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StreetAccount Summary - Asian Market Recap: Nikkei (1.63%), Hang Seng (0.90%), Shanghai Composite (0.61%) as of 04:10 ET

May 08 ,2024

  • Synopsis:

    • Asia equities ended with a negative bias Wednesday in a quiet day's trading. Steep losses in Japan, several mainland China boards sold off, and the Hang Seng reversed a bright opening to close sharply lower. Australia and India flat. Some small gains in South Korea and Taiwan. Southeast Asia mixed. US futures still negative, Europe opened higher with DAX at record highs. US dollar strengthening, yen and AUD weakest in Asia. Treasury yields higher across tenors. Crude futures lower on hopes of a ceasefire in Gaza and easing supply concerns; precious metals better but industrials under pressure.

    • Few catalysts for Asia investors to digest Wednesday resulting in a quiet day, and following on from a flat day on Wall Street. Japan equities an exception, falling sharply on earnings disappointment as well as on read through from a sell down of US chip stocks late on. India benchmarks continue to be under pressure from bank stocks as the impact of draft loan rules become clearer. The yen resumed its weakening trend despite Japan's finance minister again warning of a readiness by authorities to respond to excessive volatility. The Australian dollar also continued its post RBA-weakening trend but other Asia currencies were steady. Few economic datapoints of note today but China trade, credit and inflation prints due later in the week.

    • Nissan Motor (7201.JP) CEO said the company is locked in a 'survival game' in China. China Vanke (2202.HK) is to sell a large Shenzhen land parcel for around CNY2.24B ($310M), a loss from its purchase price seven years ago. Prada (1913.HK) said it is open to exploring acquisitions, follows news reports last month Giorgio Armani was willing to consider merger or IPO. Santos (STO.AU) and Repsol (REP.SM) are considering the sale of minority stakes in Alaskan oilfields. Singapore's monetary authority has asked DBS (D05.SP) to identify the root cause of recent outages and address them effectively. Shell (SHEL.LN) is to sell its Singapore and petchem complex to a joint venture of Chandra Asri (TPIA.IJ) and Glencore (GLEN.LN). PLDT (TEL.PM) is in talks to sell as much as 49% of its data center business to NTT (9432.JP).

  • Digest:

    • BOJ Governor Ueda may be signaling greater concerns about FX risks to economy:

      • According to Kyodo, BOJ Governor Ueda told parliament Wednesday that a monetary response to yen depreciation could be considered if it impacts inflation. Added that inflation may be more susceptible to FX movements than before as corporate price-setting behavior has been changing. Follows Tuesday's comments after meeting with Prime Minister Kishida (Kyodo). Ueda said they discussed FX markets, reiterating yen weakness not having a major impact on underlying inflation so far, but acknowledged that currency moves could affect the economy "to a great extent." Remarks perceived to be more cautious after having seemingly played down concerns last month. Ueda repeated that authorities will carefully monitor impacts on trend inflation going forward. Attention remains elevated amid market calls for a BOJ policy response to alleviate US-Japan rate differentials underpinning yen depreciation. FX policy chief Kanda repeated usual warnings over speculative price action and government's readiness to take appropriate action (Reuters). But remained silent on suspected intervention operations.

    • Markets fade chance of RBA rate hike this year, while rate cut calls undermined by strong inflation:

      • AFR discussed the reduced market-implied probability of an RBA rate hike this year to 15% from 44% preceding yesterday's policy meeting. Cited RBA's greater caution against elevated inflation, reinforcing the higher-for-longer theme, while Governor Bullock suggested policy was sufficiently restrictive. Central bank inflation forecasts also revised up this year to 3.8% from 3.2% though kept long-term projections unchanged. Article noted updated forecasts were based on the assumption of no rate changes until mid-2025. Hawkish inflation forecasts also point to a low probability of a rate cut projected by economists. Article mentioned there had been expectations the RBA statement would reintroduce explicit tightening bias following firmer than expected Q1 inflation and unexpected decline in the unemployment rate. Yet, guidance remained relatively balanced, and Bullock acknowledged a rate hike was discussed but felt that current rates were appropriate. Earlier AFR report reflected hawkish tilt in expectations ahead of the meeting, noting that RBA has almost always lifted rates immediately when faced with higher inflation rates in the past 25 years.

