Hedge funds significantly increased their positions! JP Morgan: Purchases of Japanese, Korean, and Taiwanese stocks reached a ten-year high in a single week.

According to a client report from Morgan Stanley, global hedge funds have increased their bets on Asia, with weekly buying volumes of stocks in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan reaching a ten-year high last week. A report sent to clients on Friday by Morgan Stanley's main brokerage business team stated that most of the stock buying "occurred outside the US, with the Asia-Pacific region driving most of the trading activity." The bank indicated that hedge fund flows into South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan came from "clients in all regions and strategies," leading to the biggest weekly total buying volume in over a decade as of the week ending May 7th, but the bank did not provide specific numbers. Global investors are pouring into Asian tech companies, seeking beneficiaries in the field of artificial intelligence. South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan have become key regions for semiconductor and hardware investments. The three highest-valued companies in Asia are all chipmakers - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR (TSM.US), Samsung Electronics, and SK Hynix - their recent record earnings have drawn attention to their key roles in the global AI supply chain. "We are still in the early stages of the international tech cycle, Asia is still underweight, undervalued, and increasingly becoming core," said Hussein Sacoor, a partner at the New York-based hedge fund Tekne Capital. He added that around 90% of the tech supply chain is concentrated in Asia in terms of costs and bill of materials, while most of the capital is still concentrated in the US market. Last week, major benchmark stock indices in South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan all hit new highs. Morgan Stanley stated that last week's buying orders were focused on the semiconductor and hardware sectors. Morgan Stanley added that hedge funds' net exposure to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan has risen to the highest point since the bank's main brokerage team began tracking the data in 2010, currently accounting for about 19% of global positions. It is worth mentioning that Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. pointed out in another report that after a significant sell-off in Asian stock markets in March, hedge fund monthly buying inflows in Asian stock markets reached a ten-year high in April.