Asia Stocks Pick Up the Pace as U.S. 10-Y Note Continues to Retreat from 1-Year High
Asia Stocks Pick Up the Pace as U.S. 10-Y Note Continues to Retreat from 1-Year High Last Week.
As of 9:25 local time in Thailand on Wednesday, Nikkei was flat at 29,409.50 points, SSEC rose 0.50%, HSI increased 1.18%, ASX 200 advanced 0.59% and Kospi gained 0.12%.
In an early Asian trading session, U.S. 10-year Treasury note retreated to 1.407% after making it to 1.60% last week, raising concerns for investors on risk assets.
Yesterday, SET Index closed at 1,503.36 points, increased 2.44 points or 0.16% with a trading value of 88.9 billion baht.
Asia Wealth Securities (AWS) expected the SET today (3 Mar) to move in a range of 1,485-1,518 points. The market will return sideway once again without any clear positive factors.
There are only issues to follow from the OPEC meeting (4 Mar) and the Federal Reserve meeting (16-17 Mar), while crude oil prices continue to decline which will pressure on the recovery of energy stocks that are heavily affected to the market.
Investment strategy, AWS started to accumulate stocks to play a new round of speculation which the security company recommended EGCO, GULF, GPSC, BGRIM, and BPP, as well as stocks that benefit from vaccines based on the core investment (Core Investment: Vaccine Expectations and new economic stimulus measures).
WTI crude oil for April delivery closed at USD59.75 a barrel, down 89 cents (-1.5%) after OPEC+ was expected to consider raising output after the OPEC Secretary-General commented that the uncertainty continued from the past year has eased, including progress on the economic recovery and increased demand in Asia is driving the market.
The market began to worry about the attitude of OPEC+ group to increase production capacity which the OPEC Secretary-General remarks before OPEC+ holds a production policy meeting on 4 Mar, while Market Consensus estimates that OPEC+ will increase production in the framework of 1.3-1.5mn barrels per day. These factors will further pressure investment in energy stocks.
Core Investment
1) Global Play (Trading within 1 month) – PTT, PTTEP, TOP, PTTGC and SCC
2) Green energy stocks (Trading within 3-6 months) – GPSC, EGCO, GULF, BGRIM, BPP, BCPG, EA and ACE
3) Expectations for the vaccine and increased stimulus measures (Trading for 3-6 months) – BBL, KKP, BEM, CPF, TU, M, OSP, CPALL, HMPRO, CRC and CHG
4) Dividend Play (Middle-term trading 6-12 months) – SC, LH, QH, KKP, TISCO, RATCH, DIF, INTUCH, EASTW and TTW
5) Long term accumulative stocks (DCA) (Long-term trading over 1 year) – AOT, BEM, ADVANC, WHA, LH, CPALL, CPF, BDMS, HMPRO, BBL and KTB