KUALA LUMPUR: Market observers believe domestic equity in Bursa Malaysia could provide attractive investment opportunities for local and foreign investors in long-term, mainly thanks to its low beta nature.
Kenanga Research stock analyst Clement Chua said this is despite investors' anxiousness on global developments with unfavourable risk-to-reward trading conditions, aggravated by uncertainties with the ongoing US-China trade wars and the pending conclusion of Brexit.
“Our market strategist seeks potentially oversold trading or investment opportunities, where solid fundamental values could be currently fogged by short-term trading anxiety,” he said in a research note today.
Chua said this particularly involves stocks that are highly pegged to domestic performances as opposed to foreign factors.
He also noted that the local market has seen more active trading participation in the recent fourth quarter deviated from the customary window dressing trend.
“We maintain market perform with a target price of RM7.60 per share for Bursa Malaysia Bhd, based on unchanged 25.0 times price-earnings ratio for financial year ending December 31, 2019.”
He said the above-than-average valuation attributed to the stock potentially acting as a safe-haven investment in weak market conditions and cloudy economic outlook, hence attracting a scarcity premium.
“Risks to our call include higher or lower-than-expected trading volume in the securities and derivatives markets, higher or lower-than expected operational expenditure, and more or less initial public offerings,” he said.
MIDF Research said the equity market sentiments have been bearish in the fourth-quarter ended December 31, 2018 (FY18), which have led to more cautious approach by investors.
“We believe this will persist into first-quarter of 2019 but we expect sentiment to gradually improve,” it said, adding that regional equity markets have been performing better of late.
The research house said Bursa Malaysia’s earnings should improve slightly in FY19, but it will be tempered by lingering external uncertainties.
“Therefore, we maintain our neutral call on Bursa with an adjusted target price of RM7.35 from RM7.57 as we had revised our FY19 earnings forecast.”
Bursa Malaysia’s FY18 net profit rose marginally to RM224.04 million from RM223.04 million in the same period previously, despite market volatility and challenging global economic environment.
Revenue for the period slightly decrease to RM550.00 million from RM556.83 million a year ago.
Outgoing chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said Bursa Malaysia performance remained resilient as the company continued implementing initiatives to further enhance the vibrancy and liquidity of the market.
“This included the launch of Intraday Short Selling (IDSS) for all investors, liberalising margin financing rules and the 6-month waiver of trading and clearing fees for new individual investors (until September 18 last year),” he said in a statement on Thursday.
The local stock exchange said the Securities Market performance in 2019 is expected to be influenced by domestic and global developments such as Malaysia’s corporate earnings results, the US and China trade tension and China’s economic growth, amongst others.
“The local market is expected to continue to be resilient given the country’s sound economic fundamentals, and the market’s diversified economic sectors and investor base.”