Trade Performance and Fund Flow week ended 17 May 2024

Emerging markets ended on a positive note for the fourth consecutive week as cooled inflation in the US fuelled the speculation of early fed rate cuts this year. Last week, the US Bureau of Labour Statistics announced that the country’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) softened to 3.4% in April on a yearly basis from 3.5% in March. Asian stocks closed mostly higher towards end of the week after taking cue from the resilient corporate earnings in US equities. Eight out of ten countries observed edged higher.

Overall market capitalisation extended its growing momentum where it once again achieved YTD high of RM2,044.45 billion (bil) on 17 May after posting a +2.1% WoW gain. This growth was driven by broad-based market gains in 10 out of 13 sectors.

The FBMKLCI continued on its expansion trail for the fourth consecutive week to close +1.0% higher and registered a YTD high of 1,616.62 pts at the end of the week. The rally was fuelled by ongoing optimistic market sentiment following the release of better-than-expected Malaysian economic growth of 4.2% in 1Q2024, while a cooler-than-expected US CPI data suggested further optimism over rate cut this year.