Hot Stock Maybank falls 1%, chief's exit in focus

Business & Markets 2013
Written by Kamarul Anwar of theedgemalaysia.com
Thursday, 16 May 2013 11:13
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KUALA LUMPUR (May 16): MALAYAN BANKING BHD [] (Maybank)
lost as much as 12 sen or 1.18% amid a laggard market and after the
prime minister announced the appointment of Maybank's chief Datuk
Seri Abdul Wahid Omar into the cabinet.
At 10:44am, Maybank was traded at RM10.02 to become the eighth
largest decliner.A total of 3.25 million shares changed hands.
A banking sector analyst told theedgemalaysia.com that the market
could have received a knee-jerk reaction to the surprise exit of Maybank
president and CEO Abdul Wahid from the financial sevices group.
Yesterday, prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak unveiled the new
cabinet line-up which included Abdul Wahid as a minister in the prime
minister's department.
“However, it could be a number of other reasons as well. The stock
market in general is down (today),” said the analyst.
In a note today, CIMB Research analyst Winson Ng told investors to
“stay invested in Maybank” despite Abdul Wahid’s exit from Maybank.
Ng said the change of guard in Maybank should not have a significant
impact in the long term as Abdul Wahid has built a strong management
team and momentum for transformation.
“Stay invested in Maybank given 1) rapid growth in Indonesia, 2) regional expansion of the investment banking business, and
3) benefits from the implementation of the Economic Transformation Programme in Malaysia,” he said.
“We see any share price pullback due to the above development as buying opportunities in the stock,” Ng said.