IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v90y2020icp11-20.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Can foreign equity funds outperform their benchmarks? New evidence from fund-holding data for China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Jinhua
  • Wang, Guipu
  • Yan, Cheng

Abstract

We investigate whether foreign institutional investors can outperform domestic benchmarks. Using portfolio holding-based approaches for the Chinese Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs), we identify fund’s active manager opinions and information on the future value of stocks. We find stocks actively traded by QFIIs, and stocks with higher deviation from benchmarks (DFB) outperform their benchmarks in the subsequent one to three quarters. Such “hot hand” phenomenon is driven by foreign institutions’ investment skill in incorporating stale information rather than fresh information into asset pricing. Our findings shed new light on the roles of foreign equity funds in eliminating mispricing in emerging markets, and provide evidence on rethinking the role of financial intermediation in a capital-controlled economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Jinhua & Wang, Guipu & Yan, Cheng, 2020. "Can foreign equity funds outperform their benchmarks? New evidence from fund-holding data for China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 11-20.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:90:y:2020:i:c:p:11-20
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2020.04.025
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999319309691
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2020.04.025?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kenneth R. French, 2008. "Presidential Address: The Cost of Active Investing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1537-1573, August.
    2. Liu, Jianan & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Yuan, Yu, 2019. "Size and value in China," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(1), pages 48-69.
    3. John M. Griffin & Federico Nardari & René M. Stulz, 2004. "Are Daily Cross-Border Equity Flows Pushed or Pulled?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(3), pages 641-657, August.
    4. Vidal, Marta & Vidal-García, Javier & Lean, Hooi Hooi & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2015. "The relation between fees and return predictability in the mutual fund industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 260-270.
    5. Albuquerque, Rui & H. Bauer, Gregory & Schneider, Martin, 2009. "Global private information in international equity markets," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(1), pages 18-46, October.
    6. Alexander Dyck & Karl V. Lins & Lukasz Pomorski, 2013. "Does Active Management Pay? New International Evidence," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 3(2), pages 200-228.
    7. Ferreira, Miguel A. & Matos, Pedro & Pereira, João Pedro & Pires, Pedro, 2017. "Do locals know better? A comparison of the performance of local and foreign institutional investors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 151-164.
    8. Jeffrey A Busse & Lin Tong & Qing Tong & Zhe Zhang, 2019. "Trading Regularity and Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(1), pages 374-422.
    9. Chen, Hsiu-Lang & Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Wermers, Russ, 2000. "The Value of Active Mutual Fund Management: An Examination of the Stockholdings and Trades of Fund Managers," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 35(3), pages 343-368, September.
    10. repec:bla:jfinan:v:55:y:2000:i:4:p:1655-1703 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Fuertes, Ana-Maria & Phylaktis, Kate & Yan, Cheng, 2016. "Hot money in bank credit flows to emerging markets during the banking globalization era," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 29-52.
    12. Eling, Martin & Faust, Roger, 2010. "The performance of hedge funds and mutual funds in emerging markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(8), pages 1993-2009, August.
    13. Hyuk Choe & Bong-Chan Kho & René M. Stulz, 2005. "Do Domestic Investors Have an Edge? The Trading Experience of Foreign Investors in Korea," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(3), pages 795-829.
    14. Yan, Cheng & Wang, Xichen, 2018. "The non-persistent relationship between foreign equity flows and emerging stock market returns across quantiles," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 38-54.
    15. Grossman, Sanford J & Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1980. "On the Impossibility of Informationally Efficient Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(3), pages 393-408, June.
    16. Laurent Barras & Olivier Scaillet & Russ Wermers, 2010. "False Discoveries in Mutual Fund Performance: Measuring Luck in Estimated Alphas," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(1), pages 179-216, February.
    17. S. P. Kothari & Jerold B. Warner, 2001. "Evaluating Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1985-2010, October.
    18. Ľuboš Pástor & Robert F. Stambaugh, 2012. "On the Size of the Active Management Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 120(4), pages 740-781.
