highlighted China’s progress in artificial intelligence and semiconductors, reinforcing innovation as a core pillar of high-quality economic development. Advances in humanoid robotics, drones, aerospace, and defence were cited as key examples. At the corporate level, the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund (“Big Fund”) increased its stake in SMIC, the largest constituent of the STAR50 Index, from 4.79% to 9.25%, showing state support for advanced-node capabilities. Among the outperforming stocks, Guobo Electronics rose close to 40% over the past five trading days, following reports that China aims to scale up to 100 rocket launches annually by 2030. As a leading supplier of RF chips and T/R modules, Guobo is a major beneficiary of rising demand for satellite and launch-vehicle communications. AMEC shares also surged after announcing the acquisition of a 64.7% stake in Hangzhou Zhongsilicon, expanding its offering from dry processes into chemical mechanical polishing. Meanwhile, VeriSilicon Microelectronics reported a 130% year-on-year increase in new orders last quarter, driven by accelerating AI chip demand. Against this backdrop, the Premia China STAR50 ETF allows investors to align portfolios with China’s strategic push in advanced technology and innovation through the STAR Market.

Jan 12, 2026

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