Small-cap stocks outperform so far in 2023 as U.S. equities book second week of gains this year Last Updated: Jan. 14, 2023 at 8:37 a.m. ET First Published: Jan. 13, 2023 at 4:23 p.m. ET By Christine IdzelisFollow comments ‘Small-cap just looks really attractive on a relative valuation basis,’ says a portfolio manager at Polen Capital
Small-cap just looks really attractive on a relative valuation basis,” she said. “Small-cap typically tends to lead in the second half of interest-rate tightening cycles.”
The Russell 2000 RUT, +2.45% has also outperformed the blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average and technology-laden Nasdaq Composite this year through Friday.
In this past year, there’s been a lot of higher-quality, small growth companies that have both fiscal discipline and managerial experience” to continue to grow even in a “tough” environment, she said. “That’s been largely ignored by the market as these stocks experienced a really significant drawdown without a lot of focus on the individual company fundamentals.”
As for small-cap stocks, the Russell 2000 and S&P Small Cap 600 each ended 0.6% higher Friday. Both indexes also rose for a second straight week this year, with the Russell 2000 scoring a weekly gain of 5.3% to outperform the S&P 500’s 2.7% weekly rise.
Sumber SPRM yang enggan dikenali mendakwa, pembekuan dibuat bagi menyiasat dakwaan Bersatu menerima sumbangan daripada kira-kira 10 kontraktor yang mendapat pelbagai projek semasa parti itu menjadi kerajaan.
https://www.nst.com.my › 2021/04 51-storey project to bring in income for army veterans foundation 2 Apr 2021 — "I believe that through this joint venture, Pasukhas Development Sdn Bhd may consider additional returns to the foundation such as additional ...
EdgeProp.my https://www.edgeprop.my › content Pasukhas wins RM21m construction job in Kulai 21 hours ago — KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 31): Loss-making builder Pasukhas Group Bhd has secured a RM21 million contract
PASUKHAS GROUP: (PSK MK, CP: MYR0.02, Not Rated) Secured first contract of the year but… Maybank IBG Retail Research
Pasukhas announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Pasukhas S/B has received an award from Attractive Venture S/B to design and build a production building, warehouse and three storey office in Kulai, Johor. The contract, which is worth MYR21m, is for a period of 12 months.
This contract win will help to replenish its outstanding order book which stood at MYR100m at end-Nov 2022. That said, execution is key given its volatile earnings track record (losses since FY18).
A silver lining is that Pasukhas has an energy utilities services and power generation unit, which provides a long-term recurring income stream. Currently, it owns and operates a mini hydro plant at Sungai Rek, Kelantan over a 21-year lease period. This segment contributed 24% to 9M22 EBIT.
It is also worth highlighting that Pasukhas via its JV has kicked start its maiden development project located off Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur. The project has an estimated gross development value of MYR338m with an estimated gross development profit of MYR81m.
That said, investors with lower risk appetite should stay on the sidelines, pending its turnaround. Valuation wise, PB is preferred here. At current price, the stock is trading at a PB of 0.2x (as at Sep 2022), which is lower than its 3-year historical average PB of 0.5x. Balance sheet wise, its net gearing stood at 0.02x (including money market instruments) at end-Sep 2022.
Nasdaq jumps 2% to end at highest since September after Fed raises rate by a quarter-point, Powell signals few more hikes to go.
Last Updated: Feb. 1, 2023 at 5:02 p.m. ET
U.S. stocks finished higher on Wednesday, reversing earlier losses after the Federal Reserve raised its policy interest rate by 25 basis points, as widely expected, while signaling a only a few more might be needed in its inflation fight.
The Nasdaq Composite finished at the highest level since mid-September, while the Dow industrials and the S&P 500 both scored their biggest intraday recovery from session lows since Oct. 13, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
How stock indexes traded?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.02% finished 6.92 points higher, or nearly flat at 34,092.96
The S&P 500 SPX, +1.05% gained 42.61 points, or 1%, to end at 4,119.21
The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +2.00% advanced 231.77 points, or 2%, to finish at 11,816.32
On Tuesday, the Dow industrials climbed 368.95 points, or 1.1%, to end at 34,086.04, the S&P 500 gained 58.83 points, or 1.5%, to finish at 4,076.60, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 190.74 points, or 1.7%, ending at 11,584.55.
What drove markets?
U.S. stock indexes closed higher, reversing the Dow industrials earlier slide by more than 500 points, after the central bank increased its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to a range of 4.5% to 4.75%, while signaling that potentially only a “couple more hikes” were likely to achieve an “approximately restrictive stance.”
