A China Fund That Favors Hong Kong

The manager of AllianzGI China Equity Fund D focuses on large firms, but she also sees good deals in small and midsize stocks.

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Call it the latest chapter of the Great Leap Forward. The Chinese government is in the midst of a new round of efforts to reboot its decelerating economy, including cutting interest rates, boosting spending on infrastructure and opening up the Shanghai stock exchange to overseas investors. Investors have responded enthusiastically. Over the past year, the Hong Kong and Shanghai markets soared 34% and 146%, respectively.

AllianzGI China Equity Fund D (ALQDX) has participated in the rally more than most China funds. The fund, which invests mostly in Hong Kong–listed shares, benefited from holdings in industrial stocks, such as rail maker CRRC Corp. Exposure to small and midsize firms helped as well. Among Hong Kong–traded stocks, smaller companies are generally more attractive than larger ones, says manager Christina Chung. “And these companies can grow at similar or better growth rates than large-cap companies.”

That said, three-fourths of the fund’s assets are in big outfits, says Morningstar. Among the fund’s well-known holdings at last report were China Mobile and Bank of China.

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The fund’s Class D shares don’t levy sales charges. And though yearly fees of 1.77% are high, they’re average for China mutual funds. If China Equity intrigues you, use it to spice up your portfolio; it shouldn’t represent more than 5% or so of your stock investments.

comparing interest rate runups in two crises

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Miriam Cross
Associate Editor, Kiplinger's Personal Finance
Miriam lived in Toronto, Canada, before joining Kiplinger's Personal Finance in November 2012. Prior to that, she freelanced as a fact-checker for several Canadian publications, including Reader's Digest Canada, Style at Home and Air Canada's enRoute. She received a BA from the University of Toronto with a major in English literature and completed a certificate in Magazine and Web Publishing at Ryerson University.