Goldman Sachs says AI and energy resilience are creating a North-South divide in Asian markets
An employee smiles while looking at her mobile phone in front of a digital board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the
An employee smiles while looking at her mobile phone in front of a digital board showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the Korea Exchange (KRX) in Seoul, South Korea, on April 21, 2026. North Asian markets are outperforming those in the south of the continent, thanks to tougher insulation from energy shocks, stronger fiscal ability and AI developments, according to a senior Goldman Sachs strategist.
North Asian markets have "greater buffer stocks" and can afford to pay a higher price for oil and gas, compared to South Asia, which has "much fewer buffers and doesn't have the ability fiscally to offset the pass-through of higher energy prices to the economy," said Tim Moe, Chief Asia Pacific regional equity strategist and co-head of macro research in Asia at Goldman Sachs Research.
Moe described some North Asian markets as seeing a "massive outperformance" compared to South Asia, according to a transcript of Goldman Sachs' "Exchanges" podcast seen by CNBC. Meanwhile, "[Markets in] Indonesia, South Asia — no tech and lots of energy vulnerability — is down 25%," Moe said. Investors are focusing on AI developments in the north of Asia, particularly in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan, where tech-oriented stocks make up around 80%, 60% and 30% of their indexes, respectively, Moe noted.
The best-performing markets are South Korea and Taiwan, with South Korea up by more than 80% year-to-date, he added.
The BriefWire