Daily Market Report (21 August 2023)
- Wall Street continued to struggle as sentiment remains affected by the US strong economic growth amidst a mixture of inflationary impact and potential rate hikes by the Feds next month.
- As such, though the DJI Average added 26 points, the Nasdaq declined by 26 points as the US 10-year yield stayed elevated at 4.251%.
- In Hong Kong, the HSI slumped from persistent sell-down due to concerns on defaults within the property sector and potential fallout of China’s shadow financing.
- Meanwhile, the Chinese Yuan hit a lowest level versus the US$ since October last year at 7.26.
- At home, the FBM KLCI closed marginally lower as the benchmark index was under some pressure attributed to regional weaknesses especially from China and Hong Kong.
- On a broader sense, both the Construction and Technology sectors experienced hefty selling.
- As mentioned, we need to see the index to stage a rebound as soon as possible and it is encouraging to note that buying interests remained rather strong during the afternoon session last Friday.
- Thus, for today, we expect the index to trend between the 1,445-1,455 range.
