Ronald W. Chan, Columnist

Malaysia and Hong Kong Hold Contrarian Promise in 2020

This could be the year for Asia’s laggard stock markets to catch up.

December 21, 2019 at 12:00 AM UTC

Ronald W. Chan is the founder and CIO of Chartwell Capital in Hong Kong. He is the author of “The Value Investors” and “Behind the Berkshire Hathaway Curtain.”

Hong Kong’s protests have deterred mainland visitors, who are big buyers of luxury goods.
Photographer: Justin Chin/Bloomberg

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Global equity investors have reason to celebrate as the year comes to an end, with some major indexes having risen more than 20% in the U.S., Europe and Asia. As 2020 begins, there are two ways to play the rally: ride the momentum or look for laggards. Those interested in the latter should consider Malaysia and Hong Kong.

A year ago, I wrote that Japanese stocks could serve as a haven from potential global turmoil, after the Nikkei 225 Stock Average closed out its worst December performance in almost six decades. The Japanese benchmark index has bounced back to climb 19% in dollar terms this year. Its Asian counterpart, the MSCI Asia ex-Japan Index, is up only 15.4%.