Japan seeing strong inflows, China suffering redemptions - Asia FlowWatch for Sept 2015

Highlights:

Long‐term funds in Asia experienced roughly US$26 billion in net outflows in September, as China suffered US$38 billion in net redemptions during the month (or US$122 billion in net outflows during Q3, following the market crash in late June). Nevertheless, Japan continued to attract strong inflows, totalling US$12 billion in September and US$36 billion in Q3.

Equity funds led the contributions with US$7 billion mainly from Japan, and real estate products added over US$1 billion, while all other asset classes experienced net outflows. Mixed asset funds, mostly from China, suffered net redemptions of US$32 billion. Bond and 'other' funds, including alternative and guaranteed products, saw moderate net redemptions of roughly US$1 billion each for the month.

Equity Asia Pacific (mostly Equity Japan) was again the top selling category during the month, raising more than US$7 billion, followed by Real Estate Equity and Equity Global with US$1.5 billion and US$0.6 billion, respectively. In contrast, Mixed Flexible (mostly from China) experienced the highest outflows of almost US$26 billion.

At the product level, the top three bestselling funds in September were all Japanese ETFs, benefited largely from Bank of Japan’s continuous purchase of domestic ETFs. Nomura Topix Exchange Traded Fund, Nomura NF Nikkei 225 Leveraged Index ETF and Nomura Nikkei 225 Exchange Traded Fund collected US$2.5 billion, US$1.2 billion and US$0.9 billion, respectively during the month.

Further details can be found in this 60 page quantitative summary of the region.