Malaysian capital market outlook seen promising in second half

• Apr 11, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian capital market’s prospects look promising in the second half of 2018 (H2’18) as uncertainties in the market are expected to ease gradually, according to RHB Investment Bank CEO Robert Huray.

He said the retail participation of local investors have continued to improve, amid the market volatility and uncertainties over the last few months.

Huray pointed out that the retail participation in Bursa Malaysia hovered about 20% to 22% in the past two months, compared to only 15% to 18% in 2016.

“Although the global macro environment is outside our control, we think that the demand from the investors for equities will continue to improve.

“Apart from that, we are also likely to see an improvement in the number of potential companies pursuing corporate listings in the market to raise further capital.

“Therefore, we view the outlook for H2’18 to be a promising period especially in terms of primary fundraising.

“Year-to-date, we have seen about RM100mil to RM200mil funds raised through initial public offerings and we expect more to come in the later part of this year,” Huray told reporters after RHB Investment Bank’s “Trade and Win 2.0” campaign prize-giving ceremony.

He also added that several domestic industries will continue to perform well this year, namely the banking and construction sectors, driven the strong domestic economy.

Meanwhile, RHB Research Institute director and head of Malaysia Research Alexander Chia said that investors have taken a “wait-and-see” approach, pending the conclusion of the 14th General Election (GE14).

“Post-GE14, we expect the investors to undertake more risks in the market.

“We also project a rotation of investors’ interest back into small-cap stocks which have significantly underperformed in the last couple of months,” he said.

Yesterday, RHB Investment Bank presented two Honda BR-V vehicles to two of its clients, who won the grand prizes under the investment bank’s “Trade and Win 2.0” campaign.

The campaign, which ran for 12 months from March 1, 2017 to Feb 28 this year, was launched to help drive the participation of retail customers in the capital markets and to encourage investment activities.

Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2018/04/11/malaysian-capital-market-outlook-seen-promising-in-second-half/#1jtyrbX6WPWlER8f.99