GAM Star China Equity fund manager Michael Lai says the launch of Fidelity's China Special Situations trust, managed by Anthony Bolton, will help make the case for China as an asset class in its own right.
“From our perspective, that's good,” says Mr Lai. “You can make the parallel with Japan in the 1960s or 1970s, when it became the [world's] second-largest stock market.” If current growth trends continue, China will follow the same path, making the case to be treated as a separate asset class.
The $208m (£138m, €164m) China Equity fund returned 8.2 per cent in the three months to March 31 compared with a loss of 1.6 per cent for the MSCI Free China index.