Maybank 'neutral' on banking sector

Maybank Investment Banking (Maybank IB) Research has maintained its
"neutral" call on the banking sector and ranked Public Bank and BIMB
Holdings as its top Buys.

The research house has also maintained its "sell" calls on CIMB and RHB Capital.

In
its research note, Maybank IB Research said loan growth in April was
12.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) versus 12.2 per cent YoY in March and
11.9 per cent in February.

Household loan growth moderated
further for the fourth consecutive month to its slowest pace since March
2010 at 11.7 per cent YoY but the slack was picked up by the
non-household segment.

It said property loan demand remains
resilient with mortgages growing at a pace of more than 13 per cent for
the eighth consecutive month and non-residential property loan growth
has now topped 23 per cent.

It added that the moderation in
household loan growth came yet again from hire purchase, personal loans,
share financing and credit card segments, which cumulatively accounted
for 26.8 per cent of total loans.

Non-household loan momentum
picked up and this was reflected in the improvement in business loan
growth to 11.7 per cent YoY in April from 10.8 per cent YoY in March, it
said. -- Bernama