Banking stocks make roaring entry into Dragon Year with fresh record highs

Banking stocks make roaring entry into Dragon Year with fresh record highs

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 13): Banking and financial services stocks were among the top gainers in early morning trade on Tuesday, with several stocks climbing to a new record high, marking a bullish start to the Lunar New Year of the Dragon.

Prior to the Chinese New Year celebrations, the banking stocks were dominating the gainers list due to the favourable forecast for the 2024 banking sector and recent decisions of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the US Federal Reserve (Fed) to maintain their key rates.

The Bursa Malaysia Financial Services Index was up 175.65 points or 1.04%, reaching its nearly five-year high of 17,056 points — the last time it breached the 17,000 mark was in March 2019.

At the time of writing, Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLBB) was leading the gainers list, rising 1.2% or 24 sen to RM19.20, giving the bank a market capitalisation of RM41.48 billion.

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) was also among the top gainers, rising 1.4% or 13 sen to its all-time high of RM9.39. At the current price, Maybank’s market capitalisation stood at RM113.25 billion.

Others gainers were Hong Leong Financial Group Bhd (HLFG), which holds a 64.2% stake in HLBB, up 0.49% or eight sen to RM16.36, valuing the bank at a market capitalisation of RM18.77 billion.

CIMB Group Holdings Bhd were also up 1.45% or nine sen to hit its all-time high of RM6.28, giving the bank a market capitalisation of RM66.87 billion.

MNRB Holdings Bhd, which posted its net profit for the third quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 (3QFY2024) last week, up 3.66% or six sen to its five-year high of RM1.70. At this price, the group has a market capitalisation of RM1.33 billion.

Meanwhile, RHB Bank Bhd were up 0.9% or five sen to RM5.63, valuing the bank at a market capitalisation of RM24.13 billion.

On Jan 24, BNM decided to maintain the overnight policy rate at 3% after its first Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the year — the fourth consecutive time it has decided to keep the rate level since July 2023. Economists have projected the key rate to be kept intact for the rest of the year.

Following that, the Fed also opted to keep rates steady at a 23-year high of 5.25%-5.50% after its first two-day meeting of 2024.

However, policymakers at the US central bank have previously signalled they expect to cut rates at least three times this year, although the Fed chair Jerome Powell pushed back strongly against the idea that it could start reducing rates as early as March.

Banking counters climb to new highs as BNM, US Fed maintain key rates

MNRB Holdings posts 47% jump in 3Q net profit on higher insurance and takaful revenue