    • Toyota earnings beat but guidance underwhelms:

      • Toyota Motor (7203.JP) reported FY operating profit was JPY5.35T ($34.5B), well above guidance JPY4.90T and market consensus JPY5.10T. Also announced JPY1T buyback, JPY10 dividend hike and retirement of 3.19% outstanding shares. However, initial headline effects skewed negative as forward guidance came in broadly soft with operating profit at JPY4.3T (down 19.7%) vs FactSet consensus JPY5.354T with net earnings at JPY3.570T vs FactSet JPY4.665T. Nikkei preview noted Toyota guidance has been historically conservative and actual results have missed only twice in the past decade. Key factor is FX impact as USD/JPY has averaged 144 over the period, compared with company forecast of 143. On auto market dynamics, story noted crosswinds from slowing EV growth amid intensifying China price competition and expiring subsidization in various countries, while hybrid segment faring relatively better where Toyota has competitive advantage. Still some questions over the longer-term electrification strategy as it continues to lag in the EV market. Toyota already reported record highs for FY output and sales, even after impacts from temporary suspensions in the latter part of the year in response to Daihatsu's certification scandal.

    • China adds gold to its reserves for 18th straight month in April:

      • PBOC added 60k troy ounces of gold to its reserves in April, official data shows, extending purchases of the precious metal into 18th month despite high prices. Meanwhile April's addition was lowest since Nov-2022 when buying spree started. China held 72.80M ounces of gold by end-April with value of those reserves rising to $167.96B from $161.07B (Reuters). Safe-haven demand, driven by rising geopolitical and economic uncertainty, and persistent central bank purchases led to rally in gold in March and April with spot price hitting record of $2,431.29 per ounce on 12-April. PBOC was already largest official sector buyer of gold in 2023 with net purchases of 7.23M ounces, most for a single year since at least 1977, according to World Gold Council. The trade association expects global central banks to slow purchases in 2024 compared to last year's 1,037.4 tons, while ShanghaiSecutiesNews citing UBS noted demand from monetary authorities would still be pillar in the future.

    • Notable Gainers:

      • +8.7% 6841.JP (Yokogawa Electric): reports FY revenue ¥540.15B vs guidance ¥520.00B and FactSet ¥526.76B, operating profit ¥78.80B vs guidance ¥70.00B and FactSet ¥73.03B; issues medium-term business plan for FY28

      • +4.7% 071050.KS (Korea Investment Holdings Co.): reports Q1 operating profit KRW381.63B vs FactSet KRW281.30B

      • +4.1% 9101.JP (Nippon Yusen): reports Q4 results; guides FY revenue ¥2.290T vs FactSet ¥2.221T; to launch up-to-¥100B on-market buyback from 9-May to 30-Apr-25.

      • +1.8% 8113.JP (Unicharm): reports Q1 net income attributable ¥17.83B, +8% vs year-ago ¥16.52B, core operating income ¥37.54B vs FactSet ¥33.24B; reiterates FY guidance

      • +0.1% 1913.HK (Prada): reportedly open to exploring acquisitions

    • Notable Decliners:

      • -5.4% 7974.JP (Nintendo): reports FY operating income ¥528.94B vs SA ¥536.54B; to make announcement on successor to Nintendo Switch this FY

      • -3.7% 500124.IN (Dr. Reddy's Laboratories): reports Q4 revenue INR70.83B vs StreetAccount INR70.90B, EBITDA INR18.72B vs FactSet INR19.21B; Parag Agarwal to retire as CFO, effective 31-Jul

      • -3.5% 1876.HK (Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC): reports Q1 revenue $1.64B vs StreetAccount $1.65B

      • 0.0% 005930.KS (Samsung Electronics): affiliate Samsung Medison to acquire Sonio SAS, a fetal ultrasound AI software company

      • 0.0% 017670.KS (SK Telecom): reports Q1 operating profit KRW498.5B vs StreetAccount KRW500.07B

  • Data:

    • Economic:

      • No economic data today

    • Markets:

      • Nikkei: (632.73) or (1.63%) to 38202.37

      • Hang Seng: (165.51) or (0.90%) to 18313.86

      • Shanghai Composite: (19.26) or (0.61%) to 3128.48

      • Shenzhen Composite: (23.95) or (1.33%) to 1772.82

      • ASX200: 11.20 or +0.14% to 7804.50

      • KOSPI: 10.69 or +0.39% to 2745.05

      • SENSEX: 116.00 or +0.16% to 73627.85

    • Currencies:

      • $-¥: +0.85 or +0.55% to 155.3460

      • $-KRW: +3.74 or +0.27% to 1363.1900

      • A$-$: (0.00) or (0.48%) to 0.6566

      • $-INR: +0.05 or +0.06% to 83.5153

      • $-CNY: +0.01 or +0.08% to 7.2250

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