Upgrade Korea and Thailand to overweight; fund with Australia underweight

Research evidence excerpt

Upgrade Korea and Thailand to overweight; fund with Australia underweight

Asia Pacific Insight

August 2, 2026 10:09 PM GMT

Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte.+MAsia EM Equity Strategy Daniel K Blake

Equity Strategist

Upgrade Korea and Thailand to Daniel.Blake@morganstanley.comJonathan F Garner +65 6834-6597

Jonathan.Garner@morganstanley.com +65 6834-8172

overweight; fund with Australia Kristal Ji

Kristal.Ji@morganstanley.com +65 6834-6949

underweight Morgan Stanley Asia Limited+

Simon Jin

In Korea, a sharp unwinding of crowding/leverage has opened a Quantitative Strategist

Simon.Jin@morganstanley.com +852 3963-4179

cheaper entry into multiple themes. That said, we expect further

Morgan Stanley & Co. International plc, Seoul Branch+

market broadening across capex super-cycle plays. Thailand has Joon Seok

improving macro policy trends; Australia has the opposite. Equity Analyst

Joon.Seok@morganstanley.com +82 2 399-4934

Key Takeaways Morgan Stanley Asia (Singapore) Pte.+

Derrick Y Kam

We upgrade Korea to overweight, with 36% upside to our Korean strategist's Asia Economist

Derrick.Kam@morganstanley.com +65 6834-8272

KOSPI target of 9,000. NTM P/E remains below its prior all-time low at 5.7x.

Morgan Stanley Australia Limited+

The 39% KOSPI drawdown was mainly technical. We believe we are past the

Chris Nicol

midpoint of unwinding leveraged ETFs, hedge fund leverage, and retail margin. Equity Strategist

Chris.Nicol@morganstanley.com +61 3 9256-8909

That said, we think the Asia/EM equity market leadership in 2H26 will broaden

Chris Read

across industrial themes, including within Korea. Equity Strategist and Australia Economist

Chris.Read@morganstanley.com +61 2 9770-1513

We stay overweight on Japan and Singapore and upgrade Thailand to overweight