While Malaysia is not immune to external factors, we remain positive on the market’s performance given the strong fundamentals of the country and the economy. In fact, the Second Finance Minister Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop early this week expressed confidence in the Malaysian economy and said that the country ‘should do all right’ if a mild recession occurs in US. Although the KLCI dropped to 4.27% YTD, it has fared better than its Asian counterparts such as Singapore’s Straits Times Index (-11.99%); Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index (-14.47%); Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index (-15.36%); China’s Shanghai-A Index (-10.33%) and India’s BSE Sensex 30 Index (-15.11%). The KLCI’s resilience certainly speaks of the confidence investors have in the market.
Whilst the current volatile market condition increases the risk profile of equity investments, it accords a good bargain picking opportunity for both short and long terms investors who can appreciate the strong fundamentals of our public-listed companies, which continue to show progress and good returns.
It is business as usual for us as we focus on growing the derivatives and retail market segment, and we are on track with rolling out our business initiatives as planned this year.
