17/09/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | SEPT 17, 2025

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China stock markets back on foreign investors’ radar

‘Tepid demand for Nvidia’s latest AI chip for China’ BEIJING/SHANGHAI: Nvidia’s RTX6000D, its newest artificial intelli-gence (AI) chip tailored for the Chinese market, has seen only lukewarm demand with some major tech firms opting not to place orders, two people with know ledge of procurement discussions said. The RTX6000D, designed mainly for AI inference tasks, is seen as expensive for what it does, the two people said. They added that testing of samples showed its performance lags the RTX5090 – a chip banned by the US for use in China but which is still readily available through grey market channels at less than half the RTX6000D’s price of around 50,000 yuan (RM29,560). Chinese tech giants, including Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, are also waiting for clarity on whether orders for Nvidia’s H20 chip will be processed, separate sources said earlier this month. The US firm regained permission to sell the H20 in July but shipments have yet to restart. Additionally, the firms are hoping that Nvidia’s B30A – a much more powerful chip than the H20 – will be approved by Washington. The three chips are downgraded versions of models sold outside China, developed to comply with export restrictions put in place by the United States. Nvidia began shipping the RTX6000D this week, according to one of the people. The sources were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. An Nvidia spokesperson said in a statement that the “market is com petitive – we offer the best products we can.” – Reuters LOWER US TARIFFS ON JAPANESE AUTOS KICK IN TOKYO: Lower US tariffs on Japanese autos kicked in yesterday, as a relieved Tokyo welcomed the implementation of a trade pact negotiated with Washington. As of 12.01pm Malaysian time, Japanese cars entering the United States face a 15% tariff instead of 27.5%, providing manufacturers some reprieve from the hefty duties imposed by President Donald Trump earlier this year. “The government welcomes US efforts this time towards the steady implementation of the July 22 Japan-US deal,” chief government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters. Under the terms of the US-Japan deal, Tokyo is also expected to make investments worth US$550 billion (RM2.35 trillion) in the US, according to the White House. – AFP BRITAIN’S JOB MARKET SLOWS AGAIN IN AUGUST LONDON: Britain’s job market has lost more steam, according to official data, with employment falling for a seventh month in row and wage growth slowing, potentially easing worries at the Bank of England about persistent inflation pressures. The number of employees on company payrolls, as measured by tax office data, fell by a provisional 8,000 in August from July. July’s drop in payrolls was revised to 6,000 from an previously reported reduction of 8,000. – Reuters

investment opportunities, with some for the first time since Covid, he said. To be sure, some of China’s long standing problems are persisting. Its broad economy remains mired in weakness, as indicated by August factory output, retail sales data and some other indicators. Foreign direct investment in the first five months of 2025 slumped 13.2% from the year-earlier period, forcing China to unveil new measures in July to reverse the decline. The fragile economy is one of the main reasons that, while early movers are coming in, it has not yet translated into meaningful long term capital inflows. CLSA chief equity strategist Alexander Redman said the de flationary pressure in the economy is preventing him from overweighting the entire market. And Wu of Polar Capital said the AI boom has to benefit the broader economy to sustain the rally beyond 2025. – Reuters

Polar Capital, a London-based US$20 billion asset manager, pivoted to a positive stance on China in late 2024 from underweight and has further increased the China allo cation to over 30% from the low 20% range within its emerging market portfolio this year, said its fund manager Jerry Wu. There is “a revaluation of Chinese innovative assets” triggered by DeepSeek’s breakthrough, said Wu, referring to the creator of the highly cost-efficient AI model that rivals ChatGPT. He said momentum has picked up across the board, from AI to biotech and robotics. Benjamin Low, senior invest ment director at investment firm Cambridge Associates, said his team has received some 30 client inquiries about searching for China funds this year, in a sharp contrast to the trough in 2023 when there were very limited queries about China-focused man dates. Many non-Asia-based allocators are planning trips to China and Hong Kong later this year to explore

o Shanghai and Hong Kong bourses hit multi year highs, global hedge funds snap up shares in August

