Pacific Positioning: Dividing the crowd

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Pacific Positioning: Dividing the crowd

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Pacific Positioning

Dividing the crowd

Large performance spread within “Crowded” stocks 21 May 2026

Contrary to popular opinion, some crowded stocks can continue outperforming despite Quant Strategy

being well held by investors. In the last 12 months, “Crowded Positives” (well-owned Asia Pacific

stocks + Positive Triple Momentum) outperformed “Crowded Negatives” (well-owned

stocks + Negative Triple Momentum) by 36.0%. The latest screen of Crowded Positives

includes TSMC, MediaTek, BeOne Medicine-ADR, WinWay Tech, and Taiwan Union.

“Crowded Negatives” include Bharti (Airtel), Infosys, Hub24, NextDC, and Faraday Tech.

Active funds sold China and Korea in April

As the MSCI Asia Pac ex-Japan Index rallied 15% in April, long-only funds globally bought

shares in Australia (+$3.8bn) and India (+$2.9bn) but sold shares in China (-$39.7bn) and

Korea (-$13.6bn). By sector in Asia, long-only funds bought the most shares in Energy

(+$1.4bn) and Materials (+$0.9bn), while selling Semis (-$26.2bn). By stock, funds Nigel Tupper >>

Quant Strategist

bought shares in Suzhou Dongshan, Bharti (Airtel), Zhongji Innolight, and China CSSC. In Merrill Lynch (Australia)

contrast, funds sold shares in SK Hynix, TSMC, Samsung Electronics, and CATL. +61 2 9226 5735 nigel.tupper@bofa.com

Funds remain most overweight Taiwan and Korea AmarQuant VashiStrategist>>

Funds remain most overweight Taiwan and Korea, and underweight India and Australia. Merrill Lynch (Australia) amar.vashi@bofa.com

By sector, funds are most overweight Semis, Tech Hardware, and Consumer

Sumuhan Shanmugalingam >>

Discretionary, and most underweight Banks, Energy, and Diversified Financials. Quant Strategist

Merrill Lynch (Australia)