08 Mar, 2021 11 Foreign Investments in China's A-shares Weekly This weekly report is available on Thomson Reuter Research Bank, -0.84 bln 1.72 bln Bloomberg, Standard & Poors' Capital IQ, Dow Jones Factiva, Proquest, FactSet Northbound Stock Southbound Stock and other licensed trading platforms and Connect (RMB) Connect (RMB) terminals. For enquiry, please email to [email protected] 2.75% -1.80% Global Markets Performance Value of Connect Stock's Change in % vs All A-shares (Week over Week) Index Value Change % SZSE 14,412 -0.7 SSE 3,502 -0.2 HSI 29,098 0.4 0.21% 465 NASDAQ 12,920 -2.1 Nikkei225 28,864 -0.4 QFII's Holdings vs. All A- No. of Companies DJIA 31,496 1.8 shares' Value in Q3 Invested in Q3 FTSE100 6,631 2.3 Top 20 Companies with largest Stock Connect investment (as of Mar 05, 2021) No. of shares held Cumulative net purchase Code Name by Stock Connect (Since 2021) (mln shares）（RMB bln） 300750 CATL 155.5 9.57 600036 CMB 1,215.8 7.24 Subscription： 601318 PING AN OF CHINA 857.3 4.92 300450 LEAD INTELLIGENT 172.4 4.69 China Distribution：Michael Lee 300274 SUNGROW POWER 128.5 4.68 Email： 002050 SANHUA INTELLIGENT CONTROLS 457.7 4.36 [email protected] 002812 ENERGY TECHNOLOGY 102.6 3.33 TEL：(86) 21 8033 6883 002027 FOCUS MEDIA 1,729.4 3.26 000002 VANKE 643.0 3.25 Global Distribution：Ted Worley 002460 GANFENG LITHIUM 64.3 2.87 600309 WANHUA CHEM 165.9 2.66 Email：[email protected] 002352 S.F.HOLDING 167.6 2.55 601601 CHINA PACIFIC INSURANCE 205.2 2.50 Asia Help Desk: Catherine Yap 300454 SANGFOR 20.2 2.14 Email:[email protected] 000001 PING AN BANK 2,000.7 2.13 TEL：(65) 6743 1728 600885 HONGFA 138.2 2.08 300496 THUNDER 46.4 2.08 600809 SHANXI FEN WINE 29.6 2.01 002241 GOERTEK 217.7 2.01 300285 SINOCERA MATERIAL 218.6 1.79 Foreign lnvestments in China’s A-shares Weekly 1 8 Mar, 2021 ....... 11 News Highlights Last week the U.S. Treasury yields rose sharply and sent ripple effects to the emerging markets. This resulted ETF funds that track Chinese bonds to gain significantly. From market data the net inflow of funds into domestic and offshore Chinese bond ETFs accelerated in the past week, reaching USD 670 mln; in contrary, those of other emerging markets’ bond ETFs saw a net outflow of USD 590 mln. As of Mar 5, this year the net inflows into Chinese bond ETFs has recorded USD 2.24 bln, accounting for nearly 40% of last year’s total USD5.6 bln inflow. One of the offshore funds, which mainly tracks China's domestic interest rate bonds, received the largest investment. The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield, which was less than 1% at the beginning of the year, has reached the pre-epidemic high of 1.6%. The past 2 weeks’ rises resulted massive of other govt. bonds in developed markets; however, China's has remained stable with 10-year govt. bond yield maintaining 3.3% level – very attractive to foreign institutional investors. In fact, among the top ten holdings (8.7% of the portfolio) of the JP Morgan Global Bond Opportunities Fund, Chinese govt. bonds have actually ranked the top choice after the U.S’s. Last Monday, three major A-shares indexes opened high and kept high at closing. Judging from the overall performance after the Chinese New Year, the three indexes have somehow retreated, and the net inflow of foreign capital had slowed. However, some pro-cyclical sectors turned active and saw strong buying by foreign investors. From Feb 18 to Feb 26, Ping An Insurance of China (6001318) (2318) attracted RMB 1.34 bln foreign capital, ranking the first in the A-shares market, and China Merchants Bank (600036) (3968) received RMB 1.05 bln, ranked second. Banks and insurance stocks have become the main targets favored by foreign investors after the week-long holidays. Zang Tiewei, spokesperson for the Legal Affairs Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, has said recently that the foreign investment law has achieved remarkable results since its implementation, and it effectively garnered a 4.5% increase for use of foreign capital in spite of global pandemic. Newly-established foreign enterprises reached 51,000 last year. China Central Govt. Securities Depository and Clearing Co Ltd (CDC) says, as of end Feb, the custodian of foreign financial institutions invested bonds’ denomination reached RMB 3.152 trln, an increase of RMB 95.6 bln or 3.13% from Jan. Since Dec 2018, foreign investment in China’s domestic bond market has risen 27 consecutive months. In addition, data from Foreign Exchange Trading Center shows the net purchase of foreign institutional investors has continued to exceed the RMB 100 bln mark every month since Apr last year. To summarize the Feb’s RMB 143.8 bln of foreign monies mainly invested in govt. treasury and policy-banks’ bonds for RMB 61.8 bln and RMB 30 bln, respectively. Foreign lnvestments in China’s A-shares Weekly 2 8 Mar, 2021 ....... 