    19. Russ Wermers, 2000. "Mutual Fund Performance: An Empirical Decomposition into Stock‐Picking Talent, Style, Transactions Costs, and Expenses," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 55(4), pages 1655-1695, August.
    20. Ferson, Wayne & Mo, Haitao, 2016. "Performance measurement with selectivity, market and volatility timing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 93-110.
    21. Jeffrey A. Busse & Amit Goyal & Sunil Wahal, 2010. "Performance and Persistence in Institutional Investment Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 65(2), pages 765-790, April.
    22. Bae, Kee-Hong & Ozoguz, Arzu & Tan, Hongping & Wirjanto, Tony S., 2012. "Do foreigners facilitate information transmission in emerging markets?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 105(1), pages 209-227.
    23. Eugene F. Fama & Kenneth R. French, 2008. "Dissecting Anomalies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1653-1678, August.
    24. Sha, Yezhou & Gao, Ran, 2019. "Which is the best: A comparison of asset pricing factor models in Chinese mutual fund industry," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 8-16.
    25. Crane, Alan D. & Crotty, Kevin, 2018. "Passive versus Active Fund Performance: Do Index Funds Have Skill?," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 53(1), pages 33-64, February.
    26. K. J. Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto, 2009. "How Active Is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure That Predicts Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(9), pages 3329-3365, September.
    27. Carhart, Mark M, 1997. "On Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 57-82, March.
    28. Jennifer Huang & Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2011. "Risk Shifting and Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(8), pages 2575-2616.
    29. Irina B. Mateus & Cesario Mateus & Natasa Todorovic, 2019. "Use of active peer benchmarks in assessing UK mutual fund performance and performance persistence," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(12), pages 1077-1098, August.
    30. Jonathan B. Berk & Richard C. Green, 2004. "Mutual Fund Flows and Performance in Rational Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(6), pages 1269-1295, December.
    31. Russ Wermers, 1999. "Mutual Fund Herding and the Impact on Stock Prices," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 581-622, April.
    32. Nicolas P. B. Bollen, 2005. "Short-Term Persistence in Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 18(2), pages 569-597.
    33. Agarwal, Sumit & Faircloth, Sheri & Liu, Chunlin & Ghon Rhee, S., 2009. "Why do foreign investors underperform domestic investors in trading activities? Evidence from Indonesia," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 32-53, February.
    34. Bae, Kee-Hong & Stulz, René M. & Tan, Hongping, 2008. "Do local analysts know more? A cross-country study of the performance of local analysts and foreign analysts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(3), pages 581-606, June.
    35. Vidal-García, Javier & Vidal, Marta & Boubaker, Sabri & Uddin, Gazi Salah, 2016. "The short-term persistence of international mutual fund performance," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 926-938.
    36. Yan, Cheng & Zhang, Huazhu, 2017. "Mean-variance versus naïve diversification: The role of mispricing," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 61-81.
    37. Froot, Kenneth A. & O'Connell, Paul G. J. & Seasholes, Mark S., 2001. "The portfolio flows of international investors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 151-193, February.
    38. Martijn Cremers & Antti Petajisto, 2006. "How Active is Your Fund Manager? A New Measure That Predicts Performance," Yale School of Management Working Papers amz2370, Yale School of Management, revised 01 May 2009.
    39. Cai, Biqing & Cheng, Tingting & Yan, Cheng, 2018. "Time-varying skills (versus luck) in U.S. active mutual funds and hedge funds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 81-106.
    40. Hao Jiang & Marno Verbeek & Yu Wang, 2014. "Information Content When Mutual Funds Deviate from Benchmarks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 2038-2053, August.
    41. Harald Hau, 2001. "Location Matters: An Examination of Trading Profits," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 56(5), pages 1959-1983, October.
    42. Cremers, Martijn & Pareek, Ankur, 2016. "Patient capital outperformance: The investment skill of high active share managers who trade infrequently," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 288-306.
    43. Roll, Richard, 1978. "Ambiguity when Performance is Measured by the Securities Market Line," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1051-1069, September.
    44. Louis K. C. Chan & Stephen G. Dimmock & Josef Lakonishok, 2009. "Benchmarking Money Manager Performance: Issues and Evidence," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(11), pages 4553-4599, November.
