The Novice » 2009

Fixed Deposit (FD) rates of banks in Malaysia (November 09)

Alvin Lim — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:00:45 +0000

In August, I compiled a list of Fixed Deposit rates in Malaysia HERE. Here’s the update for the month of November 2009.

Bank	1 month	3 months	6 months	9 months	12 months
Affin Bank	2.00	2.10	2.20	2.30	2.50
Alliance Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
AmBank	2.00	2.10	2.20	2.20	2.50
Bangkok Bank	2.00	2.05	2.10	2.20	2.50
CIMB Bank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
Citibank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
EON Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Hong Leong Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
HSBC Bank Malaysia	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Maybank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
OCBC Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Public Bank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
RHB Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Standard Chartered Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
The Bank of Nova Scotia	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
The Royal Bank of Scotland	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
United Overseas Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50

If you refer to the previous rates in August 2009, you will notice that there’s no change to the rates at all. But many people are saying that our Bank Negara will increase the interest rate soon, considering the fact that our economy is slowly recovering. I’ll post up an update to this list of FD rates once there’s any changes to the interest rate.

Hope it helps.

Fixed Deposit (FD) rates of banks in Malaysia (August 09)

Alvin Lim — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 01:00:58 +0000

In March, I wrote a post on the Fixed Deposit rates of the major banks in Malaysia HERE. Not much change since then. Here’s the update for the month of August 2009.

Bank	1 month	3 months	6 months	9 months	12 months
Affin Bank	2.00	2.10	2.20	2.30	2.50
Alliance Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
AmBank	2.00	2.10	2.20	2.20	2.50
Bangkok Bank	2.00	2.05	2.10	2.20	2.50
CIMB Bank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
Citibank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
EON Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Hong Leong Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
HSBC Bank Malaysia	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Maybank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
OCBC Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Public Bank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
RHB Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Standard Chartered Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
The Bank of Nova Scotia	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
The Royal Bank of Scotland	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
United Overseas Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50

There’s not much change to the interest rates of most banks. Most of them have the standard 2.0% for 1-11 months, and 2.50% for 12 months FD. The good thing is major banks like CIMB, Maybank, Public Bank and Ambank are giving pretty good FD rates as compared to the international banks. Most of our accounts are in there anyway. And if you are looking to invest for anything less than a year, I guess the best is Affin even though it is not as accessible as other local banks (not as many branches around).

Hope it helps.

Why is Malaysia’s property market not suffering from recession?

Alvin Lim — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 01:00:29 +0000

Some of my friends have been on the lookout for new and old properties for the past few months, hoping that the price of the property market would drop due to the recession. Unfortunately, nearly all of them came back to me and voiced out their disappointment. Rather than seeing a price drop, they are actually seeing a price increase for most properties.

This actually confused most of them because the overall property market is SUPPOSED to drop by 10-20% this year.

Well, there are properties which drop around 10-20% this year, but those are located in selected areas only. Anyway, let’s take a look at some of the reasons why our property market is not going to see a decrease in price this year or next (if there is any, it won’t be much).

Marketing move

Most of our local property developers are pretty good in marketing especially the big ones like Sime and SP Setia. They’ve came out with plans like the 5/95 plan, the Sime Darby Property Parade of Homes, etc. All these smart marketing moves actually give the buyers more confidence, lower entry point (low downpayment) and an opportunity for first time home owner to buy a home during times like this. Imagine if everyone is required to pay 10% upfront for a 350k property. The demand will go down, and the price of the property will also go down due to lack of demand.

No new launch

If you notice, most property developers are only working on previous project launches. There are not many new launch nowadays. This is because most developers prefer to delay some of their important project launches due to the recession. They prefer to wait till the storm is over. On the other hand, there are also developers which go for the built-and-sell model. This actually gives them time to build the property while waiting for the economy to stabilize, and built-and-sell model normally demands a higher price tag for its units.

Rich developers

Okay, let’s face it. We have a lot of rich developers in Malaysia. They are willing to postpone the launching of their projects. That is why you can still see some empty lands in prime areas. By postponing the launch, the supply will decrease and this will actually prevent the price from dropping too much.

Demand is there

The demand for properties is still there even during recession. A lot of people are moving in to the big cities from the small ones and there are also some foreign investors, and foreigners who are making Malaysia their second home. On the other hand, I also notice that there are a lot of people getting married this year. Some did that last year. So it’s not really a big surprise for the newly-weds to hunt for their first home. Oh, and the low interest rate certain helps! All these generate a strong demand for properties. And when demand is still strong but the supply is lesser, the price will go up.

