Rakuten Trade research head Kenny Yee
PETALING JAYA: The FBM KLCI is expected to touch 1,580 points by year-end, supported by more foreign fund inflows, said Rakuten Trade Sdn Bhd.
Its research head Kenny Yee said the 15th General (GE15), coupled with an expected slower pace of interest rate hikes in the United States (US), would help stabilise regional markets, including Bursa Malaysia.
"Premised on a reasonable 13 times calendar year (13x CY2022) price to earnings ratio, we believe the banking and telecommunication (telco) sectors would support the momentum this year and into the next.
"This is also premised on the much improved corporate earnings growth for 2023, estimated at 6.8 per cent,” said Yee in his presentation to the media titled "A 'Wow' Budget” today.
Commenting on Budget 2023, he said the "wow” budget was expected and noticed that in the past two to three budgets, the government had put more emphasis on the injection of funds to revive the nation’s economy, mainly in the construction sector, with the record high allocation of RM95 billion.
"The budget covers the whole spectrum of the population, and everyone has somewhat benefited from this latest budget.
"The biggest cheer was from the contractors, as the sector has got the highest multiplier effect in terms of economic growth, from the upstream right down to the downstream players across the sector,” Yee said.
Other sectors that benefit from Budget 2023 include automotive, consumer, property, and technology, he added.
Yee noted that although the global market volatility is expected to persist, the intensity of the volatility in Malaysia remains below that of the region as the local bourse is a "captive market,” where large portions of shares are held domestically, thus capping the impact of external risks.
As of September 2022, foreign shareholdings in the equity market stood at 12.39 per cent.
Meanwhile, on the ringgit’s performance against the US dollar, Rakuten Trade believes the local currency will trade at the 4.50/60 range until the end of this year.
However, the brokerage expects it to strengthen in the second half of 2023 to around the 4.10/20 range.
"We also expect Bank Negara Malaysia to have another 25 basis points increase in the overnight policy rate. This is to safeguard the ringgit against the US dollar,” said Yee. - Bernama
