ASIAN equities mostly ended higher yesterday, after a surprise rate cut by South Korea. The Bank of Korea lowered its base rate by 25 basis points to 1.75%, joining Europe, China and other countries undertaking monetary easing, with the notable exception of the US.

Overnight on Wall Street, the Dow and S&P 500 indices declined 0.16% and 0.19% respectively.

The Shanghai Composite Index led the gainers in Asian markets, closing 1.78% higher at 3,349.32. Elsewhere, Japan’s Nikkei 225 index rose 1.43%, Hang Seng index inched up 0.35% and India’s Sensex 30 index increased 0.70%.

Brent crude surged 2% on Wednesday while WTI crude traded slightly lower on record high inventories in the US. Brent crude and WTI crude are hovering around $58 and US$48 per barrel, respectively, at the time of writing.

On the home front, the FBM KLCI Index closed 0.49% higher at 1,786.87. Market breadth turned positive with gainers outpacing losers by a ratio of 1.7 to 1. Meanwhile, the ringgit strengthened slightly to RM3.69 per USD.

I did not buy any stocks yesterday as all the stocks picked by our algorithm show negative (-ve) momentum.

I continue to hold Sunsuria (+0.6%).

My portfolio now has a total value of RM100,100.20 and is up 0.1% since inception. It has outperformed the benchmark FBM KLCI by 5.7%.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on March 13, 2015.