Tokyo — For most of the past two decades, technology companies have been supporting players in Asian equity markets — rarely taking leadership roles during rallies and almost always ceding the spotlight to the region’s giant financial firms. Not anymore. As Asia’s benchmark stock index climbs to within a few points of its November 2007 peak, tech companies are jumping squarely onto centre stage. Led by Tencent’s 2,636% surge over the past 10 years, tech has surpassed finance as the largest component of the MSCI Asia Pacific Index for the first time since the internet bubble burst in 2000. The industry is climbing twice as fast as its closest rival in Asia in 2017 and has trounced gains among tech shares in the US and Europe. The good news for investors: on aggregate, Asian tech companies are still cheaper than their global counterparts and trade at valuations below levels that foreshadowed previous bull-market peaks. Buoyed by the success of Tencent’s WeChat messaging service, Aliba...
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