Bursa: Political stability to continue supporting local market

Bursa Malaysia Bhd expects domestic political stability and the dovish stance of the US Federal Reserves (Fed) will continue to support the local market, chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift said.

He said that the market has responded positively to the appointment of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the 10th Prime Minister of Malaysia following the 15th General Election (GE15) on November 19.

“We are now looking forward to the appointment of the cabinet members and everything that provides greater certainty will be welcomed by the market,” he told reporters after launching the Shares2share securities donation scheme.

Shares2share enables investors to donate their listed securities or proceeds from the sale of their listed securities towards charity through Yayasan Bursa Malaysia.

Muhamad Umar said the Fed’s dovish position was an exogenous factor that has been well accepted by the market and is concurrently driving growth and demand for riskier assets.

“Malaysian stocks are currently undervalued and we foresee that there is a buying opportunity and we are looking forward to see continued support from foreign investors last week. There have been strong investors last week and continued interest,” he added.

On Shares2share, Muhamad Umar said the scheme offered two share donation methods, namely donation of shares without a tax receipt and donation of sale proceeds with tax receipt, which allowed the investor donor to receive a tax deduction.

“Please note that to receive a tax receipt, you need to be a client of one of the 15 participating organisations partnering with Yayasan Bursa Malaysia in Shares2share,” he said.