Matthews Asia April 2016 Country Updates: China, India, Japan, Korea & Southeast Asia

Matthews Asia April 2016 Country Updates: China, India, Japan, Korea & Southeast Asia

China/Hong Kong

In April, the MSCI China Index returned -0.19% in local currency terms. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index returned 1.46% in local currency terms (1.44% in U.S. dollar terms) and China's domestic CSI300, the A share index, returned -1.84% (-2.17% in U.S. dollar terms). China's currency, the renminbi (RMB), ended the month at 6.48 against the U.S. dollar. The real effective exchange rate was down 1% year-to-date through the end of March, but was up by 54% from June 2005, when China began to reform its exchange rate mechanism.

In the first three months of 2016, new home sales, on a square meter-basis, rose 35.6% year-on-year,...