The stock market bounced off session lows to turn higher after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said in his press conference following the decision that financial conditions had tightened significantly over the past year. He also acknowledged for the first time that “the disinflationary process has started.”
Vincent Reinhart, chief economist and macro strategist at Dreyfus and Mellon, said investors didn’t get a hawkish Powell, but a cautious Fed boss who didn’t push back on markets.
“[Powell said] they’ve got their inflation forecast and market participants had their inflation forecast,” Reinhart told MarketWatch via phone. “I think the big difference is market participants expected a bigger protest from Powell, a bigger pushback about financial conditions. [But] he was cautious and just said it’s a difference of opinion.”
“He maintained the view [that] the risk of doing too much is less than the risk of doing too little.”
In U.S. economic data on Wednesday, the ISM, or Institute for Supply Management said its January manufacturing sector activity index fell to 47.4% in January from 48.4% in the prior month. A reading below 50% signal the manufacturing sector is contracting.
U.S. job openings rose to 11 million in December from 10.4 million. The number of U.S. workers quitting in December dipped to 4.09 million from 4.1 million in the prior month.
ADP said the private sector added 106,000 jobs in January. It is a significant drop from the revised 253,000 jobs added in December. Economists forecasted an increase of 190,000.
Apart from the Fed outcome, investors will get two more big central bank decisions this week, from the European Central Bank and Bank of England, both expected to hike another 50 basis points on Thursday. Fresh data showed eurozone inflation for January coming in lower than expected on Wednesday, at a rise of 8.5%, the lowest since May.
In corporate earnings reporting, shares of Snap Inc. SNAP, -10.29% finished 10.3% lower on Wednesday after the social-media group posted a disappointing quarterly revenue and offered no guidance. Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON, +26.53% shares ended 26% higher after the company posted a $335.4 million loss for its latest quarter. Still, it indicated improvement from the connected-fitness company’s cash-burning peaks.
Meta META, +2.79% is expected to report its third consecutive quarterly sales decline when it issues results after the close on Wednesday.
Companies in focus
Advanced Micro Devices AMD, +12.63% shares ended up 12.6% Wednesday after the chip maker’s data-center sales rose and executives predicted sales of more than $5 billion to start 2023.
Electronic Arts Inc. EA, -9.26% stock fell 9.3% after the gaming company delivered a downbeat forecast and shelved mobile versions of two popular games.
KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic market was lifted for a global rally induced by the Federal Reserve's remark overnight that the "disinflationary process has started".
The central bank sounded a more optimistic tone as it raised the lending rate by another quarter percentage point, although it cautioned that it was premature to declare victory over its war with inflation.
Overnight, the Dow Jones reversed intraday losses to end on a slight gain while the Nasdaq surged 2% as investors continued to find bargains in battered-down tech stocks.
"The quarter-point rate hike from the Fed is within the market’s expectation and it has reversed the negative mood on Wall Street to close in the positive zone; this might be suggesting that the market has priced in the interest rate impact and acknowledging that the inflationary pressure has been easing," said Malacca Securities Research in its daily market commentary.
On the local front, the research firm expects the technology sector to gain momentum following the strong surge on Wall Street.
However, it added that investors may take a breather on energy stocks given the pullback in Brent oil price and remain focused on sectors such as travel, transport and consumer.
Meanwhile, TA Securities Research in its own note said there was an absence of catalysts to spur buying interest in local equities beyond the short-term.
"The local market should drift sideways to lower amid lacking catalysts to lift stocks from current consolidation, and look at key external leads for guidance on the near-term direction," it said.
It added that the chart support remained at 1,460 and 1,450 with strong supports at 1,420 and 1,400.
It noted that "significant resistance" remained at 1,512 with the August high near 1,528 as strong resistan resistance. This is followed by 1,500 and 1,570 as tougher upside hurdles.
At the opening bell, the FBM KLCI was lifted 3.32 points to 1,488.82, spurred on by the growing positive sentiment and bargain-hunting as investors had taken to the sidelines ahead of the Fed policy meeting.
The Bursa Malaysia Technology index rose nearly 2% to 68.84 as it tracked the Nasdaq's strong performance.
The sector's leading counters included MPI up 30 sen to RM33.48, Vitrox rising 26 sen to RM8.10, KESM climbing 22 sen to RM7.52 and Pentamaster adding 19 sen to RM5.02.
Simultaneously, there was a further advance in consumer counters, which have benefited the most in the recent weeks from China's reopening theme and the year-end festive period.
