HK/China Equity Long-Short

Osbert Tang, CFA

Quantitative Analysis

Our "Buy the Worst" strategy as laid out in <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/a-review-of-buy-the-worst-strategy-in-2020-and-can-it-beat-the-hang-seng-index-in-2021" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:46654" rel="noopener">A Review Of "Buy the Worst" Strategy in 2020 and Can It Beat the Hang Seng Index in 2021?</a> showed good performance YTD with a 20.9pp outperformance against the HSI. For most of the time in this year, the average performance for the 5 worst HSI stocks in 2020 - <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/citic-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:20590:1" rel="noopener">Citic Ltd (267 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-overseas-land-invest" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:419:1" rel="noopener">China Overseas Land &amp; Investment Ltd (688 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/cnooc-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:175:1" rel="noopener">CNOOC Ltd (883 HK)</a>, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aac-technologies-holdings-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:6544:1" rel="noopener">AAC Technologies Holdings (2018 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-unicom-hong-kong-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:1016:1" rel="noopener">China Unicom Hong Kong (762 HK)</a> - has been ahead of the benchmark index. We will hold on these 5 stocks until the year end of 2021. For 2H21, we continue to see good room for them to outperform. On average, they are still off 41.6% from their 3-year high, vs. just 13% for HSI. With our anticipation of a volatile HSI over the next six months due to concerns on inflation, Sino-US tension, COVID-19 variants and regulatory measures on new economy companies, these old economy stocks with undemanding valuations are stand to see better performance, in our view.

Our "Buy the Worst" strategy as laid out in A Review Of "Buy the Worst" Strategy in 2020 and Can It Beat the Hang Seng Index in 2021? showed good performance YTD with a 20.9pp outperformance against the HSI. For most of the time in this year, the average performance for the 5 worst HSI stocks in 2020 - Citic Ltd (267 HK), China Overseas Land &amp; Investment Ltd (688 HK), CNOOC Ltd (883 HK), AAC Technologies Holdings (2018 HK) and China Unicom Hong Kong (762 HK) - has been ahead of the benchmark index. We will hold on these 5 stocks until the year end of 2021. For 2H21, we continue to see good room for them to outperform. On average, they are still off 41.6% from their 3-year high, vs. just 13% for HSI. With our anticipation of a volatile HSI over the next six months due to concerns on inflation, Sino-US tension, COVID-19 variants and regulatory measures on new economy companies, these old economy stocks with undemanding valuations are stand to see better performance, in our view. 

A Mid-Year Review of Our "Buy the Worst" Strategy: Outperformed HSI by 20.9pp

Global Emerging Market Equities, Propitious Research

Wium Malan, CFA

Global Emerging Market Equities

Independent, Fundamental Quantitative Research

Propitious Research

Fully independent, fundamental and quantitative equity research, focused on companies in the Telecommunication, Media, Technology, Internet and Healthcare sectors in the Global Emerging Markets. Idea generation focused on Quality stocks, trading below their intrinsic Value, with sound Corporate Governance.

