In a year marked by geopolitical shifts and market volatility, HSBC’s investment research team carved a niche by transforming complexity into actionable clarity. Guided by a framework that prioritises long-term structural trends over short-term noise, the bank’s 2024 research strategy centred on five core themes: disruptive technologies, climate action, the evolving society, Asia’s new world order, and tactical opportunities tied to earnings growth and rate cuts. This approach not only navigated uncertainty but delivered measurable outperformance for clients.
‘Asia in the new world order’ emerged as a standout theme, highlighting the region’s economic resilience. Sub-themes like the rise of India and the Asean region, and reshaping Asia’s supply chain, captured the growth in emerging markets and the reconfiguration of manufacturing.
Between November 2023 and September 2024, the India-Asean basket outperformed the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index by 5.8%, while supply chain-focused equities beat the benchmark by 1.6%. These gains were anchored by rigorous bottom-up analysis, identifying companies poised to thrive amid regional reindustrialisation and AI-driven innovation.