KGI Asia Commentary

Hang Seng Index fell 156 points on Friday

The Hang Seng Index opened 128 points lower at 20,223 points in the early part of Friday. 3.3%, reported 4,010 points, the market's full-day turnover was HK$116.3 bn. Alibaba (9988) announced last night that its revenue and adjusted net profit exceeded expectations, and its stock price fell 5.4% to HK$90.05. Techtronic Ind (669) pointed out that short-seller reports were taken out of context. Trading of the stock resumed on Friday, and the stock price rebounded 4.4%.

U.S. stocks end lower on Friday

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed down significantly last Friday. The Nasdaq fell 195 points, or 1.7%, to 11,395; the Dow and the S&P 500 both fell 1%, to 32,817 and 3,970 respectively. As for U.S. bonds, the U.S. 10-year Treasury yield rose more than 6 basis points to around 3.95%.

Last week was the worst week since the beginning of the year. The S&P 500 fell 2.67%, all due to an unexpected rebound of the major inflation indicator that is valued by the Federal Reserve, making investors more worried about interest rate hikes. The U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index rose 0.6% month-on-month in January and 5.4% year-on-year. Excluding food and energy, the core PCE price index also increased by 0.6% month-on-month, compared with 0.4% in December; the year-on-year increase was 4.7%, compared with 4.6% in the previous month. In conjunction with a number of previous data in the United States showing that the job market remains strong and the rate of disinflation slows down, it may reflect the market reaction that the Fed may need to increase interest rate hikes or maintain high interest rates for a long time to suppress inflation.

China's 5% economic growth forecast, Index quarterly inspection

In the Fifth Global Wealth Management Forum, which opened on February 24, Wang Yiming, member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the People's Bank of China, said that China's economy is expected to achieve a growth rate of more than 5% this year, but it is necessary to improve the confidence of market entities and the enthusiasm of private enterprises. To reach with support, Mr Wang said that the central government will continue to strengthen the coordination and cooperation of various policies; increase the strength of corporate bailout policies and financial support for development. In addition, the quarterly inspection of the Hang Seng Index has been released, and the Hang Seng Index has not changed; the Hang Seng Technology Index will include Weibo (9898), and Mingyuan Cloud (909) will be removed from the HSTECH Index. The changes will take effect on March 13.

Hong Kong Stock Connect had a net inflow of HK$8.234 bn on Friday, among which Tracker Fund (2800) had the largest net inflow of HK$3.91 billion; followed by Tencent (700). Meituan (3690) recorded the largest net outflow of HK$658 million, followed by Kuaishou (1024).