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LSX tops region in daily performance
The Lao Securities Exchange stock market index has seen outstanding performance since the launch of trading on January 11, but who could have predicted that by last Friday's closing it would be the number one daily performer in the region.
Daily gains on the index averaged 4.54 percent for the week. Bloomberg Securities, which monitors 80 major combined indexes, noted the Lao LSX out performed every index in Tables 1-2, and indications are it still has room to improve over the coming months.
The Bloomberg.com/apps/ website said the LSX appreciated 20-21 Jan by +9.04 percent compared to the the previous period , making it the Asean and regional star performer.
The LSX (1) closed last week at 1329.99, with neighbouring Vietnam (6) the next nearest Asean market. But there are influencing factors because the Lao index itself is localised, meaning it is not influenced by international issues that can cause broader regional market volatility.
Friday's world markets took a nosedive, rightly or wrongly, anticipating a pull back of imports for China's commodities. We think the market has misread and overreacted. Our focus on the commodities markets says a rebound is due. That news didn't affect the local exchanges; surprisingly the Vietnam exchange bucked world sentiment and gained 1.47 percent, but has more importantly broken the shackles by breaching the December resistance barrier of 480 points, and has this week made some good ground.
The worst performing Asean index was Indonesia, which lost 3.13 percent on Friday as most exchanges fell lower. The surprise performance for Friday was in debt laden Spain, whose stock market was up a bullish 9.8 percent for January. The Euro defied analysts' downside predictions and late Friday night broke through the 1.355\US$1 resistance mark, and is showing some stanima up 3 points to 1.3857\US$1. The DJI Dow rallied around higher corporate earnings and the restoration of companies paying dividends, indicating Asian Markets will open higher on Monday.
In other markets the Dow Jones hit a 2½ year high of 1185.99 points, +0.5 percent, during trading, the S&P 500 was at 1285.77 but falling. NASDAQ , in negative territory for the past 7 weeks, is due to turn 2697.52 and falling. Gold we believe is firmly negative-trading at US$ 1342.34 /oz , and gold futures are down 8 percent for January. But the big if is whether gold follows that trend back to US1200/oz. Silver is in a slump at US$27.42, but great value. The Australian dollar clawed back after losing 2 percent, reaching 99 cents late Friday evening. Oil regained value to US$97/brl. Asian markets are set to make gains today if they follow the Dow rally.
Vientiane Times
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