Daily Brief Financials: Krungthai Card, HDFC Bank, Nikkei 225, Yunfeng Financial Group, ARAI, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding, Chime Financial and more

• As discussed in May this year, shares in Krungthai Card (KTC TB), XSpring (XPG TB), BEC World (BEC TB), and The Practical Solution (TPS TB) all went limit down. Twice.
• Reportedly Mongkol Prakitchaiwattana pledged his holdings in all four companies. Pledged shares figures released by the SET illustrated a dramatic downward swing in KTC’s pledged shares in June versus May. 
• SET’s updated list of securities pledged – as at 29th August – shows pledged shares in KTC ticking up. But so has KTC’s share price, slowly but surely.

• Context:HDFC Bank (HDFCB IN) remains in a bullish setup. Quantitative models highlight further upside potential in the near term and identify key support levels.
• Trade Idea: With implied volatility near multi-year lows (12th percentile), long call strategies are favored. Suitable expiries and strikes are outlined, with an alternative structure discussed for reducing premium outlay.
• Why Read: This Insight combines directional analysis with volatility signals, highlighting a tactical options strategy where low implied volatility and bullish probabilities align, offering investors defined risk/reward.

• The Nikkei 225 (NKY INDEX) reached 44790 on Wednesday, this is the 3rd week up in a row for the index, this market is OVERBOUGHT.
• The outlook remains bullish, the forecast is for a pullback, followed by another leg up.
• This insight’s goal is to help you figure out where to cover your LONG Nikkei 225 positions, and where to add more LONG positions during the pullback.

• A financial group backed by Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has made a major foray into digital assets, investing $44 million to acquire 10,000 units of Ether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain.
• Yunfeng Financial Group Ltd., a Hong Kong-listed company in which Ma holds an 11.15% stake, disclosed the acquisition in a regulatory filing Tuesday. The company said it purchased the Ether on the open market using internal cash and would classify the asset as a long-term investment on its financial books.
• The purchase marks a growing trend of publicly traded companies adding cryptocurrencies to their balance sheets, a strategy known on Wall Street as digital asset treasury, or DAT.

• The ARAI team’s game products, the 0xAstra intended to address the cross-chain liquidity issue through a gamefied user experience.
• The newly added AI layer, ARAI system, is planned for the sophisticated cross-chain games as a co-pilot, with the potential to be deployed in other games in the future
• The first release, Astra Game 1, transforms chain interactions—such as bridging and swapping—into engaging explorations of interstellar planets, where players mine resources, construct bases, produce armies, and customize weapons to dominate the galaxy.

• In 2025, 76 primary-listed companies in Singapore executed share buybacks totaling S$1.65 billion, an 80% increase from 2024.
• UOB, DBS, and OCBC led buybacks with a combined S$1.28 billion, driven by capital management initiatives and dividends.
• Secondary-listed Hongkong Land repurchased US$176 million shares, while City Developments completed an off-market buyback of preference shares.

Key points (machine generated)

• Chime Financial, Inc. is a neobank serving 8.6 million members in the U.S., focusing on individuals earning under $100,000.
• The company operates on a fee-free model, generating revenue through interchange fees and various financial services, including secured credit cards.
• Chime recently went public with an IPO at $27 per share, initially rising to $37.11 before declining to $31.65 amid market volatility.

This article is sourced from an online content aggregator through publicly available sources and is displayed below for general informational purposes only. This article was originally published 3 months ago on Value Investors Club.