Malaysia is not as badly hit

Malaysia is not as badly hit as the likes of US and UK. Our Central Bank has been doing a very good job in keeping everything under control. True, there are still jobless people out there but again, I must say it is not as bad as we first feared it would be. Also, those who are looking for properties are actually not the typical property investors (most of them anyway). They are looking for properties for their own stay. Property investors can always postpone their purchase to a later date, but for this group of people (looking for own stay), buying now is the same with buying later.

Government

There have been moves by our government to help the property market. For example, the stamp duty exemption. This move actually helps to promote the purchase of low to medium cost properties for the first time buyer. A good move by the government for the low and middle income group to own their first home, but not so useful for the property investors. Still, it doesn’t take away the fact that this move DOES generate some demand.

Again, I must stress that I am not an expert. All the above points are based on the research which I’ve done for my friends.

Anyway, if you are a first time home buyer, this is actually a good time to look for one because I doubt there will be any decrease in price anytime soon. Just remember to choose your housing loan properly. Also, pay attention to some of the auctions organized by banks, and also on the secondary market (there could be some bargains there).

And I do feel that our property price will go up and not down. Unless you’re talking about areas where the supply far outnumbers the demand – Mont Kiara and KLCC area.

Is Malaysia’s stock market recovering?

Alvin Lim — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:23:24 +0000

Over the past few weeks, our Malaysia’s stock market has seen a drastic rebound from the 800 – 900 range to nearly 950 (as of Friday, 11th April 2009).

Malaysia's stock market rebounding?

Is this the sign of more good things to come? Is our stock market staging a fierce come back after so many months of below-par performance?

Actually, part of the positive come back is due to the announcement of the cabinet by our new Prime Minister and also the recent Wall Street’s rally. But if you were to ask me (I’m a newbie, to be honest) about the sustainability of this rebound, I’m quite skeptical about it.

In my opinion, it is still too early for any form of market recovery even though market movement is actually 6 months earlier than the actual economy. So if you predict that the economy is going to recover in Dec 2009, the stock market should be showing some signs of recovery in June 2009.

But from the looks of it……an immediate recovery is not likely. After all, there are still plenty of jobless people in our country (and even more in US and Europe). This doesn’t do the economy any favor since people will still be unwilling to spend money. In fact, more people are more conscious about their spending now than they were few months ago. People have finally woke up from their assumption that “economy will be fine very soon”.

Also, the recent mini budget looks more like a slow and long-term plan. The effects will not be immediately visible .

But even if there’s no real sign of positive recovery, I do believe that the worst is over for now. Maybe there will be worse news in the next few months, but most people will be prepared for it.

So let’s just keep our fingers crossed for now.

p/s…….. If you’re looking to invest your money, try to look into properties. Stock market in my opinion, is a little bit expensive after the recent rebound. Do wait for a while and see how it goes. The rebound is too drastic for my liking. But then again, I’m just a newbie when it comes to stock market and I could be wrong.

Fixed Deposit (FD) rates of banks in Malaysia (March 09)

Alvin Lim — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:54:13 +0000

In January, I posted a post on the Fixed Deposit rates of the major banks in Malaysia HERE. Since then, our Bank Negara (Central Bank) has reduced the interest rates twice. Thus the changes are quite major.

Bank	1 month	3 months	6 months	9 months	12 months
Affin Bank	2.00	2.10	2.20	2.30	2.50
Alliance Bank	2.00	2.00	1.90	1.90	2.50
AmBank	2.00	2.10	2.20	2.25	2.50
Bangkok Bank	2.50	2.55	2.60	2.70	3.00
Bank of China (M)	3.00	3.00	3.05	3.05	3.50
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (M)	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.70
CIMB Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Citibank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Deutsche Bank (M)	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.50
EON Bank	2.50	2.50	2.50	2.50	3.00
Hong Leong Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
HSBC Bank Malaysia	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Maybank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
OCBC Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Public Bank	2.00	2.10	2.10	2.10	2.50
RHB Bank	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
Standard Chartered Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
The Bank of Nova Scotia	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
The Royal Bank of Scotland	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50
United Overseas Bank (M)	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.00	2.50

NOTE: Those highlighted in BLUE might not be the latest rates since there’s no update since the last BLR cut. As for those in RED, I couldn’t find out about the rates at all from the Internet. If you’re interested in those banks, it’s better for you to call them up and ask.

As you can see here, the interest rates are really really really low. It’s no longer worth it to keep our money in FD and I think that is exactly what are government is trying to do – to prevent us from saving up, and encourage us to spend. This is quite a risky move and it might backfire.

For me, I will only keep my emergency fund in FD while majority of my investments will be in unit trust and stock market. The % is just too low to be kept in FD. Our inflation rate is actually higher than that.