11 Foreign Institutional Investors' Holdings by Industry 12.00% 10.00% 8.00% 6.00% 4.00% 2.00% 0.00% Sources: China Knowledge In Q3 the market capitalization of A-shares held by foreign investors increased to 2.9% of entire A-shares. The top 3 industries with largest share of foreign investment were home appliance, electronics and Food&Beverage. Mining industry was still placed on the least popular with merely 0.29%. No. of A+, A, B, C and D-rated Companies by Industry Sources: China Knowledge Ratings Definition The ratings definition is to provide user(s) a quantitative and qualitative analysis on foreign institutional investors’ trading activities on a listed company in China. As part of China’s liberalization of its stock markets we also factor in foreign investor relations performance metrics and management interaction with foreign investors. The rating results do not constitute a long/short recommendation. Please read the disclaimers below before applying or constitute our rating in your investment decision. A+: To make it to the highest rating, a company must have foreign investment proportion higher than the average of all A-shares and its industry’s average. Its latest quarter should see an increase of more than 10% in foreign investment over previous quarter, or a net growth rate higher than A- shares’ average over a period most current 4 quarters. On the qualitative aspects we assigned foreign investor relations performance metrics to the overall scoring. We find companies rated A+ in most current quarter as sound investment for foreign institutional investors. Only 203 among 3,461 companies rated here make it to A+ for Q3 2020’s rating. A: The company’s proportion of foreign investment is either higher than the A-shares average or its industry’s average. It must see positive net growth over the latest 4 quarters. 308 companies are rated A for Q3 2020’s rating. B: Its foreign investment is lower than the average of all A-shares and its industry’s. Its latest quarter has either declined or remained the same level. Performance on foreign investor relations’ metrics has little impact on overall scoring due to very small proportion of foreign investors and the total sum invested. 320 companies are rated B for Q3 2020’s rating. C: This rating shows little or almost no foreign investment. Its proportion of foreign investments is below all A-shares’ average and industry’s average in its latest 4 quarters. Scoring on foreign investor relations’ performance metrics is insignificance if the FIIs are not participating in investing the company. D: This lowest rating is given to company that failed to meet all 5 core benchmarks. It shows zero or no foreign investment, has poor coverage in both domestic and foreign news, and very few Chinese or English analysts’ reports. Its IR management does not meet professional standards. Foreign lnvestments in China’s A-shares Weekly 3 8 Mar, 2021 ....... 11 Stock Connect Trading Volume Daily Avg Each Week Hong Kong Shenzhen Shanghai RMB bln Stock Connect Stock Connect Stock Connect 90 80 70 64.5 58.6 60 50 45.8 40 30 20 10 0 Wk2 Feb Wk4 Feb Wk1 Mar Wk2 Mar Sources：HKEx, China Knowledge Last week, avg daily trading volume of Northbound Stock Connect was RMB 123.1 bln, down 18.3%. In comparison, avg trading volume via Southbound Connect totaled RMB 45.8 bln, down 30.5%. Bond Connect Trading Volume Avg Per Day Each Month Average Daily Net Value of Trading Volume(RHS) Foreign Funds(LHS) RMB bln RMB bln 350 35 300 30 250 25 20.7 200 20 143.8 150 15 100 10 50 5 0 0 Nov Dec Jan Feb Sources: HKEx In Feb 2020, average daily trading volume was RMB 20.7 bln, down 29.6% since last month. Net value of foreign funds was RMB 143.8 bln, down 52.0% over the last month. Foreign lnvestments in China’s A-shares Weekly 4 8 Mar, 2021 ....... 11 Foreign Funds Flow Breakdown Northbound Southbound RMB bln 60.0 50.0 40.0 30.0 20.0 10.0 1.7 0.0 -0.8 -10.0 -20.0 Wk2 Feb Wk4 Feb Wk1 Mar Wk2 Mar Sources: China Knowledge With respect to Mainland China, net inflow of foreign funds via Northbound Connect was RMB -0.8 bln.