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· JPMorgan says investors are underinvested in Southeast Asia and could miss out on opportunities

Investors may be shying away from markets in Southeast Asia, but JPMorgan’s James Sullivan sees opportunity in the region over the medium term.

“We’ve upgraded Indonesia, we’ve upgraded Thailand on the argument that investor positioning in these markets is incredibly light,” Sullivan, head of Asia ex-Japan equity research at the firm, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Thursday.

“We’re looking at opportunity for over $650 billion in overall asset flow into emerging markets generally. In ASEAN, for the first time in many, many years, investors are underweight every single ASEAN market,” Sullivan said, adding that the region will be “interesting ... from the reality versus perception perspective.”

“We do see ... significant opportunities for medium-term outperformance, specifically in ASEAN,” the analyst said.

So far in 2020, markets in Southeast Asia have largely been among the worst performing. Multiple economies in the region are either struggling to manage the coronavirus pandemic or grappling with the loss of important tourism dollars as restrictions curb international travel.

As of their Wednesday close, the SET Composite index in Thailand had fallen more than 10% year to date, while Indonesia’s Jakarta Composite has declined more than 9%.

The best market performers in Asia this year have generally been manufacturing-driven economies in North Asia, which Sullivan said are looking positive in the longer term.

“From a global economic perspective, what we’re seeing is really a two-stage or a two-speed recovery,” he said. As data continues to show a “very constrained” services sector globally, manufacturing has “come back very well.”

“We’re looking for outperformance on an overall economic basis of China and … some of the North Asian markets,” Sullivan said. “On the longer-term basis, we still see the manufacturing driven economies of China and North Asia looking very good.”

· Asian shares advance as vaccine, recovery hopes triumph soft U.S. data

Asian shares advanced on Thursday as market euphoria over COVID-19 vaccines and expectations a Biden administration would deliver more economic stimulus and political predictability overrode a slate of weak U.S. economic data.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.39% while Japan’s Nikkei gained 0.91%.

· China shares end higher as financials lead rebound

China’s main stock indexes ended higher on Thursday, rebounding from two days of losses as gains in financial and consumer shares offset drops in health care, tech and new energy vehicle firms.

At the close, the Shanghai Composite index was up 0.22% at 3,369.73.

The blue-chip CSI300 index was up 0.18%, with its financial sector sub-index higher by 1.14%, the consumer staples sector up 0.3% and the healthcare sub-index down 0.46%.