Maybank shares touch 2-week high

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Malayan Banking Bhd are on the move, rising to a two-week high, after the management signals that loan growth is picking up in line with improved economic outlook.

The country’s largest banking group posted a net profit of RM2bil in the third quarter ended Sept 30, lifting nine-month earnings to RM5.4bil.

Consensus estimates put the bank’s full year target at slightly above RM7bil.

The stock shot up to an intra-day high of RM9.28 after the results were released during the midday trading break and was hovering at RM9.25 at 4pm, up five sen from its previous close.

Maybank, in a statement, said  gross loans saw a steady expansion of 5.3% for the nine months to RM485.9bil, driven by a 6.6% rise in Malaysian operations and 3.7% in international operations. 

This helped boost net fund based income by 11.7% to RM12.47bil from RM11.16bil in September 2016, which more than offset a marginal 4.3% dip in net fee based income. 

“The outlook for the remaining months appears to be improving, giving us the opportunity to seek new growth segments,” its chairman Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin said.