HONG KONG: Foreign investors are plotting a return to China’s stock markets in a big way three years after pulling back and terming them uninvestable, encouraged by the tech opportunities on offer, and a growing demand for diversification beyond US assets. Progress in China’s adoption of artificial intelligence and its development of semiconductors and innovative drugs this year has given comfort to global investors that the Sino-US trade war and Washington’s tech export bans have not deterred innovation in the world’s second-biggest economy. The US-China tariff truce and a domestic monetary easing environment have further boosted sentiment. As a consequence, the Shanghai Composite index touched a decade high last week while Hong Kong stocks hit a four-year high. The changing sentiment of foreign investors could potentially add fuel to the market rally, which has so far been mainly driven by domestic players. Foreign early birds are already back in China, lured by this year’s bull run and as they seek diversification from crowded US assets, said Brett Barna, a former hedge fund manager who now manages two New York-based single-family offices. “China is interesting because it’s very uncorrelated to the rest of the world, at least the onshore A-share market,” Barna said, adding he plans to set up an investment platform that would allow US and European capital to access China’s capital markets. Data on fund launches and flows illustrates the growing enthusiasm for a US$19 trillion (RM80 trillion) Chinese stock market, including Hong Kong. August marked the biggest monthly buying of China stocks by SYDNEY: ANZ Group investors are willing to back new CEO Nuno Matos’ strategy to resuscitate the Australian bank’s flagging fortunes, but they are gearing up for near-term hits, including a possible dividend cut. Over the last week, Australia’s fourth-largest lender said it would cut 3,500 staff at a one-off cost of A$560 million (RM1.57 billion) and pay A$240 million of penalties to the corporate regulator over systemic failures including acting “uncon scionably” in a government bond deal. The moves by Matos, who took over from long-serving predecessor Shayne Elliott in May, are a step in the right direction as he looks to clear the decks and stamp his authority on the

global hedge funds in six months, according to a report by Morgan Stanley, which did not detail numbers. Morningstar data showed the number of emerging market ex China equity fund new launches slid to eight in 2025 versus 21 in 2024 and 16 in 2023. That meant demand for emerging market investments that did not include China had cooled substantially this year. “A year ago, people wanted to exclude China from indices. Now, China is seen as a standalone asset class (they cannot ignore),” said Zheng Yucheng, chief investment officer of the China fund unit of Allianz Global Investors. The anecdotal evidence is also piling up.

BR I E F S

A security guard stands at the Shanghai Stock Exchange building at the Pudong financial district. The Shanghai Stock Exchange’s composite index touched a decade high last week. – REUTERSPIC

ANZ shareholders brace for short-term pain

Bank of Australia and Westpac’s 18.1% increases and National Australia Bank’s 12.7% lift. Bridging the gap with its rivals could be tough in the near term, with some investors and analysts expecting more pain to be announced on Oct 13, when Matos holds his first strategy day. “He is most likely going to have to announce a cut to the dividend, so investors will be a little concerned about that but they’ll understand the reasons,” said Angus Gluskie, managing director of investment firm Whitefield. “They’ll be a little bit concerned or sceptical about whether he can actually achieve the targets he’s after, but they will like the fact that they’re

bank, according to fund managers. “Particularly around some of those (government bond) trading issues, which he was obviously not tainted with any of it, so he can come in and make some harder moves, and not have any legacy issues,” said Hugh Dive, chief investment officer at Atlas Funds Management. “He doesn’t want to be dealing with this in a year or two’s time, because then it becomes his problem.” ANZ has lagged its “Big Four” Australian bank rivals in market performance and is significantly cheaper than the rest of the pack based on its price-to-earnings ratio. The Melbourne-based bank’s share price has risen 5.7% in the past year, compared to Commonwealth

making inroads in attempting to do so.” UBS has forecast ANZ’s 2025 dividend could be cut by up to 25%, which would bring its 5.7% dividend yield more in line with Westpac and NAB at about 4.5%. There is a growing expectation the remaining A$832 million of a A$2 billion share buyback announced in May 2024 could be cancelled to preserve cash, according to analysts. ANZ did not respond immediately to a request for comment on its capital management plans. For their part, investors said they were willing to take some short-term pain, but they also wanted to better understand the bank’s longer-term plans as it looks to catch up with its rivals. – Reuters