At the turn of the century, investing in China was viewed as a risky proposition. Foreign access to a notoriously volatile, retail-driven equity market was heavily restricted. The lack of a credible regulatory framework and legal protections deterred US venture capitalists from making direct investments in Chinese companies. In many cases, Chinese banks and the country’s fledgling private equity industry also balked. So, when Chinese technology firm Alibaba received its first $25 million investment from Goldman Sachs in 1999, investors sat up and took notice.
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Europe equity funds latest to catch a lift
Flows into EPFR-tracked Emerging Markets Equity Funds during the third week of January climbed to their highest level since mid-1Q21 as investors positioned themselves for China’s much anticipated economic rebound and, the anti-inflation rhetoric of the Federal Reserve and European Central Bank (ECB) notwithstanding, an early end to the current interest rate cycles in the US and Europe. Investors also steered $2.5 billion – a 101-week high – into Emerging Markets Bond Funds.
Quants Corner: Energy funds in a time of war
This blog will examine the impact the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had on global energy markets and the calls investors have made during 2022.
Global Navigator: 2022, A tale of active versus passive
The final week of 2022 saw EPFR-tracked Bond Funds post consecutive weekly outflows for the first time since mid-October, capping a year when the overall group smashed its previous outflow record as central banks scrambled to contain inflation running at multi-decade highs.
Behind the headline number, however, was a marked shift from active to passive management.
Quants Corner: Retail flows | The wisdom of “dumb money”
In this blog, we utilize some of EPFR’s oldest strategies to test the predictive powers of the retail flows captured in the universe of 150,000 mutual fund and ETF share classes encompassing some $47 trillion in AUM that EPFR tracks on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
EPFR Papers: Bank of Japan’s ETF purchases
The Bank of Japan has been the pace-setter among central banks when it comes to purchasing non-government financial securities. It was the first central bank to officially declare that it was buying exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and Japan Real Estate Investment trusts (J-REITs).
EPFR Papers: NEW Stock Level Tool
EPFR has developed a new tool. Stock Barometer, to help at the individual security level. Organized around a range of well-known indexes, these ‘barometers’ list the stocks in those indexes and illustrate their daily situation based on two key factors, flow momentum and ownership dispersion.
Global Navigator: Earnings & inflation both roar | November
From a fund flow perspective, the week ending Nov. 10 saw groups and themes that have fared well for most of 2021 continue to attract fresh money. Meanwhile, four out of five US companies that have reported third quarter earnings exceeded consensus expectations.
Global Navigator: Treasury yields slip, ETF assets higher
Going into the final week of the first quarter, global markets were treading water amidst a welter of sometimes contradictory events and signals.