KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Investment Bank (IB) Bhd expects greater participation in the stock exchange by domestic retail investors in the second half of this year, after a period of macro and microeconomics uncertainties.
RHB Research director and Malaysia Research head Alexander Chia said these uncertainties include the US and China trade row and the upcoming 14th General Election.
“We expect domestic retail investors to come back better and bigger after these uncertainties eased down probably towards the second half of 2018.
“Even over this period, we have seen local retail participation at 25 per cent in January, an increase from the 22 per cent recorded in December 2017,” he told reporters after RHB’s Trade and Win 2.0 prize giving ceremony here today.
RHB IB chief executive officer and group investment banking head Robert Huray said this will also depend on the supply side of initial public offerings (IPOs) coming to the market this year.
“On the IPO side, we see year-to-date IPO valued at RM100 million to RM200 million, and we expect more to come in the later part of this year,” he said.
Over the period of the campaign, RHB IB has seen its retail participation against Bursa Malaysia’s overall turnover increase to 4.8 per cent in 2017 from 4.2 per cent in 2016.
RHB Banking Group group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said the campaign attracted more than 11.5 million entries and a total participation of 62,619 customers over the last 12 months, with a gross revenue of RM218 million.
He said contribution from the online platform saw RHB IB’s total retail business grow to 51.18 per cent in 2017 from 47.6 per cent in 2016.
“Through this campaign, our previously inactive customers started investment activities again with more than 38,000 accounts reactivated.
“Together with the increase in investment activities by our new customers, the Trade and Win Campaign has successfully driven the increase in retail participation on Bursa Malaysia,” he said.