HSI warrants see position taking as futures seesawed
structured warrants trading activity recorded a modest increase for the week ended March 22, 2024. The total value traded reached RM563.6 million, up from RM534.7 million the previous week which represents a week-on-week (w-o-w) increase of 5.4%.
The average daily turnover settled at RM112.7 million. Breaking down the activity by underlyings, warrants over the Hang Seng Index (HSI) dominated the market, accounting for 70.1% of the total turnover with a 0.65% w-o-w increase in their turnover, while warrants over Malaysia stocks followed, capturing 28.7% of the total turnover and reflecting a 19.4% rise w-o-w.
The HSI futures saw a volatile week, oscillating between gains and losses. The March contract opened slightly higher but dipped 1.2% on Tuesday.
Then, a brief recovery on Wednesday (+0.2%) was followed by a surge of 1.7% on Thursday, fuelled by positive earnings from major tech companies. However, the momentum was shortlived as prices subsequently tumbled 2% on Friday as a weakening Yuan, negative earnings guidance and a strengthening greenback dampened risk appetite. The HSI futures ended with a weekly loss of 1.2%.
With the moves, the call warrant HSI-CVB was the top traded warrant by value with a total value traded of RM95.3 million and a whopping 513.3 million units changing hands. Notably, this warrant saw investors net buying over 69.8 million units, leading to this warrant being sold-out. Other HSI call warrants that were active during the week were HSI-CTK and
HSI-CVH which registered RM60.2 million and RM28.1 million in value traded respectively.
In Malaysia, warrants over YTL Power International (YTLPOWR) continued to be popular. YTLPOWRC42 and YTLPOWR-C38 logged RM10.1 million and RM3.6 million in total turnover respectively as the underlying extended gains for a second straight week to close 5.2% higher. Other warrants over local underlyings which were on investors’ radar were SPSETIAC72 and SUNWAY-C20 which saw up to 29.3 million and 23.6 million units traded after their underlyings rallied by 22% and 15.6% w-o-w respectively.
Other than that, warrants over the Nikkei 225 Index (NIKKEI) also saw a rise in interest with the underlying surging 6% w-o-w, back above the 40,000 level. Earlier in the week, the
Bank of Japan ended its negative interest rate policy and raised its short term policy rate to a range of 0% to 0.1%, carrying out its first rate hike in 17 years (NikkeiAsia, March 21).
To view the full list of structured warrants available on Bursa Malaysia, kindly visit malaysiawarrants.com.my.
Provided for Malaysian residents information only. This commentary has not been reviewed by the Securities Commission Malaysia. It is not an offer or recommendation to trade and is not research material. Past performance is not indicative of future performance. You should make your own assessment and seek professional advice.
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