
featured insights & webinar
The risk profiles of Emerging Market (EM) investment grade (IG) vs their developed market (DM) peers are converging. In fact, amidst spending/borrowing excesses in the DM, rising long-term government bond yields, and recent cyclical lows in US corporate credit spreads, volatility for DM bonds has risen substantially since 2020, prompting the expression the “EM’ification of DM debt”. Meanwhile EM IG bonds have been relatively stable, and the search by asset allocators for alternatives to DM bonds will likely continue the pivot to EM IG bonds. Beneath the surface of the short-term volatilities and possibly a longer-term repricing of multiple assets, Asian IG bonds and Saudi government sukuks may just be the sweet spots for attractive, uncorrelated and resilient returns regardless which side one is at on the debasement debate. In this article, our Senior Advisor Say Boon Lim discusses how the asset allocators are increasingly turning to EM IG bonds as compelling alternatives to DM bonds, for which our Premia JP Morgan Asia Credit Investment Grade USD Bond ETF (3411/9411 HK) and Premia BOCHK Saudi Arabia Government Sukuk ETF (3478/ 9478 HK) would be useful allocation tools in this pivot.
Nov 10, 2025
China's biopharmaceutical industry is undergoing a landmark transformation, emerging from a period of profound recalibration to establish itself as a global powerhouse. Propelled by its talent, patient access, cost-efficient infrastructure, and catalysed by comprehensive government policies aimed at supporting the innovative drug value chain, the sector is experiencing a broad-based resurgence, with results beginning to show in earnings and valuations in the first half of the year. The journey, however, is just beginning, fueled by the impending global patent cliff and its strong value proposition: delivering high-quality, innovative medicines at an accelerated pace. This capability ensures China's biopharma sector an indispensable player in the global market, even in the face of possible geopolitical headwinds. In this article, we discuss about the leading innovators in the homegrown biotech landscape—companies well-represented in our Premia China New Economy ETF (3173/9173 HK) and Premia China STAR50 ETF (3151/9151/83151 HK), which have outperformed multiple benchmarks year-to-date and will continue to drive alpha returns for global investors, propelled by a revaluation trend driven by domestic policy tailwinds, strong external partnerships and a rising market value.
Oct 03, 2025
Vietnam stands out as Asia’s best-performing equity market in 2025, fueled by earnings recovery, policy support, and surging public investment. More importantly, Resolution 68 marks the country’s boldest reform agenda since Doi Moi—streamlining bureaucracy, empowering the private sector, and deepening capital markets—creating structural upside beyond cyclical drivers. With infrastructure projects worth over 10% of GDP, robust FDI inflows, and the potential MSCI/FTSE upgrade unlocking sizable foreign flows, Vietnam offers a rare blend of near-term catalysts and long-term growth. In this article, our Partner & Co-CIO David Lai discusses how Premia Vietnam ETF offers investors a diversified, transparent, and cost-effective vehicle that has consistently outperformed active peers—positioning portfolios to capture one of the most compelling reform-driven growth stories in emerging Asia.
Sep 12, 2025
China’s A-share market is turning the corner, as investors looking past weak data and piling back into growth. Signs of rotation by domestic investors from bank deposits and safe haven assets to equity market increasingly validate investor confidence is back. Policy momentum, attractive valuations, and light foreign positioning are fueling a durable rally, echoing the 2016 supply-side reform. Leadership is shifting decisively to innovation-driven sectors — from biotech and healthcare to solar, AI, and robotics — where structural growth and global relevance are accelerating, and are expected to be important focus in China’s upcoming 15th Five Year Plan. In this article, our Partner & Co-CIO David Lai and Portfolio Manager Alex Chu discuss why, with sentiment improving and risk appetite returning, the best way to play China’s new growth cycle is through high-conviction exposure via Premia’s STAR50 ETF and CSI Caixin New Economy ETF.
Aug 26, 2025
China's STAR Market appears poised for a major growth surge, fueled by a wave of innovative robotics companies set to launch their initial public offerings. Leading industry players, including Unitree, Zhiyuan Robot, Jaka Robotics, Fine Motion Tech, and Sichuan Tianlian Robot, are all in the IPO pipeline. In this article, we will introduce these firms that are at the forefront of technological innovation in humanoid and industrial robotics, whose momentum is expected to accelerate, driven by ongoing industry innovation and the favorable policy tailwinds of China's upcoming 15th Five-Year Plan.
Aug 25, 2025
Even for the prepared and informed, at the recent World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC 2025), China has still taken the world by surprise with the debutante of its fleet of over 150 AI-powered humanoid robots. Indeed 2025 marks the beginning of commercialization and production of these futuristic robots, now made reality. While humanoid robots have captured the imagination of the popular media, there has been a more important revolution in the broader robotics industry, where China has emerged, as the global powerhouse, just as it did in renewable energy and electric vehicles. In this article, we discuss how humanoid industrial robots have quickly been integrated in China’s production lines, filling the productivity void from the country’s aging population, while further driving down the manufacturing production costs with high degree of automation with these embodied AI applications.