This insight provides the output, and an overview of our, machine learning-driven, proprietary GEM screening model, which takes a three-pronged approach to find the best medium-term long ideas within the top100 largest stocks in the MSCI GEM Index. The model is based on 1) a typical quantitative multifactor screening model, enhanced by two Artificial Intelligence Technology-based approaches using 2) a Deep Neural Network model, and 3) a Recurrent Neural Network model. This model, which has been developed and tweaked over the past 24 months (and implemented in its current state for &gt;12 months), has a solid real-world performance track record, which I set out in the detail below. Notable new entrants to the top decile this month include Russian energy plays <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/gazprom-pjsc-6a7231a9-d5e4-4da4-bf21-aa1b9d50fbf8" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27578:1" rel="noopener">Gazprom PJSC (GAZP RM)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/lukoil-pjsc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24141:1" rel="noopener">Lukoil PJSC (LKOD LI)</a>, Brazilian securities exchange <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/b3-sa-brasil-bolsa-balcao" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24580:1" rel="noopener">B3 Sa - Brasil Bolsa Balcao (B3SA3 BZ)</a>, and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-construction-bank-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:45:1" rel="noopener">China Construction Bank H (939 HK)</a>.<table class="table table-striped">
<colgroup>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
<col>
</colgroup>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">rank</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">Name</td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Sector</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Location</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">prev.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">1</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/sk-hynix-inc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:16955:1" rel="noopener">SK Hynix (000660 KS)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Information Technology</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Korea (South)</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">3</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">2</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-mobile-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27:1" rel="noopener">China Mobile (941 HK)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Communication</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">China</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">9</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">3</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/cnooc-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:175:1" rel="noopener">CNOOC Ltd (883 HK)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Energy</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">China</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">4</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/posco" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:208:1" rel="noopener">Posco (005490 KS)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Materials</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Korea (South)</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">21</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">5</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/kia-motors-corp" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:156:1" rel="noopener">Kia Motors Corp (000270 KS)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Consumer Discretionary</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Korea (South)</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">4</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">6</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/bank-of-china-ltd-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:656:1" rel="noopener">Bank Of China Ltd (H) (3988 HK)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Financials</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">China</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">5</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">7</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/gazprom-pjsc-6a7231a9-d5e4-4da4-bf21-aa1b9d50fbf8" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:27578:1" rel="noopener">Gazprom PJSC (GAZP RM)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Energy</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Russian Federation</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">14</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">8</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/lukoil-pjsc" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24141:1" rel="noopener">Lukoil PJSC (LKOD LI)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Energy</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Russian Federation</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">32</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">9</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/b3-sa-brasil-bolsa-balcao" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:24580:1" rel="noopener">B3 Sa - Brasil Bolsa Balcao (B3SA3 BZ)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Financials</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">Brazil</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">70</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.7344px;">10</td>
<td style="width: 263.203px;">
<a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/china-construction-bank-h" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:45:1" rel="noopener">China Construction Bank H (939 HK)</a> </td>
<td style="width: 185.312px;">Financials</td>
<td style="width: 147.938px;">China</td>
<td style="text-align: center; width: 74.8125px;">41</td>
</tr>
<tr><td colspan="5" style="text-align: left; width: 746px;">Source: FactSet financial data and analytics, my estimates and calculations, Tensorflow, Keras, Google Colaboratory, pandas</td></tr>
</tbody>
</table>As usual, please feel free to reach out for the full output table, any questions, clarifications needed or suggestions.

This insight provides the output, and an overview of our, machine learning-driven, proprietary GEM screening model, which takes a three-pronged approach to find the best medium-term long ideas within the top100 largest stocks in the MSCI GEM Index. The model is based on 1) a typical quantitative multifactor screening model, enhanced by two Artificial Intelligence Technology-based approaches using 2) a Deep Neural Network model, and 3) a Recurrent Neural Network model. This model, which has been developed and tweaked over the past 24 months (and implemented in its current state for &gt;12 months), has a solid real-world performance track record, which I set out in the detail below. Notable new entrants to the top decile this month include Russian energy plays Gazprom PJSC (GAZP RM) and Lukoil PJSC (LKOD LI), Brazilian securities exchange B3 Sa - Brasil Bolsa Balcao (B3SA3 BZ), and China Construction Bank H (939 HK).









rank
Name
Sector
Location
prev.


1

SK Hynix (000660 KS) 
Information Technology
Korea (South)
3


2

China Mobile (941 HK) 
Communication
China
9


3

CNOOC Ltd (883 HK) 
Energy
China
1


4

Posco (005490 KS) 
Materials
Korea (South)
21


5

Kia Motors Corp (000270 KS) 
Consumer Discretionary
Korea (South)
4


6

Bank Of China Ltd (H) (3988 HK) 
Financials
China
5


7

Gazprom PJSC (GAZP RM) 
Energy
Russian Federation
14


8

Lukoil PJSC (LKOD LI) 
Energy
Russian Federation
32


9

B3 Sa - Brasil Bolsa Balcao (B3SA3 BZ) 
Financials
Brazil
70


10

China Construction Bank H (939 HK) 
Financials
China
41

Source: FactSet financial data and analytics, my estimates and calculations, Tensorflow, Keras, Google Colaboratory, pandas

As usual, please feel free to reach out for the full output table, any questions, clarifications needed or suggestions.

