Geopolitics helps drive Middle Eastern money to Asia as wealthy Gulf investors hedge their bets

Last October, Hong Kong’s highest-ranking financial minister trooped to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city and the home of the Tadawul, its stock exchange. Surrounded by Saudi officials, Paul Chan pressed a button to launch the Middle East’s largest exchange-traded fund. The new ETF has $1.2 billion in assets under management, tracking 30 sharia-compliant companies that trade in the Chinese city. (One company that was excluded? Megabank HSBC, for charging interest.)

Chan and several of his peers...