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14 May 2014
Asia EM Express: Asian stocks lifted by China's property stocks surge
FXStreet (Łódź) - Asian stocks climbed to a 4-month high on Wednesday after the S&P 500 hit a record high and the People's bank of China urged mainland banks to accelerate the pace of approving loans for home buyers, which pushed up property shares.
South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.4%, Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 1.06%,
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1%, while the Shanghai Composite Index was flat. The Thai SET index was up 1.09% and the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) was up 1.1%.
Economic data
South Korea informed on Tuesday that April Export Price Growth fell by 7.3% on an annual basis, down from -4.2% recorded the previous month. Import Price Growth declined 7% in April, following a 4.5% drop in March, according to data released by the Bank of Korea.
South Korea's Unemployment Rate ticked up to 3.7% in April, from 3.5% in March, against forecasts of sliding to 3.4%. The rise was however due to “the record high labour participation rate of 63.0% in April, up from 61.8% in March,” as Young Sun Kwon from Nomura points out. Therefore the analyst believes that “April jobs report painted a solid picture.”
Technicals
USD/CNY was down by 0.02% at 6.2296 on Wednesday.
On Tuesday the USD/CNY daily FXStreet Trend Index was slightly bearish, with the OB/OS Index neutral. RSI was at 50 at the last close, and has fallen to 38 so far today. Daily 2-StDev Volatility Bandwidth was shrinking at 138 pips, with ATR (14) expanding at 109 pips. The 1D 200 SMA was at 6.1213, while the 1D 20 EMA was at 6.2338.
Imre Speizer and Jonathan Cavenagh from Westpac Institutional Bank believe that “a number factors appear to be leaving the market happy to sell rallies in most USD/Asia pairs.”
“US yields appear anchored at lower levels and the ECB has surprised the market with dovish rhetoric. In addition, USD/CNY and USD/CNH sentiment appear much more two-way.”
“Still, we would caution about jumping aggressively into short USD/Asia positions at current levels. Firstly, we have already seen a decent move lower, and as we have highlighted in recent weeks, seasonality for most Asian currencies turns negative around the middle of May.”
South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.4%, Singapore’s Straits Times Index rose 1.06%,
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index climbed 1%, while the Shanghai Composite Index was flat. The Thai SET index was up 1.09% and the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) was up 1.1%.
Economic data
South Korea informed on Tuesday that April Export Price Growth fell by 7.3% on an annual basis, down from -4.2% recorded the previous month. Import Price Growth declined 7% in April, following a 4.5% drop in March, according to data released by the Bank of Korea.
South Korea's Unemployment Rate ticked up to 3.7% in April, from 3.5% in March, against forecasts of sliding to 3.4%. The rise was however due to “the record high labour participation rate of 63.0% in April, up from 61.8% in March,” as Young Sun Kwon from Nomura points out. Therefore the analyst believes that “April jobs report painted a solid picture.”
Technicals
USD/CNY was down by 0.02% at 6.2296 on Wednesday.
On Tuesday the USD/CNY daily FXStreet Trend Index was slightly bearish, with the OB/OS Index neutral. RSI was at 50 at the last close, and has fallen to 38 so far today. Daily 2-StDev Volatility Bandwidth was shrinking at 138 pips, with ATR (14) expanding at 109 pips. The 1D 200 SMA was at 6.1213, while the 1D 20 EMA was at 6.2338.
Imre Speizer and Jonathan Cavenagh from Westpac Institutional Bank believe that “a number factors appear to be leaving the market happy to sell rallies in most USD/Asia pairs.”
“US yields appear anchored at lower levels and the ECB has surprised the market with dovish rhetoric. In addition, USD/CNY and USD/CNH sentiment appear much more two-way.”
“Still, we would caution about jumping aggressively into short USD/Asia positions at current levels. Firstly, we have already seen a decent move lower, and as we have highlighted in recent weeks, seasonality for most Asian currencies turns negative around the middle of May.”