Our comments and expectations
External background. Yesterday, the S&P 500 recovered most of the losses it suffered at the end of last year and at the beginning of this year. The index rose by 1.41% and closed almost at the session highs. The technology sector stood out the most, as the NASDAQ index rose significantly above the S&P 500. The growth of the sector began after Nvidia announced new artificial intelligence products for personal computers. NVDA shares gained 6.43% immediately. Boeing performed the worst, falling by 8% after the US authorities temporarily banned flights of the 737 Max 9 model. At the same time, Fed Board member Michelle Bowman said that inflation could fall to the central bank's 2% target while keeping interest rates at current levels, and offered potential support to lower borrowing costs if price pressures ease. Stocks in Europe also rose, the Stoxx 600 added 0.4%, while the DAX immediately rose by 1.3%. Oil lost 3.4% and is trading just below the $76 mark in the morning. It is reported that Saudi Arabia will lower prices for all grades of oil for all regions in February 2024. For Asia and the United States, prices will be reduced by $2 per barrel. Among the main Asian markets, only Japan is growing in the morning. The Chinese market is showing a slight decline despite the fact that a senior representative of the central bank of China made it clear that the authorities are ready to maintain the easing policy by reducing the official reserves of banks.
Bonds. The yield on 10-year US government bonds fell slightly yesterday, but remained above 4%. Risky bonds rose 0.6% along with the stock market.
The KASE index. The index rose 0.1% yesterday, which gave us another update to the historical maximum. Now it is at the level of 4,261.08 points. However, looking at the daily candlesticks, we see a slowdown in growth, which is likely to lead to another local consolidation for a short time.
Index shares. The largest growth yesterday was for Kaspi shares, which grew after the GDR quotes, despite the fact that securities on KASE were more expensive. A notable point is the comparison of the prices of Kazatomprom securities on two exchanges. The BCC grew by 0.4%, but here, as with the index, we see a slowdown in growth rates. Kazatomprom had the largest growth on the LSE, but this did not affect the technical picture in any way. 1.2% lost GDR Kaspi, which also did not affect the overall picture of the securities. Halyk Bank continues to test the resistance level around $15.
Currency. The dollar is trading slightly below 453 tenge today. There is still movement below the level of the downward trend line. Apparently, the dollar is now under pressure from sales from the National Fund. Recall that it is planned to sell $1-1.1 billion in January.
Key market news
(=) Air Astana: Air Astana increased passenger traffic by 9% ahead of its IPO.