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning, Copley Fund Research

Steven Holden

Asset Allocation & Fund Positioning

Copley Fund Research

Copley Fund Research provide research and data on asset allocation among Global and Emerging Market equity funds.  The analysis details absolute and relative positioning across countries, sectors and industries together with highly granular data on single stock and single fund allocations.  The data is updated monthly with time series going back to January 2011.

Global Research - Analysis of 165 prominent Global equity funds, combined AUM $335bn
GEM Research - Analysis of 127 prominent global EM equity funds, combined AUM $250bn

Asset Allocation - Global and GEM Equity

Cross Asset Strategy

Active Global managers are running record underweights in Emerging Market stocks.  The average Emerging Markets allocation among the active Global funds in our analysis stands at 9.44%, underweight -4.56% compared to the MSCI ACWI weight with 78.3% of funds underweight the benchmark.
Whilst India Financials are the largest overweight, China &amp; HK Consumer Discretionary and Health Care, Taiwan Financials and Saudi Financials have driven the underweight to all-time highs.
On a stock level, <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/taiwan-semiconductor-manufacturing-company" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11230:1" rel="noopener">TSMC (2330 TT)</a> is the most widely held stock, owned by 48% of the 383 active Global managers in our analysis.  The top 6 most widely held stocks, which are <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/taiwan-semiconductor-manufacturing-company" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:11230:1" rel="noopener">TSMC (2330 TT)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/aia-group-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:14895:1" rel="noopener">AIA Group Ltd (1299 HK)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/alibaba-group-holding-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:787:1" rel="noopener">Alibaba Group (BABA US)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/samsung-electronics-co-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:191:1" rel="noopener">Samsung Electronics (005930 KS)</a> , <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/tencent-holdings-ltd" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:26:1" rel="noopener">Tencent (700 HK)</a> and <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/entities/hdfc-bank-ltd-4b6b7a92-9087-468d-9dbe-ab169e77f014" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="entities:558:1" rel="noopener">HDFC Bank (HDFCB IN)</a> occupy the top tier.  They are held by significantly more managers and at larger average weight than those below them.
In fact, active Global managers have come to rely on these top 6 names more and more over the last decade.  Almost 40% of all EM allocations are in these 6 stocks.  Should Global managers be better diversifying their EM allocations?
Analysis taken from our Global fund research, covering 383 active Global strategies with combined AUM of $1.05tr

Active Global managers are running record underweights in Emerging Market stocks.  The average Emerging Markets allocation among the active Global funds in our analysis stands at 9.44%, underweight -4.56% compared to the MSCI ACWI weight with 78.3% of funds underweight the benchmark.
Whilst India Financials are the largest overweight, China &amp; HK Consumer Discretionary and Health Care, Taiwan Financials and Saudi Financials have driven the underweight to all-time highs.
On a stock level, TSMC (2330 TT) is the most widely held stock, owned by 48% of the 383 active Global managers in our analysis.  The top 6 most widely held stocks, which are TSMC (2330 TT) , AIA Group Ltd (1299 HK) , Alibaba Group (BABA US) , Samsung Electronics (005930 KS) , Tencent (700 HK) and HDFC Bank (HDFCB IN) occupy the top tier.  They are held by significantly more managers and at larger average weight than those below them.
In fact, active Global managers have come to rely on these top 6 names more and more over the last decade.  Almost 40% of all EM allocations are in these 6 stocks.  Should Global managers be better diversifying their EM allocations?
Analysis taken from our Global fund research, covering 383 active Global strategies with combined AUM of $1.05tr

EM Underweight Hits Record High Among Global Managers

With Value funds making gains on Growth funds this year, where are EM Value managers positioned?Country: U/W China &amp; HK and India, O/W South Korea and Mexico.  Note also the overweight in Turkey, with 71% of the Value funds in our analysis positioned overweight versus the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF.Sector:U/W Consumer Discretionary, Communication Services and Health Care.  O/W  Materials, Industrials and Financials.Read on for further data and analysis on Industry and Stock positioning.Analysis taken from our Emerging Markets Research, covering 242 active GEM funds with combined AUM of $500bn

