KUALA LUMPUR, March 29 — CGS-CIMB Research believes that a successful execution of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme will be key to lifting market sentiment and prompting investors to gravitate towards an economic recovery play.

In a research note today, it said Malaysia is on track to achieve its Phase One target to administer Covid-19 vaccines to 500,000 individuals by end-April as the total vaccines used stood at 551,548 doses.

"As of March 26, a total of 104,931 individuals (0.4 per cent of Malaysia’s target to vaccinate 80 per cent of the population) in Malaysia have completed the entire Covid-19 vaccination regime.

"(While) 446,617 individuals (1.9 per cent of the total target) had received the first dose of the vaccine,” it said.

However, the research house said the key test is Phase Two, during which the government targets to vaccinate 9.4 million individuals over five months.

"To achieve this, it would need to raise the number of shots per day to an average of 62,666 shots per day versus 20,813 daily shots over the past three weeks under Phase One of the national Covid-19 vaccination programme,” it said.

Furthermore, it said Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases have declined from its year-to-date peak of 5,728 new confirmed cases on Jan 30, to 1,275 new confirmed cases on March 26.

"We observed that since Malaysia lifted the movement control order (MCO) or strictest movement control on March 5 in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Penang and Johor, new Covid-19 cases have continued to decline.

"This is a good sign, in our view, for the country’s economic recovery momentum,” it said.

As at March 26, around 7.09 million people have registered for vaccinations, representing 29.3 per cent of the targeted population of 24.3 million to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.

Malaysia started the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme on Feb 24, 2021 and had recently brought forward the target to complete the programme by two months to end-2021 from February 2022.

"We keep our FBM KLCI target of 1,759 points (12-month forward price-earnings ratio of 16.2x).

"Our top three picks are Inari, Public Bank and Telekom Malaysia,” it added. — Bernama