Malaysia’s stock market has “rediscovered its long-lost mojo,” evidenced by rising trading volumes as a stronger ringgit and economy lure investors, Credit Suisse Group AG said.
“We have noticed a distinct shift in the tone of the market over the last few weeks,” according to a report by analysts led by Stephen Hagger. “Foreign funds have been attracted by a combination of a strengthening currency and economy, Malaysia being part of ‘hot’ Southeast Asia, it being under-owned, and increasingly Prime Minister Najib Razak’s economic reforms.”
Hagger, whose team was ranked second for Malaysian research in Institutional Investor’s 2010 Asian poll, favors so-called proxies for economic growth including banks, property companies, Tenaga Nasional Bhd and PLUS Expressways Bhd.
“Up until recently, stocks did not react to positive news, and the market lacked a certain vibrancy,” Hagger said.
That’s changing as turnover increases, Hagger said. Trading volume on the stock market rose to 1.7 billion shares on Sept. 24, the highest level since Jan. 5, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The daily average has risen to 843 million shares this quarter so far, from 788 million in the second quarter.
Malaysia’s economy expanded 8.9 per cent in the second quarter, close to the fastest pace in a decade, the central bank said on Aug. 18. Growth may exceed 6 per cent this year, Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said then. That’s helped to boost the Malaysian ringgit by 10.8 per cent against the dollar this year, the best performance in Asia excluding Japan. -- Bloomberg
No comments:
Post a Comment