Asian Stocks Trade Lower despite Fed and BoE Stance on Maintaining Policy Rate
Stocks in Asia traded lower on Friday as investors are looking forward to the U.S. job report for October later today.
Major stock markets in Asia traded mostly lower on Friday as investors are looking forward to the U.S. job report for October later today.
As of 9:43 local time in Thailand, Nikkei fell 0.70%, SSEC slipped 0.14%, Hang Seng Index dropped 0.87%, IDX Composite dipped 0.085%, while ASX 200 rose 0.57%.
The U.S. Labour Department will announce the October job report tonight and the market is expecting October’s job report to come in at 450,000, which is a sharp increase from 194,000 in September.
Yesterday, US weekly jobless claims last week came in at 269,000, compared to 275,000 estimated by economists.
Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) stated in its daily strategy on November 5, 2021, that it expected the SET to fluctuate despite positive sentiment after the Fed and the BoE still showing no signs of accelerating interest rates.
The securities company maintained its view that the rising inflation is only short-term and is expected to gradually decline in 2Q22, while the Fed’s QE cut plan is in line with the Market Consensus’ estimate, while crude oil prices continue to decline due to the overall supply that tends to increase. AWS was negative on energy stocks (Mid to Up-Stream), especially PTTEP, but short-term positive on airline stocks (AAV and BA), including TASCO, EPG, GPSC, PTG, BGRIM, GULF, OSP, CPALL and BJC will have lower operating costs.
For the main strategy, AWS still recommended stocks mainly in Domestic Play, choosing CBG, CPALL, BJC, AMATA, WHA, AOT, BAFS, AAV, BEM and ERW.