HSI rebound rally will be slowed by profit taker

12 jun 2022

While my view toward HSI remains bullish since the end of May after the index has decisively surged through its major resistance of the 50 days moving average, one need be aware that the index has entered a choppy zone due to the emerging selling pressure from profit taking of short term traders. That said, one should avoid breakout buying as higher price might trigger more profit taking orders causing slow down in upside price movement.

No matter how affirmative one is, it is always important to keep your head up for potential developments that are aligned with, or against your point of view. Overconfidence will turn intuition into “into-wishing”. Below are some of the actions I would closely follow in the coming weeks to detect market sentiment change:

1. Market reaction after the US CPI and FOMC rate decision
Last Friday the worse than expected US CPI figures pushed down the US equity market. Asian equity index futures (such as HSI, A50, NK225) in the night after-hours trading session also reflected the plummet. However, no matter how risk-off it was on Friday, it is worth noting that all of the 3 major US equity indexes (SPX, DJI, NDX) actually didn’t even reach the May-20 low. That means the CPI surprise indeed was not so surprising that it provided no new information to the market. What we need to observe is how the market moves when it reopens on Monday. However, major movement might only come after Thursday’s FOMC rate decision.

2. Chinese investors risk appetite
Compared to HSI, Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index (SSE Composite Index, 000001) better reflects Chinese investors sentiment. SSE Composite Index has creeped back up to the 2022-Apr rebound peak level around 3290. At this major resistance level, the market will require positive news or policy release to sustain the bullish sentiment in order to surge through, otherwise the natural profit taking force will drive the market into consolidation or even reversal. With the increasing correlation between Hong Kong and the Chinese stock market, any change in Chinese participants' sentiment can move HSI greatly.

3. Non-Chinese fund FOMO buying of Chinese tech
If follow the Southbound fund flow from China to Hong Kong closely, 4 weeks ago Chinese investors actually have started to rebuild their position in major tech firms such as Meituan 3690 and Kuaishou 1024 (Note: Alibaba 9988 is not available for direct purchase by Chinese investors due to secondary listing and weighted voting right issue). Only until the recent 2 weeks after the earnings release of Alibaba and Meituan, non-Chinese investors finally woke up from the Chinese bearish dream and started FOMO buying. An interesting observation is that since last Thursday when HSI briefly touched 22100 level, Chinese investors have turned from net buying into net selling of Chinese tech firms. That means for the past 2 days, Chinese investors were effectively selling the stocks to the non-Chinese. Once the non-Chinese find out they are the only one buying, there might be some retracement until the price at which Chinese players are comfortable to start loading up their position again.

4. Risk of China new round of lockdown
Only 10 days after the end of Shanghai lockdown, Shanghai is restarting mandatory mass testing across districts over the weekend. Whether this event is a false alarm, or will evolve into a new wave of city lockdown is a major uncertainty. While most of the upside is already priced in from the current rally, one should actually prepare the sharp reversal to the downside when risk of lockdown emerges.