Tisco bullish on Chinese tech stocks, citing short-term virus impact 

Saharat Chudsuwan, head of Marketing and Wealth Advisory, Tisco's Mutual & Private Fund Business, said today (February 11) that Chinese technology firms are increasingly playing an important role globally.
“Amid new innovations, which meet the demand of Chinese consumers and industrial entrepreneurs, these companies are growing by expanding into new markets worldwide,” he said.
“The performance of Chinese technology firms are growing by leaps and bounds due to non-stop technology development and increasing consumer demand following global megatrends. Therefore, it presents an opportunity to buy these stocks for long-term investment at a time when stock prices have dropped due to short-term negative factors.”
Tisco’s stock analyst predicts that in 2020 earning per share of three Chinese technology companies will grow significantly – 26 per cent year on year for software and search engine service provider Baidu, 158 per cent for online shopping platform Alibaba, and 50 per cent for social network and online games business Tencent, which is the owner of the WeChat mobile application.
“The interesting thing is all three companies are currently trading at a price below the average of the past five years,” Saharat said.
“Stock analysts expect the profit growth of stocks in the MSCI China Information Technology index in 2020 to increase by 36 per cent year on year, and 2021 will witness a 21 per cent rise.”
Saharat said the TCHTech Fund, with a high-risk level, offers an opportunity for customers by focusing on investment in common stocks of technology industry companies in China, Hong Kong and Macau via the Invesco China Technology Exchange Traded Fund, listed on the New York Stock Exchange. This fund has a minimum investment of Bt1,000 and is open for an initial public offering today until February 18.
“Tisco Asset Management foresees that the coronavirus outbreak in China, which caused global stock markets to drop, will have only a short-term impact. Therefore, it is an opportunity to buy stocks with good long-term growth, especially Chinese technology stocks,” he advised.
“According to a study in 2019, Chinese people used the Internet for an average of six hours a day, while a 2018 study found that 59.6 per cent of Chinese access the Internet, less than the US of up to 89 per cent. Therefore, we foresee that Internet-related businesses have more opportunity to grow.”
He explained that the incoming 5G broadband network in China would help their technology companies to expand. 
“We expect that in 2020 there will be around 800,000 5G antenna towers covering 290 cities in a total of 350 in China,” he said. “This will enable Chinese technology companies to create new products and services.”
He said customers who invest more than Bt10 million in the TCHTech Fund will receive a Mi Robot vacuum cleaner worth Bt12,990. Those investing over Bt50,000 through Tisco My Funds will receive a Tisco short-term bond fund worth Bt100 (1 person per right). 
“Since the TCHTech Fund will focus on investment in the foreign industrial sector, investors may lose a lot of their investment and also have a foreign-exchange risk,” he said. “But the fund has a policy to prevent the risk following the discretion of the fund manager. So investors should understand the product details before investing.”