Cost pressures remain a concern

IN 2022, the consumer sector index along with energy and financial services were the only sector indices in the green on a year-to-date basis as the benchmark FBM KLCI edged 6.7% lower as at mid-December.

The consumer index’s 1% gain for the year reflects its defensive qualities that investors ran to in a year when equity markets were battered by bearish sentiment following higher interest rates and inflation which ate into people’s disposable incomes.