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Hedge fund giant Bridgewater misses out on stock market bull run, ditching Chinese stocks in first quarter

  • The American firm cut its stakes in nearly all the US-listed Chinese stocks it holds by 31 to 78 per cent in the first three months
  • The sell-off came just before a powerful rebound, which might have sidelined the hedge fund giant from the bull run

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The sell-off came just before a powerful rebound, which might have sidelined the hedge fund giant from the bull run now under way. Photo: Bloomberg
Jiaxing Li
Bridgewater Associates, the world’s biggest hedge fund, pulled back drastically from Chinese stocks again last quarter, slashing its investment by nearly 90 per cent from a peak two years ago. The move may have been too hasty and caused it to miss out on the recent bull run.
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The Connecticut-based firm cut its stakes in nearly all the US-listed Chinese stocks it holds, including Pinduoduo, Yum China, and Trip.com, by 31 to 78 per cent in the first three months of this year, according to its latest 13F filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday. Bridgewater completely divested from Lufax, one of China’s largest online wealth management platforms.
The latest retreat was the most aggressive since the June quarter of 2023, when Bridgewater sold off nearly a third of its Chinese stock holdings as hopes of China’s economy rebounding strongly after Covid-19 lost steam.

By the end of March, the total value of Bridgewater’s 17 Chinese stock holdings had plummeted to US$313 million, an 86 per cent drop from a peak of US$2.2 billion in early 2022, according to calculations by the Post.

The withdrawal came as a three-year slump in Chinese stocks spilled over into the beginning of 2024. The MSCI China Index, which tracks 703 Chinese stocks listed at home and abroad, fell by as much as 12 per cent in the first quarter, while other major indices such as the S&P 500 in the US, Japan’s Nikkei 225 and India’s Nifty advanced by 2 to 20 per cent, reaching record highs.

05:39

Hong Kong stock market falls below 15,000 level, its lowest in 15 months

Hong Kong stock market falls below 15,000 level, its lowest in 15 months

However, the sell-off came just before a powerful rebound, which might have sidelined the hedge fund giant from the bull run now under way. The MSCI China Index has surged by nearly 28 per cent since a January low, restoring over US$2 trillion of value to Chinese companies listed on the mainland, and in Hong Kong and New York, according to Bloomberg data.

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