Daily Market Reports Issued By Rakuten Trade Research : Page 1

Wall Street closed on a positive note albeit just, as all 3 major indices experienced late buying support following a rather choppy session.
Overall sentiment remains cautious as traders weighed on prevailing trade tension plus inflationary headwinds.
Meanwhile, the US 10-year yield edged higher to 4.552%.
Over in Hong Kong, the HSI’s bull run continues and briefly breached the 23,000 mark before closing near the 22,980 level or at almost a 5-month high.
Sentiment was buoyed by Xi Jinping’s recent meeting with China’s Tech giants indicating solid endorsements by Beijing for the private sector.
Back home, the FBMKLCI finally managed to end marginally higher despite signs of foreign selling throughout the session.
Nonetheless, we believe local institutions may be accumulating selective stocks ahead of the 4Q2024 earnings season.
For today, we expect the index to hover between the 1,580-1,590 range as market undertone remains rather cautious.

Wall Street was closed for President’s Day yesterday and will resume trading today.
Over in Hong Kong, the HSI ended flat following a sterling performance of late.
YTD the Hong Kong market has jumped 15% spearheaded by the Tech sector predominantly from the DeepSeek effect.
For today, the muted performance was more of an opportunity for the market to digest recent gains.
However, the situation was different at home as the FBM KLCI surprisingly declined to near the 1,580 level amid persistent foreign selling.
As we enter into a fresh earnings period over the next 2 weeks, investors may wait for the results before committing themselves.
Meanwhile based on our estimates, we believe earnings growth for the 4Q2024 to be good as we forecast a 16.9% improvement for CY2024.
Thus, we reckon yesterday’s lacklustre performance may be an opening for some bargain hunting activities hence expect the index to hover within the 1,580-1,590 range today.

Wall Street ended mixed as traders selectively ignored the weaker than expected Retail sales for January.
As such, while the Nasdaq closed positively on persistent demand for tech stocks, both the DJIA and S&P500 declined.
Meanwhile, the US 10-year yield eased further to 4.478%.
Over in Hong Kong, the HSI surged past the 22,000 underscored by improving sentiment over the muted responses between both the US and China on the prevailing trade war.
Meanwhile, attention is also centred on the assembly of China’s tech giants in Beijing today.
On the home front, the FBM KLCI was flat attributed to last minute buying on blue chips.
Though the benchmark index performance has been rather erratic so far, we are convinced that the return of buying in Hong Kong illustrates that Asia is becoming the preferred destination for foreign funds and that ASEAN should benefit in due course.
For today, we anticipate the index to trend between the 1,590-1,600 range.

Wall Street rebounded as concerns over inflationary pressure eased for now coupled with Trump’s delay in implementing reciprocal tariffs on foreign nations.
Meanwhile, the US 10-year yield dipped to 4.533%.
Over in Hong Kong, it was a tale of two halves as the HSI surged past the 22,000 mark only to decline due to profit taking activities towards the latter part of the session.
Nonetheless, we believe Hong Kong equities may be back in foreign funds radar hence recent uptrend is still intact.
Back home, the FBM KLCI sank to the 1,590 level as profit taking activities emerged.
We were surprised by the selling possibly from foreign funds in such a quick manner.
Nonetheless, we still believe that funds will converge within the Asian region and the local bourse may benefit from the spillover effect.
As such, we expect the index to hover within the 1,590-1,600 range today.
Meanwhile, gold price has surged past the USD2,900/oz threshold and is looking at USD3,000/oz as the immediate target.

Wall Street declined as the consumer price index (CPI) for January came in hotter than expected, thus delaying any hopes for rate adjustments for the time being.
As a result, the US 10-year yield spiked to 4.627%. Over in Hong Kong, the HSI staged an impressive performance closing in at the 22,000 mark spurred by tech companies namely Alibaba and DeepSeek.
Focus on DeepSeek has gathered pace attributed to its recent rise to prominence that has even prompted both UBS Gorup and Morgan Stanley to bullishly promoting the stock’s impact on the overall market.
Back home, the FBM KLCI finally broke the 1,600 level underpinned by bargain hunting activities and possibly the return of foreign funds.
As mentioned, we believe the uncertainty and high valuations on Wall Street may convert some funds into Asian-bound.
Thus, for today we expect the index to trend within the 1,600-1,610 range.

Market Reports