featured insights & webinar
Little speculative manias are bubbling up to the surface in the US markets. But while financial instability is growing in the United States as a result of aggressive monetary expansion, a collapse in the equities market does not appear imminent given tame inflation and ultra-low rates and yields.
Feb 16, 2021
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Global equities look likely to push higher in 2021, despite the pandemic’s economic and human toll.
Dec 23, 2020
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
BY TOPICS
Chart Of the Week
David Lai , CFA
CFA
Taiwan's economic outlook is experiencing a significant uplift, driven by the burgeoning AI revolution and a recently cemented trade pact with the US. Economic growth forecasts for this year have been upgraded to an impressive 7.7%, a substantial increase from the 3.5% projection made in November. This revised outlook anticipates Taiwan's GDP reaching an unprecedented USD1tn, marking a historic achievement for the island. Fueling this robust growth is an expected surge in exports, now projected to rise by 22.2% in 2026, a sharp acceleration from the earlier 6.3% forecast. These positive revisions reflect a broad consensus among financial institutions, with Bank of America nearly doubling its growth prediction due to “relentless global demand“ for Taiwan's advanced tech hardware, including critical AI chips and servers. The enhanced capital expenditures by cloud providers, exceeding initial expectations, further underscore the formidable strength of AI-related infrastructure. The strategic trade agreement finalized between the US and Taiwan earlier this month is a pivotal catalyst, set to reduce average tariff rates on Taiwanese exports to the US from nearly 36% to ~12%. This landmark deal, hailed as a shift from “defense to offense“ by Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai, will cement Taiwan’s position as an economic powerhouse. The tangible impact of these developments is already visible in Taiwan's equities market, which has seen remarkable performance. The stock market has advanced by at least 25% for three consecutive years, with a further ~15% gain to a new record in 2026 alone. For institutional investors looking to capitalize on this strong structural uptrend in Taiwan equities, the Premia FTSE TWSE Taiwan 50 ETF presents an optimal and strategic investment vehicle to capture this solid growth story.
Feb 23, 2026
