Maybank 2012 Outlook & Issues: Tilt to Safety
2012 will be another volatile year, we expect, tracking closely headline news from abroad given unresolved macro conditions brought forth from 2011: high debts but low growth at the eurozone and US. Confidence continues to wane on a resolution to the debt crisis which is negative on sentiment and will destabilize growth. We maintain our 2012 year-end KLCI target of 1,500 pts based on one standard deviation below mean on expectation of turbulence still at the external markets impacting sentiment and global growth. At the home front, it will be a year with potentially two major elections: an early 13th general elections (13GE) and UMNO party elections for the top posts in 4Q 2012, where the elected party president will helm the country’s premiership position Air Pockets Ahead? That eurozone’s debt crisis has stayed unresolved means that there is still default risk. We expect higher bouts of volatility in 1H 2012 where ...