For the latest ETF industry news, please refer to our “Asia ETF Roundup (Industry) – May 2020”.

Major Markets Performance

Plans to reopen the global economy as the COVID-19 paramedic subsides dominated headlines during the month of May, as some countries have started easing lockdown restrictions. Towards the end of the month, U.S.-China tensions once again flared a U.S. president Donald Trump announced the U.S. would revoke Hong Kong’s preferential treatment and would sanction Chinese officials. Global markets were generally up by month’s end. Developed markets such as the U.S., Europe and Japan rose 5-6%. Emerging markets’ performance was mixed. Indian equities fell 2.8% and China onshore markets were down 1.2% (proxied by the CSI 300 Index in USD terms) while the China offshore markets were up slightly, rising 0.7% (proxied by the Morningstar China Index). On the other hand, Russian and Brazilian stocks had another strong month, surging 8-9% (all returns are proxied by the respective Morningstar country indices in USD terms unless otherwise stated).