KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 — Foreign investors’ appetite for Malaysian equity is improving as concerns over the country’s financial controversies subside, according to market watchers.
While the furore over 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) raised investor caution previously, the way Malaysia has dealt with the issue has assuaged global investors, analysts said recently.
“Two years ago, sentiment was really at the bottom and our clients would have told us ‘I don’t expect much,’” Tuan Huynh, chief investment officer and head of discretionary portfolio management in Asia-Pacific at Deutsche Bank, was quoted as saying by the Wall Street Journal.
“I’m surprised, I have to admit, that Malaysia was able to make that quick turnaround.”
He said his firm resumed acquisition of Malaysian stocks last year and now has a portfolio that outperforms the official “neutral” outlook on the country.
Barisan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Najib Razak noted the same improving sentiments earlier this week, when he pointed out that foreign buyers pumped in nearly half-a-billion ringgit into Bursa Malaysia since exactly a year ago.
He also noted that independent assessments of the Malaysian economy were generally positive, despite what the Opposition claimed about the effects of 1MDB on the country.
“All economists praise that our economy is on the right track whereas Pakatan Harapan is the only entity which peddle that Malaysia will go bankrupt,” he wrote on Tuesday.
