Many of these stocks are in Taiwan, whose performance lagged until the last few months. The U.S. has a first-mover advantage in the Internet and they will enjoy the fattest margins. Asia is in third place, after Europe. Dotcoms here offer less upside. Oddly enough, some have been slow to benefit from the economic revival.
Banks are the outstanding example.
U.S. banks have been running for a couple of weeks now, but it was only recently that the Asian banks have started to catch on. One reason could be the market is identifying some structural problems with some of these old-economy stocks in Asia. These problems will limit their growth over the next two or three years. These are banks in economies awash in debt, where there is limited demand for loans and a shortage of high-quality potential borrowers. But the larger banks with strong franchises look attractive.