KUALA LUMPUR: Banking counters, which have been in a downtrend for the past two weeks, are seen to be recovering with the absence of any prosperity tax in Budget 2023.
Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd’s vice-president of equity research, Thong Pak Leng, said there were concerns about a possible windfall tax imposed on the sector before the re-tabling of the budget.
Previously, there was also a recommendation that the government should impose another round of prosperity tax, this time on banks, as most of them were expected to record an extraordinary financial year in 2022.
Malayan Banking Bhd’s (Maybank) net profit for its financial year of 2022 (FY2022) rose 1.7 per cent to RM8.23 billion from RM8.10 billion registered a year ago, while Public Bank Bhd’s net profit increased to RM6.12 billion from RM5.66 billion in FY2021, supported by healthy loans and customer deposits growth.
All heavyweights in the banking sector were in positive territory, led by CIMB Group Holdings Bhd.
At 3.01 pm, CIMB advanced eight sen to RM5.55, RHB Bank jumped 14 sen to RM5.62, Public Bank rose three sen to RM4.16, while Hong Leong Bank Bhd and Hong Leong Financial Group grew 16 sen to RM20.42 and RM18.10.
AMMB Holdings Bhd gained six sen to RM3.97, and Maybank increased one sen to RM8.75.
On Friday, Bursa Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said a windfall tax, if imposed, could have potentially shaved five to six per cent of the 2023 earnings of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI’s component stocks.
Hence, the absence of the tax provided a huge relief for the corporate sector.
“Without a prosperity tax being imposed, analysts have a consensus forecast earnings per share growth rate of 20.1 per cent for 2023 compared to a negative 1.3 per cent for 2022,” Abdul Wahid said. – BERNAMA
