Bad Year for the FAANGs? In Asia Tech, It's Just A Little Worse

(Bloomberg) -- If you think FAANG is in a funk, try looking at their Asian rivals.

For all the recent hand-wringing over the future of Facebook Inc., Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Netflix Inc. and Google parent Alphabet Inc., the U.S. bloc of stocks has risen an average 9.2 percent so far this year. In contrast, Japan's Sunrise and China's BAT groups of companies are down about 1 percent each.

Yes, Amazon has fallen 12 percent in the past four days and Facebook rounded out its worst month since 2014. Even so, neither has tumbled as much this year as Softbank Group Corp., a charter member of Japan's Sunrise group. While Alphabet just had its worst back-to-back months in four years, the loss is only about half that of Chinese search-engine provider Baidu Inc.

One argument says that Asian tech giants still don't quite have the global name recognition that their American counterparts do.

“The U.S. tech behemoths, they're incumbents with a longer track record,” said James Audiss, senior wealth manager at Shaw and Partners Ltd. in Sydney. “Global investors are more likely to go to the FAANG than the Alibabas or Tencents.”

Here's a deeper look at the companies driving these moves:

Netflix, Amazon Lead

Netflix remains among the top-performing stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 Index this year and Amazon has weathered repeated Twitter rants from U.S. President Donald Trump. Both have reported strong earnings this year.

Not to Blame

In fact, the technology pack is keeping the broader S&P 500 afloat -- without the group of five, the gauge's year-to-date slide worsens to 4 percent.

Softbank Struggles

The Japanese conglomerate's stock has slumped since reaching its highest point in almost 20 years in October as investors question the financing behind billionaire Masayoshi Son's quest to add to his already sprawling empire. Latest moves have included a deal to build the world's largest solar project with Saudi Arabia and reported talks to buy a stake in reinsurer Swiss Re AG.

Tencent Treading Water

The China giant pared the year's gains toward the end of March after a margin pressure warning and a surprise sale of stock by its biggest shareholder Naspers Ltd. wiped out $48 billion in market value over two days.

To contact the reporter on this story: Eric Lam in Hong Kong at elam87@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Christopher Anstey at canstey@bloomberg.net, Ravil Shirodkar, Tracy Alloway

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