(Bloomberg) -- China offers a “safe haven” in global equities as the nation is easing policies to boost growth at a time when most of the world is in tightening mode, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
“If investors are looking at challenges in all the markets, China really stands out as something that offers a resilience or safe haven from many of those risks,” Mixo Das, Asia equity strategist at JPMorgan, said in a television interview on Bloomberg. “China is the least unbuyable market at this point.”
Optimism over growth-supportive policies, coupled with China’s moves to somewhat live with the coronavirus even as it sticks to a Covid-Zero approach, has brought the CSI 300 benchmark close to entering a bull market. The index has risen nearly 19% from a low in April. It dropped 1.5% on Wednesday after President Xi Jinping said again that the Covid-Zero policy is the most effective.
Das added China’s easing of some measures puts its stock market “in a very good stead,” especially when offers extremely cheap relative valuations. China’s key gauge for onshore stocks is trading at 13.1 times the 12-month forward-earnings estimate, compared to 16 times for the S&P 500 Index, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
JPMorgan’s Hong Kong-based strategist joins a growing list of market participants that have turned more optimistic on China’s outlook this month, helping the CSI 300 Index outperform global peers by the most since 2014 this quarter.