Key News
Asia equities were off on light volumes as Hong Kong underperformed as Mainland China and South Korea were closed for holidays.
Breadth (advancers versus decliners) across Asia was awful as macroeconomic concerns, including the potential for another Fed hike leading to higher-for-longer US Treasury yields and a stronger US dollar, weighed on sentiment in Asia overnight.
The negative macroeconomic factors outweighed the positive news. China’s Golden Week holiday travel numbers were very strong. Meanwhile, September’s “official” manufacturing and non-manufacturing PMIs beat expectations and improved from August, though the Caixin PMIs were lower.
Easing US-China political tensions were also ignored by markets. It was reported that two senior US Senators will visit China.
CCTV reported that, for the Golden Week holiday (Mid-Autumn Festival), “There were a total of 395 million domestic tourism trips taken, a year-over-year increase of 75.8%, and domestic tourism revenue was 342.24 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 125.3%.” Movie theaters sold an RMB 1.65 billion worth of tickets.
It is important to note that, with Mainland China on holiday this week, Hong Kong lacks the support of Mainland buyers as low market volumes lead to higher volatility. The Hang Seng Index fell below the 17,500 level, with only 6 stocks advancing out of the top 100 most heavily-traded stocks.
Evergrande’s stock gained +28% after resuming trading, though the company is far from out of the woods. The developer’s market capitalization is only $691 million.
BYD reported selling 287,454 electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids, bringing the year-to-date total to over 2 million, though Nio’s deliveries missed, sending EV stocks lower. It was a rough day in Asia overnight, though everybody is on vacation, meaning we need to discount the low volatility move to some degree.
The Hang Seng and Hang Seng Tech indexes fell -2.69% and -2.63%, respectively, on volume that increased +27.3% from Friday, which is 75% of the 1-year average. 30 stocks advanced while 471 declined. Main Board short turnover increased by +36% from Friday, which is 79% of the 1-year average, as 18% of turnover was short turnover (remember that Hong Kong short turnover includes ETF short volume, which is driven by market makers’ ETF hedging). Growth and value factors were both off, while large caps “outperformed” (i.e. fell less than) small caps. All sectors were negative, including energy, which fell -4.67%, financials, which fell -3.99%, and materials, which fell -3.9%. All subsectors were also negative, though energy, materials, and banks were the worst-performing. Southbound Stock Connect is closed this week.
Shanghai, Shenzhen, and STAR Board are closed this week.
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Last Night’s Performance
Last Night’s Exchange Rates, Prices, & Yields
Mainland bond and currency markets were closed overnight.
Read the full article here
