Record Dividends Lure Morgan Stanley to Asia as Stocks Drop

Investors are getting paid more than ever to hold Asian stocks compared with the rest of the world as shares in the region fall almost as much as those in Germany and France.

Equity declines, including last week’s 11 percent drop in the MSCI China Index, have pushed up dividend yields as much as 37 percent on Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and 86 percent for the Chinese gauge, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That helped send the MSCI Asia Pacific Index’s payout to 3.2 percent, exceeding the MSCI All-Country World Index by the most since at least 1995, the data show.