January Stock Market Expected Sectors: "Korean Healthcare, U.S. Consumer Staples in Focus"

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Ji-hwan] The leading sectors in the stock market this January were healthcare in the Korean stock market and consumer staples in the U.S. stock market.

On the 2nd, Samsung Securities analyzed the average January returns by sector over the past 10 years, finding that healthcare in Korea yielded 7%, and consumer staples in the U.S. yielded 3%, both outperforming the average sector returns. During the same period, the average January index returns were 1.5% for Korea and 1.3% for the U.S.

Looking at sectors with high January returns, in the U.S., besides consumer staples, healthcare (2.49%), IT (2.33%), and industrials (2.03%) ranked high. In Korea, healthcare was followed by energy (3.64%), IT (3.38%), and consumer staples (3.13%). However, in Korea, sectors such as financials (-1.23%), communication (-1.49%), consumer discretionary (-1.51%), and utilities (-1.68%) recorded negative average returns in January.

In both Korea and the U.S., for 7 out of the past 10 years, the return dispersion among sectors in January was higher than in other months. This is interpreted to mean that the so-called "January effect," where stock prices are expected to rise more in January than in other months, does not apply uniformly across all sectors.

Investors forecast that both the Korean and U.S. stock markets will continue to move within a box range at current index levels in the new year. According to a survey of 17,537 participants conducted by Samsung Securities during the "Untact Conference" on the 18th of last month, 57% of respondents expected the KOSPI to fluctuate between 3000 and 3300 in 2022. Among respondents, 51% anticipated the Nasdaq to range between 14,000 and 15,500. At the same time, more than half of the respondents, 63%, selected domestic and international stocks as their preferred asset classes for investment in 2022.

Jung Myung-ji, head of the Investment Information Team at Samsung Securities, said, "Investors expect a market characterized by 'stock differentiation' rather than the upward trending index rally seen early last year," adding, "It is time to pay attention again to value stocks alongside growth stocks that have sustained continuous rallies."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.