Investing.com — Asian emerging markets saw strong inflows in the second half of August, with improved sentiment on bargain buying and low interest rates drawing investors back, Goldman Sachs said in a note.
Emerging Asia saw inflows of about $6 billion after selling off about $18 billion in late July and early August, according to GS.
GS said inflows into emerging Asian stocks were modest at $900 million over the past week, with the majority of inflows coming from the ASEAN region, Taiwan and India.
In China, Hong Kong's southbound stock market saw a small outflow of $200 million, while the Chinese government stopped publishing inflow data for the northbound markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen.
Chinese stocks have been the worst performing Asian market so far this year, with stock and yuan indexes trading at six-month lows amid little sign of improving economic growth.
In early August, Asian markets across the board were also hit by a wave of heavy selling as hawkish signals from the Bank of Japan rattled regional sentiment and raised concerns about a US recession.
However, regional markets recovered most of their losses on improving sentiment, with growing confidence in a US interest rate cut also encouraging buying.
Japan has been riding the wave of this recovery, with inflows turning positive in August: the Japanese market has seen $900 million in inflows so far this month, far more than most of Asia.
Inflows into Hong Kong stocks hit a record $4.7 billion for August, according to GS data.
