KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — Maybank Investment Bank (IB) today urged investors to adopt a “defensive” trading strategy on Malaysian shares in the first half of this year, with overweight in power, construction, telecommunications, ports and glove sectors.

Head of retail equities (Malaysia) Lim Chee Kiong said weaker consumer sentiment, falling crude oil prices and the ongoing fiscal tightening measures would be key economic deflators this year.

“With global foreign-exchange, bonds and equity markets expected to remain volatile through the first half, we advocate a defensive portfolio and overweight positions in power, construction, telecommunications, ports and glove sectors,” he said.

Lim made the call at the Maybank IB one-day seminar on “The Market Outlook for First Half 2015” here today.

The bank’s research team recommended stocks such as Gamuda, Axiata, CMS and Hartalega as their “growth pick” for the first half of the year. Their target prices for each respectively are RM6.00, RM7.80, RM4.80 and RM8.50.

On “yield pick”, the bank recommended AFG (TP: RM5.50) and Star (TP: RM2.65).

For “value pick”, it selected HSL, SP Setia, Tenaga and Westports, with target prices of RM2.15, RM4.07, RM16.00 and RM3.60 respectively.

Despite the outlook for 2015 being uncertain and a challenging year for the equity market, Maybank IB referred to it as “the year of divergence”, Lim said, adding that the benchmark FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI (FBM KLCI) would likely hit the 1,830 points level by the end of the year. – Bernama