With Value funds making gains on Growth funds this year, where are EM Value managers positioned?Country: U/W China &amp; HK and India, O/W South Korea and Mexico.  Note also the overweight in Turkey, with 71% of the Value funds in our analysis positioned overweight versus the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF.Sector:U/W Consumer Discretionary, Communication Services and Health Care.  O/W  Materials, Industrials and Financials.Read on for further data and analysis on Industry and Stock positioning.Analysis taken from our Emerging Markets Research, covering 242 active GEM funds with combined AUM of $500bn

Alpha-Centric ESG Research

Kyle Rudden

Shortly after publishing <a href="https://www.smartkarma.com/insights/engine-versus-exxon-activist-hedge-fund-s-proxy-fight-win-reverberates-through-big-oil-boardrooms" target="_blank" data-smartkarma-citation="insights:52318" rel="noopener">Engine Versus Exxon: Activist Hedge Fund's Proxy Fight Win Reverberates Through "Big Oil" Boardrooms</a>, I decided that a follow-up report (such as this one) would be a good supplement. So, consider this an addendum of sorts to that first Insight.Whereas "Engine Versus Exxon" was a mostly qualitative discussion of recent events for Exxon and six other supermajors, this is a more data-driven look of a much larger universe of oil stocks; 50 in total, representing 24 countries (mainly in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe).Together, they are a good proxy for the broader Energy sector – an aggregate market capitalisation of US$4.6 trillion, and responsible for an astounding 20.5 billion MtCO2e in emissions, about 65% of all energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.This is a relatively focused Insight, covering four related areas:<ol>
<li>
Carbon Footprints: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions for each (ranked and sorted).</li>
<li>
Climate Policies: Where each stands vis-à-vis implementation of climate-related policies.</li>
<li>
Emissions Targets: Which companies are claiming to go net-zero emissions, and by when.</li>
<li>
Capital Investment: How future CapEx is (or is not) aligned with global warming targets.</li>
</ol>

Shortly after publishing Engine Versus Exxon: Activist Hedge Fund's Proxy Fight Win Reverberates Through "Big Oil" Boardrooms, I decided that a follow-up report (such as this one) would be a good supplement. So, consider this an addendum of sorts to that first Insight.Whereas "Engine Versus Exxon" was a mostly qualitative discussion of recent events for Exxon and six other supermajors, this is a more data-driven look of a much larger universe of oil stocks; 50 in total, representing 24 countries (mainly in the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe).Together, they are a good proxy for the broader Energy sector – an aggregate market capitalisation of US$4.6 trillion, and responsible for an astounding 20.5 billion MtCO2e in emissions, about 65% of all energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.This is a relatively focused Insight, covering four related areas:

Carbon Footprints: Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions for each (ranked and sorted).

Climate Policies: Where each stands vis-à-vis implementation of climate-related policies.

Emissions Targets: Which companies are claiming to go net-zero emissions, and by when.

Capital Investment: How future CapEx is (or is not) aligned with global warming targets.


Greenhouse Gas Emissions Profiles of 50 of the World's Largest Oil Companies

China

CNOOC Limited, through its subsidiaries, explores, develops, produces, and sells crude oil and natural gas. The Company focuses in the areas such as Bohai, Western South China Sea, Eastern South China Sea and East China Sea in offshore China. Internationally, the Group has oil and gas assets in Asia, Africa, North America, South America, and Oceania.

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CNOOC Ltd (ADR) (CEO US)

A Mid-Year Review of Our "Buy the Worst" Strategy: Outperformed HSI by 20.9pp

Our "Buy the Worst" strategy has outperformed HSI by 20.9pp so far in 2021; and we believe with the volatile outlook for 2H21, the 5 stocks in the...

Osbert Tang, CFA

Screening for GEMs: July 2021

This insight provides an overview of our, machine learning-driven, proprietary GEM screening model, based on a Multifactor model, a Deep Neural...

Wium Malan, CFA

EM Underweight Hits Record High Among Global Managers

Active Global managers are running record underweights in Emerging Market stocks. The average Emerging Markets allocation sits underweight -4.56%...

Steven Holden

EM Value Fund Positioning

With Value funds making gains on Growth funds this year, where are active Emerging Market Value managers positioned across countries, sectors,...

Steven Holden

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Profiles of 50 of the World's Largest Oil Companies

A quick overview of the carbon footprints and climate policies of 50 of the world's largest oil stocks (mainly Asia Pacific, Americas, and Europe...

Kyle Rudden

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