Trade Performance and Fund Flow week ended 24 May 2024

Emerging markets ended lower after four consecutive weeks of winning streak, with the MSCI Emerging Market Index closed 1.5% lower and 6 out of 10 Asian stock exchanges under observation descended. The US Labour market maintained its resiliency as its labour department reported weekly jobless claims has dropped for the second consecutive week while the S&P Global's Flash PMI survey have shown that business activity in the US accelerated to its highest level in 2 years in May. Moreover, the US Federal Reserve released minutes from its 30 April-1 May policy meeting whereby its committee members concluded that trimming of its Federal Fund Rate might not happen soon as inflation in the country remained sticky.

Overall market capitalisation climbed higher where it hit a new YTD high of RM2,064.53 billion (bil) on 23 May before closing lower at the end of the week. This represents a weekly increase of 0.4%. 10 out of 13 sectors edged higher last week.

The FBMKLCI extended its winning streak to close marginally higher and recorded a YTD high of 1,629.18 pts on 23 May before closing lower at the end of the week. Despite hawkish comments from the Federal Reserve’s (Fed) last policy meeting over strong U.S. economic data stoked concerns on persistent inflation and the interest rate path, the bullish trend was supported by continuing optimism over artificial intelligence (AI) theme following better-thanexpected 4Q2024 earnings results from Nvidia.