    45. Cheng, Tingting & Yan, Cheng, 2017. "Evaluating the size of the bootstrap method for fund performance evaluation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 36-41.
    46. Paul Calluzzo & Fabio Moneta & Selim Topaloglu, 2019. "When Anomalies Are Publicized Broadly, Do Institutions Trade Accordingly?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(10), pages 4555-4574, October.
    47. Berk, Jonathan B. & van Binsbergen, Jules H., 2015. "Measuring skill in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(1), pages 1-20.
    48. Russ Wermers, 2011. "Performance Measurement of Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds, and Institutional Accounts," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 537-574, December.
    49. Wayne E. Ferson, 2010. "Investment Performance Evaluation," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 2(1), pages 207-234, December.
    50. Bailey, Warren & Mao, Connie X. & Sirodom, Kulpatra, 2007. "Investment restrictions and the cross-border flow of information: Some empirical evidence," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 1-25, February.
    51. Jacobs, Heiko, 2016. "Market maturity and mispricing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(2), pages 270-287.
    52. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 2015. "A five-factor asset pricing model," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(1), pages 1-22.
    53. Falkenstein, Eric G, 1996. "Preferences for Stock Characteristics as Revealed by Mutual Fund Portfolio Holdings," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 111-135, March.
    54. Fama, Eugene F. & French, Kenneth R., 1993. "Common risk factors in the returns on stocks and bonds," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 3-56, February.
    55. Miguel A. Ferreira & Aneel Keswani & António F. Miguel & Sofia B. Ramos, 2013. "The Determinants of Mutual Fund Performance: A Cross-Country Study," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 17(2), pages 483-525.
    56. Hitesh Doshi & Redouane Elkamhi & Mikhail Simutin, 2015. "Managerial Activeness and Mutual Fund Performance," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(2), pages 156-184.
    57. Kenchington, David & Wan, Chi & Yüksel, H. Zafer, 2019. "Gross profitability and mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 31-49.
    58. Richards, Anthony, 2005. "Big Fish in Small Ponds: The Trading Behavior and Price Impact of Foreign Investors in Asian Emerging Equity Markets," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 40(1), pages 1-27, March.
    59. Zou, Liping & Tang, Tiantian & Li, Xiaoming, 2016. "The stock preferences of domestic versus foreign investors: Evidence from Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFIIs) in China," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 12-28.
    60. Fama, Eugene F & MacBeth, James D, 1973. "Risk, Return, and Equilibrium: Empirical Tests," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 81(3), pages 607-636, May-June.
    61. Yang, Baochen & Xue, Fangzhan & Su, Yunpeng & Yan, Cheng, 2019. "Is informational inefficiency priced in stock markets? A comparison between the U.S. and Chinese cases," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 222-238.
    62. Yan, Cheng & Cheng, Tingting, 2019. "In search of the optimal number of fund subgroups," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 78-92.
    63. Datar, Vinay T. & Y. Naik, Narayan & Radcliffe, Robert, 1998. "Liquidity and stock returns: An alternative test," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 203-219, August.
    64. Yan, Cheng & Phylaktis, Kate & Fuertes, Ana-Maria, 2016. "On cross-border bank credit and the U.S. financial crisis transmission to equity markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 108-134.
    65. Hendricks, Darryll & Patel, Jayendu & Zeckhauser, Richard, 1993. "Hot Hands in Mutual Funds: Short-Run Persistence of Relative Performance, 1974-1988," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 93-130, March.
    66. Sensoy, Berk A., 2009. "Performance evaluation and self-designated benchmark indexes in the mutual fund industry," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(1), pages 25-39, April.
    67. Jegadeesh, Narasimhan & Titman, Sheridan, 1993. "Returns to Buying Winners and Selling Losers: Implications for Stock Market Efficiency," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 48(1), pages 65-91, March.
    68. Cheng Yan, 2018. "Hot money in disaggregated capital flows," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(14), pages 1190-1223, September.
