Stanley Tsai, CFA

Financials Specialist

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

In the spirit of the long-awaited UEFA Euro 2020, we present our inaugural "China Financials: Silver Linings Playbook", which summarizes our views on the names that are best positioned to navigate an environment of progressively slower credit growth, tighter liquidity and rising defaults. 
Our screen consists of 100+ stocks in the A/H share universe, as well as a select number of international / non-traditional names that have significant exposures to China's financial system. We have a preference for larger-cap and liquid names, which are then filtered by our opinions on their fundamentals, value, momentum and recent trading volumes. We also try to make our selections versatile and less vulnerable to single-factor movements.
Each player's position on the pitch and the team formation itself convey incremental information about our thoughts on the sector's performance over a three to six-month horizon. To the extent possible, we intend to update our ideas on a periodic basis. This provides a feedback loop with our other ongoing research on the industry.
However, our team selections are not investment recommendations. Instead, they are meant to give structure to our analysis. The playbook allows us to articulate our views on the sector in a timely, concise manner. Our objective is to ensure we don't throw the baby out with the bathwater as sentiments on the sector remain bleak.
With that out of the way, the following is our starting XI. We will dive deeper into our rationale for our selections in the remainder of this insight (Exhibit 1).
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<td style="width: 726.047px;">Exhibit 1: China Financials | Silver Linings Playbook</td>
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Source: Our analysis
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Brian Freitas

Pan-Asia Index Rebalances/Events/Delta One

Event-Driven

On 28 September, FTSE Russell commenced a market consultation on its China A Index offering covering a number of aspects related to index market representation, index weighting methodology and index constituent accessibility. The consultation was scheduled to close on 11 October but was extended by a few days and closed on 15 October.There were 4 questions to be answered: would the market like an alternate tradable index with 100 constituents; are index users happy with a market cap weighted index or should there be individual stock capping/ sectoral capping; should Foreign Ownership management be aligned across indices; should stocks be derived from the QFII/RQFII program and Stock Connect route or should stocks be derived from the Stock Connect route only?For us (and we presume the market as well), the main question was the one on creating a new index with 100 stocks. We felt index users would prefer having an index with a 100 stocks, but also highlighted that the highest probability event and the most impact would involve increasing the number of stocks in the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ftse-china-a50-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22905:1" rel="noopener">FTSE China A50 Index (XIN9I INDEX)</a> to 100.The Financial Times has now reported that FTSE Russell is considering large-scale changes to the <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/ftse-china-a50-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22905:1" rel="noopener">FTSE China A50 Index (XIN9I INDEX)</a>, including potentially doubling the number of stocks in the index.In this Insight, we take a look at the stocks that could be included in the index, the impact on the current constituents and how the changes could be implemented.

Alec Tseung

Fintech & EM-focused Analyst

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Macroeconomics

Monthly Newsletter | May 2021
Monetary data in May suggest that the environment has turned a notch tighter in China. Loan and deposit growth surprised on the downside and signals the beginning of yet another challenging period for the Chinese banks in the months ahead.
Both the asset and liability sides of the banks' balance sheets hit a wall in April. Loan growth missed consensus by a notable margin, driven by a softer mortgage market and slower corporate credit expansion. The net decline in new deposits was more worrying and the risk of disintermediation is on the rise, particularly for the smaller banks.
Deleveraging real estate exposures remains a top priority for the regulators. New mortgage rates have edged up, continuing a trend since 1Q21. Margins have widened slightly for new corporate loans as well. This supports our view that net interest margins have bottomed out and is mildly positive for the H-share G-SIBs.  
We expect the central bank to maintain a neutral policy for the remainder of 2021. The policy rates and loan prime rate will likely hold steady. That said, smaller banks that rely extensively on the interbank market may find it increasingly difficult to source cheap funding. Interbank bank defaults among the unlisted banks are not a remote possibility.
We will remain underweight the H-share banks against MSCI China <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/msci-china-index" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:22895:1" rel="noopener">(MXCN INDEX)</a> until 2Q21 earnings. Meanwhile, we will watch closely whether a sales rebound story will materialize for the life insurers, as bank deposit outflows may find their way into savings polices in the coming quarters.

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China

No authorization provided.

Bank of Communications Co. Ltd. provides a full range of commercial banking services including RMB and foreign currency deposit, loan, international and domestic settlement, discount, currency trading, letter of credit, bank guarantee, and other related services.

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Bank Of Communications Co H - 3328 HK

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