For the latest ETF industry news, please refer to our “Asia ETF Roundup (Industry) – November 2020”.
Major Markets Performance
The U.S. Presidential election grabbed the world’s attention in November, as Joe Biden was elected as the next president of the United States. On 12 November, President Donald Trump signed an executive order prohibiting U.S. persons from investing in securities issued by 31 Chinese companies, spurring uncertainty in the investment world. In the Asia region, at the beginning of the month, investors were anticipating the IPO of Ant Group, an affiliate of the Alibaba Group. This could have been the world’s largest-ever IPO. However, the IPO on the Hong Kong Exchange and the Shanghai Stock Exchange was suspended at the last minute, disappointing many investors. Global markets had a strong month, lifted by vaccine-related optimism. The Morningstar Global Markets Index and the Morningstar US Market Index rose by 12.6% and 12.0% respectively in November. The S&P 500 Index, the Dow Jones Index and the Nasdaq Index made new all-time highs during the month. Asian equity markets also rallied strongly in November with the Japan, Korea and Singapore stock markets posting double digit gains. Although the Chinese equity markets (proxied by the Morningstar China Index in USD) posted relatively smaller gains (3.9%), their year-to-date gain of 28.0% remains one of the strongest among global markets. Emerging markets also followed the trend, recording gains ranging from 4% to 24% (proxied by their respective Morningstar indexes in US-dollar terms).
