KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 13): RHB Research Institute Sdn Bhd said Public Bank Bhd shares may "continue to command premium valuations" due to the bank's 'strong' fundamentals and immaterial exposure to ringgit weakness and higher bond yields. In a note today, RHB analyst Fiona Leong said Public Bank had RM800 million worth of held-for-trading (HFT) investment securities at end September 2016. "In our view, Public Bank is the stock to own for exposure to Malaysia’s banking sector in current challenging times. She maintained RHB's target price (TP) for Public Bank Bhd shares at RM22, with an unchanged buy” call. At 11:19am, Public Bank shares rose two sen or 0.1% to RM20.08, for a market capitalisation of RM77.46 billion.

Source: The Edge Markets January 13, 2017 04:00 UTC