Aug 06, 2025
Equities around the world rebounded from early-April “Liberation Day” lows, as markets increasingly reckoned the White House’s tariff bark may be worse than its bite, leading stocks in China—one of America’s biggest trading partners, and an economy viewed to be in the crosshairs of Trump 2.0 trade policy—to rise in Q2. In this article, Dr. Phillip Wool, Global Head of Research of Rayliant Global Advisors, discusses the presently muted impact of tariffs on China’s exports and explain what might be needed to ensure a sustained A-share rally.
Jul 31, 2025
Asia USD Investment Grade Credits and Saudi Government Sukuk have outperformed in a global fixed income market that has been shaken by fiscal profligacy, geopolitical tensions, tariff uncertainties, and even oil market volatility. The Premia J.P. Morgan Asia Credit Investment Grade USD Bond ETF and Premia BOCHK Saudi Arabia Government Sukuk ETF have emerged from this stress-test as effective alternatives in portfolios – delivering stable income, and uncorrelated returns, while still trading at a spread over US Treasuries with further room for spread compression. Indeed, their higher yields of 4.8%-4.9% (4.8% for the Premia Asia Credit Investment Grade USD Bond and 4.9% for the Premia Saudi Government Sukuk) are outstanding, considering their lower corporate and government leverage, and comparable or superior credit ratings versus global peers.
Jul 24, 2025
Saudi Arabia’s tremendous transformation since the launch of the Vision 2030 strategic initiative has been accompanied by significant development of its capital markets – including its fixed income market which now offers some of the most attractive risk-adjusted returns in the government and investment grade fixed income space. In this article, we discuss about how our newly launched Saudi Arabia Government Sukuk ETF offers a timely alternative amid current market environment, and for sukuk investors and fixed income and multi-asset allocators stable income, attractive yield spread as well as uncorrelated returns.
Jun 22, 2025
China is undergoing a profound economic shift anchored in industrial upgrading and technological self-reliance. Amidst global macro uncertainties, the country's relentless focus on innovation across strategic sectors—ranging from semiconductors and artificial intelligence to robotics, green energy, and biotech—is building the foundation for sustained long-term growth. In this article, we discuss how these structural advances, often overlooked amid cyclical challenges, are already yielding tangible outcomes and positioning China at the forefront of the next wave of global industrial transformation. As policymakers are busy drafting the 15th Five Year Plan, and wrapping up the last stretch of the 14th Five Year Plan, it is also important to note how these innovation-led developments would continue to be at the forefront of the policy initiatives, and inform us of market opportunities ahead.
Jun 22, 2025
BY TOPICS
Chart Of the Week


Alex Chu
While Chinese new economy stocks have faced short-term volatility amid the geopolitical tensions, their long-term growth remains anchored by strategic policy and industry breakthroughs. The 15th Five Year Plan underlines that technology and self-sufficiency still come first, backed by a strong push for AI and digital infrastructure. The blueprint mentioned “AI“ more than 50 times and included major action plans to deploy AI agents and increase investment in quantum computing and 6G. On the hardware front, sources indicate SMIC (688981 CH) and other Huawei-linked chipmakers are aiming to ramp up production of 7nm or 5nm semiconductors to 100K wafers in 1-2 years to support domestic developers. This domestic ecosystem is already bearing fruit: Zhipu AI released its GLM-5 model with superior coding capabilities, notably confirming the model was developed using domestic chips from Huawei, Moore Threads, and Cambricon. On the software side, adoption is accelerating. OpenClaw has sparked a new trend pivoting from “Chat AI” to “Execution AI”, reminding investors of the DeepSeek moment in 2022. Chinese AI companies act swiftly to adopt the trend, making China a leader in consumer AI adoption. Multiple developers like Tencent and Xiaomi are linking OpenClaw to their models. Even before this new trend, local media have reported that Chinese AI models’ weekly token usage surpassed US peers, suggesting that monetization may arrive earlier than expected. Investors focused on hardware semiconductors could consider our Premia China STAR50 ETF. For broader exposure, our Premia CSI Caixin China New Economy ETF offers a diversified approach with investments in semiconductors, AI, EV, and Biotech, allowing investors to participate in China’s innovative growth story. For even broader Asia exposure, investors might consider our Premia Asia Innovative Technology and Metaverse Theme ETF, which invests in Asia's 50 largest innovative companies across sectors such as AI, semiconductors, solar energy, and EVs with equal weightings.
Mar 16, 2026













