KUALA LUMPUR: Political instability and uncertainties in policies are some of the factors that will drive investors away from the capital market, according to FSMOne Malaysia.
Its general manager Wong Weiyi said as the political situation here was not expected to stabilise soon, local investors should look for some overseas exposure such as the US dollar-denominated bonds.
"Our views of the ringgit weakening has somewhat to do with the result of unstable coalition politics in Malaysia. So it is very imperative that investors look for some overseas exposure.
"Even if you are a risk averse person, you can look for some bond investments but get them in US dollars," Wong told reporters at the virtual launch of FSMOne Malaysia's US and Hong Kong stocks today.
Wong said the ringgit might be weakening relative to other countries as developed countries opened up faster and their monetary policies could normalise faster.
Therefore, exposure to other foreign currencies would benefit investor portfolios, he added.
He said investors might be able to find more opportunities in developed economies such as the US and Hong Kong as economic recovery was expected to take place faster there where vaccination rates were higher and their government had more flexibility to ramp up fiscal stimulus.
"So for local investors whom I assume would already have significant exposure to the ringgit, why not diversify your portfolio overseas?" he asked.
FSMOne today launched its latest offering to the Malaysian market, allowing the investing public to trade the US and Hong Kong securities conveniently via its multi-asset platform.
In conjunction with the launch, FSMOne offers what it claimed the lowest brokerage fee in the market for retail traders at only 0.08 per cent, paving way for the growing retail segment to be as competitive as institutional players in the market.
Wong said over the past 18 months, the company had seen an increase in investors on the platform due to rising financial literacy during the Covid-19 pandemic as well as investors diversifying their investments income.
"As a minimum baseline, we hope to hit 30,000 new investors over the course of the remaining year as there are many investors out there that are excited about trading foreign shares.
"I think a lot of Malaysian investors have a desire to look for other sources of income, and investment income including capital growth as well as dividend can be one of them," he said.
Conventional account opening requires numerous physical paperwork and may take up to a week of internal processing before it is operational.
FSMOne allows online account registrations and account approval in mere hours.
Funding of accounts can be done in ringgit via FPX to be converted at competitive foreign exchange rates to the US dollar or Hong Kong dollar.
"Our seamless process eases account opening and currency exchange to fund the account. A new trader can get started in less than one working day," he said.