    69. Ahmed, Shamim & Bu, Ziwen & Tsvetanov, Daniel, 2019. "Best of the Best: A Comparison of Factor Models," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(4), pages 1713-1758, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abou Tanos, Barbara & Jimenez-Garcès, Sonia, 2022. "Foreign investments during financial crises: Institutional investors’ informational skills create value when familiarity does not," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Rudiawarni, Felizia Arni & Sulistiawan, Dedhy & Sergi, Bruno S., 2024. "The role of the net purchase of stocks by foreign investors in boosting stock returns: Evidence from the Indonesian stock market," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bai, John Jianqiu & Tang, Yuehua & Wan, Chi & Yüksel, H. Zafer, 2022. "Fund manager skill in an era of globalization: Offshore concentration and fund performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 18-40.
    2. Matallín-Sáez, Juan Carlos & Soler-Domínguez, Amparo & Tortosa-Ausina, Emili, 2016. "On the robustness of persistence in mutual fund performance," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 192-231.
    3. Loban, Lidia & Sarto, José Luis & Vicente, Luis, 2021. "Determinants of non-compliant equity funds with EU portfolio concentration limits," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    4. Hao Jiang & Marno Verbeek & Yu Wang, 2014. "Information Content When Mutual Funds Deviate from Benchmarks," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(8), pages 2038-2053, August.
    5. Mason, Andrew & Agyei-Ampomah, Sam & Skinner, Frank, 2016. "Realism, skill, and incentives: Current and future trends in investment management and investment performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 31-40.
    6. Pedraza, Alvaro & Pulga, Fredy & Vasquez, Jose, 2020. "Costly index investing in foreign markets," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).
    7. Timothy B. Riley, 2021. "Portfolios of actively managed mutual funds," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(2), pages 205-230, May.
    8. Dahlquist, Magnus & Odegaard, Bernt Arne, 2018. "A Review of Norges Bank's Active Management of the Government Pension Fund Global," UiS Working Papers in Economics and Finance 2018/1, University of Stavanger.
    9. Suresh Nallareddy & Maria Ogneva, 2017. "Accrual quality, skill, and the cross-section of mutual fund returns," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 503-542, June.
    10. Jiang, George J. & Zaynutdinova, Gulnara R. & Zhang, Huacheng, 2021. "Stock-selection timing," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    11. Mateus, Irina B. & Mateus, Cesario & Todorovic, Natasa, 2019. "Review of new trends in the literature on factor models and mutual fund performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 344-354.
    12. Clemens Sialm & Hanjiang Zhang, 2020. "Tax‐Efficient Asset Management: Evidence from Equity Mutual Funds," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 735-777, April.
    13. Cuthbertson, Keith & Nitzsche, Dirk & O'Sullivan, Niall, 2016. "A review of behavioural and management effects in mutual fund performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 162-176.
    14. Lan, Chunhua & Moneta, Fabio & Wermers, Russ, 2018. "Holding Horizon: A New Measure of Active Investment Management," CFR Working Papers 15-06, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR), revised 2018.
    15. Ľuboš Pástor & Robert F. Stambaugh & Lucian A. Taylor, 2017. "Do Funds Make More When They Trade More?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1483-1528, August.
    16. Victor DeMiguel & Javier Gil-Bazo & Francisco J. Nogales & André A. P. Santos, 2021. "Can Machine Learning Help to Select Portfolios of Mutual Funds?," Working Papers 1245, Barcelona School of Economics.
    17. Pástor, Ľuboš & Stambaugh, Robert F. & Taylor, Lucian A., 2020. "Fund tradeoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(3), pages 614-634.
    18. Agnesens, Julius, 2013. "A statistically robust decomposition of mutual fund performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(10), pages 3867-3877.
    19. Adam Zaremba & Jacob Koby Shemer, 2018. "Price-Based Investment Strategies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-91530-2, July.
    20. Li, Zhiyong & Rao, Xiao, 2023. "Exploring the zoo of predictors for mutual fund performance in China," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Qualified foreign institutional investors (QFIIs); Investment skill; Performance persistence; Stale information;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:90:y:2020:i:c:p:11-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.