The Top Ten Asia Pacific Funds (Ex-Japan)

Asia and the Pacific is the fastest growing region in the world. Though the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the regional growth, the region now is again starting to gain pace, making it an attractive investment destination.

Instead of investing in one or two markets, a better approach is to invest in several major countries in the region. A good way to do this is to invest through Asia Pacific funds. Such funds mainly invest in the equity securities of export-oriented nations. Let’s take a look at the top ten Asia Pacific funds (ex-Japan).

Top Ten Asia Pacific Funds (Ex-Japan)

We have used the last one year return data (from money.usnews.com) to come up with the following top ten Asia Pacific funds (ex-Japan), in reverse order.

10. Fidelity Advisor® Emerging Asia Fund (1%)

Fidelity Advisor® Emerging Asia Fund (MUTF:FEAAX) primarily invests in the common stocks of Asian emerging market issuers and other similar investments tied economically to Asian emerging markets.

This fund has lost over 10% in the last six months, but has gained almost 26% in the last three years. FEAAX has more than $1 billion in total assets. The top three holdings of the fund are: Taiwan Semiconductor (TWO:5425), Reliance Industries (NS:RELI), and Alibaba (NYSE:BABA) Group Holding Ltd (HK:9988).

9. Fidelity® Emerging Asia Fund (1%)

Fidelity® Emerging Asia Fund (FSEAX) also primarily invests in the securities of Asian emerging market issuers and other investments that are economically connected to Asian emerging markets. This fund has lost over 10% in the last six months but has gained almost 26% in the last three years. FSEAX has more than $1.80 billion in total assets. The top three holdings of the fund are: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Reliance Industries and Alibaba Group Holding.

8. Guinness Atkinson Asia Focus Fund (1%)

Guinness Atkinson Asia Focus Fund (MUTF:IASMX) mainly invests in the publicly-traded equity securities of companies connected economically to Asia (excluding Japan). This fund has lost almost 12% in the last six months but has gained over 12% in the last three years. IASMX has more than $16 million in total assets. The top three holdings of the fund are: NARI Technology Co Ltd (SS:600406), Wuxi Lead Intelligent Equipment and DBS Group (OTC:DBSDY) Holdings Ltd (SI:DBSM).

7. T. Rowe Price New Asia Fund (1%)

T. Rowe Price New Asia Fund (MUTF:PRASX) aims for long-term growth and capital appreciation by investing mainly in the stocks of companies located, or having primary operations, in Asia (excluding Japan). This fund has lost over 11% in the last six months but has gained over 14% in the last three years. PRASX has more than $3.9 billion in total assets. The top three holdings of the fund are: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tencent Holdings Ltd (HK:0700) and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:005930).

6. BlackRock Sustainable Emerging Mkts Eq (1%)

BlackRock Sustainable Emerging Markets Equity Fund (MUTF:MDPCX) mainly invests in equity securities of companies located in countries with developing capital markets, as well as in derivatives with similar economic characteristics. This fund has lost over 11% in the last six months but has gained almost 10% in the last three years. MDPCX has more than $130 million in total assets. The top four holdings of the fund are: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tencent Holdings, Meituan (HK:3690) and Smasung (KS:005930) Electronics.

5. Matthews Asia Innovators Fund (3%)

Matthews Asia Innovators Fund (MUTF:MATFX) normally invests in the common and preferred stocks of companies located in Asia that the fund manager believes are innovators. This fund has lost over 9% in the last six months but has gained over 28% in the last three years. MATFX has more than $1.60 billion in total assets. The top four holdings of the fund are: Sea Ltd (NYSE:SE), Meituan, Bilibili (NASDAQ:BILI) and Silergy Corp (TW:6415).

4. Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund (4%)

Matthews Pacific Tiger Fund (MUTF:MAPTX) mainly invests in the common and preferred stocks of companies in the Asia region except Japan. This fund has lost over 9% in the last six months and over 4% in the last three months. MAPTX has more than $8 billion in total assets. The top four holdings of the fund are: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tencent Holdings, Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) and AIA Group Ltd (HK:1299).

3. Matthews Asian Growth and Income Fund (5%)

Matthews Asian Growth and Income Fund (MUTF:MACSX) mainly invests in dividend-paying stocks of companies located in Asia. It mainly invests in common and preferred stock, and other equity securities, as well as convertible and fixed-income securities. This fund has lost over 6% in the last six months but has gained almost 10% in the last three years. MACSX has more than $1.10 billion in total assets. The top three holdings of the fund are: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Tencent Holdings and AIA Group.

2. Matthews Asia ESG Fund (29%)

Matthews Asia ESG Fund (MUTF:MISFX) normally invests in the common and preferred stocks of companies of any market capitalization located in Asia. This fund has gained over 5% in the last six months and almost 22% in the last three years. MISFX has more than $130 million in total assets. The top three holdings of the fund are: Shriram-City Union Finance Ltd. (NS:SHCU), Samsung Sdi Co Pref (KS:006405) (Participating Preferred), and Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Ltd (HK:0388).

1. Matthews Emerging Markets Sm Coms Fd (43%)

Matthews Emerging Markets Small Companies Fund (MUTF:MISFX) usually invests in the common and preferred stocks of small-cap companies in emerging market countries. This fund has gained almost 13% in the last six months and almost 27% in the last three years. MSMLX has more than $411 million in total assets. The top four holdings of the fund are: Shriram City Union Finance, Silergy, Ningbo Ginlong Technologies Co Ltd Class A (SZ:300763), and EcoPro BM Co Ltd (KQ:247540).