China bulls gaining upper hand

China has the economic scale, the financial firepower and world influence that should be the envy of most developed markets, says Neptune manager Douglas Turnbull.

It has not been hard to make a bearish case for China over the last 18 months. The MSCI China Index underperformed most of its major global peers. However, when one explores the key elements of that bearish case, a new picture emerges – that the bulls in China look to be on the cusp of getting the upper hand. Government policy The first major bearish point has been the tenor of government policy. China as an economy is, by global standards and as a function of its semi-command economy structure, very policy driven. This feeds through visibly into the stock market, and while it is at it...