Investing.com -- Passive long-only funds resumed buying emerging market equities in April after purchasing $12.0 billion, according to Morgan Stanley's Asia Flows & Positioning Guide. Taiwan, Brazil and China led the inflows, while active foreign funds sold $0.7 billion during the month.

Stock exchange data showed foreigners bought $8.4 billion of Taiwan equities and $22.4 billion of Japanese equities in April. Korea saw $0.6 billion in net foreign purchases. India and Indonesia recorded outflows of $5.2 billion and $1.0 billion respectively.

Hedge funds added positions in Taiwan equities during the final week of April and returned to Korea following earlier profit-taking, according to Morgan Stanley's Prime Brokerage Content Group. Information Technology drove nearly all net inflows into Asia excluding Japan throughout April, now representing approximately 50% of hedge fund net portfolios in the region. Gross and net exposure to IT in Asia reached historical highs since 2010.

In March, long-only investors in global emerging markets reduced allocations to India and Korea while increasing positions in Brazil, based on EPFR data. Investors increased their overweight positions in Capital Goods and reduced underweights in Energy and Materials. They decreased overweight positions in Semiconductors and added to underweight positions in Tech Hardware.

Individual stock changes showed investors added to CATL, Petrobras and Vista Energy while reducing positions in SK Hynix, Samsung Electronics and TSMC.

Japan reached equal-weight allocation in global portfolios for the first time in 20 years as of the end of March. Active long-only managers reduced their underweight in Capital Goods while trimming their overweight in Tech Hardware. Investors increased overweight positions in IHI and Hitachi, funded by reducing positions in Keyence, Tokyo Electron and Mitsui & Co.