KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank Investment Bank Research (Maybank IB) remains cautious into 2019 on slowing global growth and external headwinds.
In its latest note, it cited events to watch out for this month, including Bank Negara Malaysia’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting scheduled on Jan 23-24 and potential sovereign credit rating reviews by Standard & Poor’s and Fitch Ratings due in early 2019.
“While not our base case, we do not discount the possibility that BNM may cut the overnight policy rate in 2019 to stimulate Gross Domestic Product growth,” Maybank IB said.
The investment bank said foreign net selling continued in the country last month, but it was well absorbed by local buying as the FBM KLCI gained 0.6 per cent month-on-month. It noted that foreign investors net sold RM1.0 billion worth of equities last month, making it nine months of foreign net sell in 2018.
“December 2018’s net sell lifted 2018 foreign net sell to RM11.9 billion, which more than reversed all of the RM10.6 billion of foreign net buy in 2017. Maintain our defensive core equity strategy,” it added. – Bernama