Heineken jumped 92 sen to RM28.92 and Carlsberg rose 44 sen to RM23.98 while Nestle added 30 sen to RM33.48.
Among top actives, Hong Seng gained 1.5 sen to 21.5 sen, Sapura Energy was flat at five sen and CTOS fell one sen to RM1.53.
“Moving forward, we expect the same trend to continue for the first half of this year, especially with the banking, automotive and consumer sectors. In addition, sectors with temporary setbacks in 2022, such as healthcare, technology and manufacturing, should recover, along with the leisure and tourism industries,” says Areca Capital's Wong.
PETALING JAYA: The month of February routinely sees many companies in the FBM KLCI releasing their financial results for public perusal, and as always, most of these “report cards” would be encapsulating the performance of corporate Malaysia for the whole financial year.
With 2022 being what is now being considered a bumper year by many quarters following a lockdown-marred 2021, evidenced by the consensus prediction that Malaysia would likely surpass 8% in gross domestic product (GDP) growth for the year, it would be interesting to see how things are translating into solid numbers for companies and their respective sectors.
Incidentally, as if leading by example, exchange operator and regulator Bursa Malaysia released its own financial results for the fourth quarter of 2022 (4Q22) as well as for financial year 2022 (FY22) on Tuesday, charting a whole-year net profit of RM226.6mil on the back of a RM767.5mil total turnover.
Bursa Malaysia’s performance in 2022, however, is a case in point of how interesting matters can get, especially from a sectoral perspective, because even though last year has proven to be a “rebound year” of sorts for many, especially those that stood to benefit from domestic demand, some industries that were more sensitive to global macroeconomic effects were still profiting less from the uptick in local consumption.
Market observers largely agree that with Malaysia’s GDP expansion last year primarily being propped up by domestic demand, the companies in the consumer sector should have been able to keep up their recovery in the final quarter of 2022.
Speaking to StarBiz, chief executive for wealth managing firm Areca Capital Sdn Bhd, Danny Wong, is expecting the banking sector to expand gains in 4Q22 and post improved performances, underpinned by higher net-interest margins (NIM) with interest rates having stayed on the uptrend due to Bank Negara’s overnight policy rate (OPR) increases last year.
Simply put, NIMs are the net earnings on interest from loans handed out by a bank, after having deducted interest paid by the bank on deposits.
Wong expects to see further recovery in the consumer, automotive and retail sectors in the final quarter of 2022 as well.
He said, “Moving forward, we expect the same trend to continue for the first half of this year, especially with the banking, automotive and consumer sectors. In addition, sectors with temporary setbacks in 2022, such as healthcare, technology and manufacturing, should recover, along with the leisure and tourism industries.”
Wong, however, cautioned that rising costs and supply constraints, both on the manpower and materials front – an issue which has been plaguing several industries – could remain a concern in 2023, noting that if inflation is not dealt with effectively, central banks could maintain their aggressive monetary policies which in turn may result in recessions.
Commenting on the upcoming retabling of Budget 2023 on Feb 24, he hoped there would not be any surprises in the form of additional taxes which would also be good news for corporations going forward.
Gerald Ambrose, chief executive for asset management company abrdn Islamic Malaysia Sdn Bhd, concurred with Wong that banks should be doing well in 2022, supported by improving NIMs.
He noted that aside from lenders, companies in the leisure industry such as hospitality and travel, should still be benefiting from the “revenge spending” in 4Q22 that resulted from the lockdown-induced pent-up demand.
Ambrose told StarBiz, “Overall, Malaysia’s economy performed very well in 2022. We benefited from higher commodity prices, strong demand for electronic components in mobile phones and automotives in particular, plus a recovery in domestic demand.”
Meanwhile, Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd head of equity sales Vincent Lau believes while it could be a “mixed bag” on which companies were going to perform well in the final quarter of last year, as he suspects the consumer sector would be fervent albeit on a slower pace compared to previous quarters while aviation companies should be seeing improved performances as travel picks up pace and airlines continue to bring planes back into operation.
“Furthermore, we also expect leisure and consumer-related companies such as Berjaya Food Bhd and Padini Holdings Bhd to keep on improving. Same goes for the tourism companies. However, we do anticipate some softening in the technology and automotive sectors. That said, we remain upbeat on the technology sector,” Lau pointed out, before adding the oil and gas sector’s performance for 4Q22 would also be worth keeping an eye on.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
Good123
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Posted by Good123 > 2023-02-01 21:53 | Report Abuse
2sen cleared esok kot? :)
2.5sen to 3sen, 3sen & above, tengok esok. G9