People look at trading boards at a private stock market gallery in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 14, 2018. JOHOR BAHRU: General practitioner Lim Yuan Qing, who is based in Melaka, has been investing for decades. However, it was not until this year that the 43-year-old felt that buying stocks of local Malaysian companies helped him make a killing.
From the first 11 months of this year, Dr Lim said that his Malaysia stocks alone have yielded six-figure returns. They added this has been fuelled by the perceived stability in the Malaysia government currently led by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who has pushed government initiatives aimed at attracting foreign investments in areas such as semiconductors and data centres.Commentary: Malaysia’s economic indicators are improving, so why aren’t Malaysians celebrating?
Between the years of 2018 and 2022, Malaysia suffered a period of political uncertainty under four prime ministers, two of whom were appointed amid a backdrop of a global pandemic. During the height of COVID-19 in March 2020, the KLCI bottomed out at around 1,301 points exacerbated by the adverse impact of the pandemic on the global economy.
The Sheraton Move refers to a political manoeuvre in 2020 which led to the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government and the resignation of Dr Mahathir Mohamad as prime minister. On top of a spike in the market index, Mr Ng noted that Bursa Malaysia as a whole has also grown larger with its total market cap - one way of measuring value of a company based on its number of shares of stocks and the stock price - crossing the RM2 trillion mark for the first time in May.Cheaper energy and water, abundant land make Johor a magnet for data centre operators
However, as vaccines were rolled out and more competitors entered the market, its profit margins narrowed and stock price plunged. Meanwhile, utility firm YTL - also among the country’s top performers in the stock market - had announced a collaboration with tech giant Nvidia to build artificial intelligence infrastructure at the former’s data centre park in Kulai, located about an hour away from Singapore.
“But if they have FOMO , perhaps they can portion a small percentage of funds, but better not put all your eggs in one basket,” he added. Yet, less than a month following that, the stock rise fizzled out after a key briefing expected to unveil economic stimulus measures underwhelmed investors, and both the CSI 300 and HSI crashed.