KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 3): Analysts maintained their "overweight" outlook on the banking sector after loan growth in November expanded at a solid pace of 4.3% year-on-year. For large-sized banks, he likes Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) (target price [TP]: RM9.40) for its strong yield and Public Bank Bhd (TP: RM4.50) for its resilient asset quality. Meanwhile, TA Securities analyst Wong Li Hsia said given that year-to-date (YTD) loan growth was already at 4%, the overall system loan growth in 2021 would likely exceed her forecast. “Moving into 2022, we anticipate a 5.2% increase in loan growth for the system. “We expect a higher industry loan growth of 5% to 6% for 2022, underpinned by stronger economic growth with an improvement in private-sector expenditure and exports,” he said.

Source: The Edge Markets January 03, 2022 08:58 UTC