Malaysia’s economy is not good at all

Alvin Lim — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:22:48 +0000

I went back to my hometown Kluang for Chinese New Year break and I’ve noticed a lot of businesses were doing rather badly…even during CNY season. People are cutting down on their spending (not the rich ones of course, since they’re still buying posh cars, properties, etc). My neighbor who is a fish monger, told us that business this year has been very bad since most people would rather buy chicken or other meats and cut down on seafood.

Maybe we can change this to Malaysia Economy...but what about the IMF? Change to?

Even the wife, who is a hair stylist, told us that the number of customers have been reduced by 50% at least.

My dad’s friend (another person), who owns a factory, told us that he has to retrench 20% of his foreign workers because of bad economy. The number of orders have also been greatly reduced.

Well, at least, that factory fares better than some others who are forced to close down, thus increasing the number of jobless people.

I do expect our country to be badly hit somewhere in May or June 2009. Whether we like it or not, and whether our government and central bank like it or not……there are just too many things which we cannot really control – such as the closing down of those factories by the multinational companies. Unless our government can come out with $$ to support those jobless people…otherwise, we might just end up like what happened to US now – people don’t have money to pay back the debts/loans.

That’s why I am really afraid of investing anything in banking stocks. It’s just too risky for me. My speculation might be wrong but well…better be safe than sorry.

Fixed Deposit (FD) rates of banks in Malaysia (Jan 09)

Alvin Lim — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 01:09:39 +0000

I’ve posted 2 articles on the Fixed Deposit (FD) rates of the banks in Malaysia before – Fixed Deposit rates of different local banks and List of Fixed Deposit rates for foreign banks.

I figure that this topic is quite important so I’ve decided to continue posting updates on the FD rates of the banks in Malaysia. From now onwards, I will come out with an update of list of FD rates at least once in every 2 months. I will also post an update if there’s any significant changes made by Bank Negara such as lowering the Base Lending Rate (BLR).

Bank	1 month	3 months	6 months	9 months	12 months
Affin Bank	3.00	3.05	3.15	3.20	3.50
Alliance Bank	3.10	3.15	3.15	3.20	3.50
AmBank	3.00	3.15	3.25	3.30	3.50
Bangkok Bank	3.20	3.30	3.40	3.50	3.75
Bank of China (M)	3.00	3.00	3.05	3.05	3.50
Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi (M)	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.70
CIMB Bank	3.00	3.10	3.30	3.30	3.50
Citibank	3.00	3.00	3.10	3.15	3.50
Deutsche Bank (M)	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.50
EON Bank	3.00	3.00	3.15	3.20	3.50
Hong Leong Bank	3.00	3.00	3.10	3.40	3.50
HSBC Bank Malaysia	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.50
Maybank	3.00	3.20	3.40	3.50	3.70
OCBC Bank (M)	3.00	3.05	3.10	3.10	3.50
Public Bank	3.00	3.00	3.10	3.10	3.50
RHB Bank	3.10	3.10	3.15	3.15	3.50
Standard Chartered Bank (M)	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.50
The Bank of Nova Scotia	3.00	3.00	3.10	3.10	3.50
The Royal Bank of Scotland	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.50
United Overseas Bank (M)	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.00	3.50

NOTE: Those highlighted in BLUE might not be the latest rates because I’m not able to access their web sites properly. The above interest rates have been obtained from other sources. Also, the rates above might change anytime so if you want to know the actual interest rates, it is better to consult the respective banks directly.

Hope it helps. I’ll come out with an updated list 2 months later.

Bursa Malaysia stock picks for 2009

Alvin Lim — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 01:08:47 +0000

Based on The Star newspapers’ Stock picks for 2009, here are some of the top stock picks for 2009.

Other stocks mentioned in other magazines/articles:

I personally feel that the above stocks have pretty good fundamentals with pretty good prospects especially IOICorp, AirAsia, Resorts and KPJ. But again, it is up to you to decide and for you to do your own homework. Remember not to over-relying on such stock picks since these stocks CAN BE quite volatile. Why? Because the list is being made public and everyone will most probably flock to them without doing any proper research. This was what happened to IOI few months ago. Popular stocks tend to have their price fluctuate a LOT.

As for me, I will not touch banking stocks for the most of 2009 even though Public Bank does seem to be the best (or the only good one) among the rest. I just don’t feel it is the right time to go in yet. But who knows, I might be wrong just like what happened in the last market crash. In 2009, I will concentrate on few defensive stocks and also focus on few sectors which will still do well during recession period – gaming and health. But we’ll see how it goes.

Good luck and hope this list helps.

NOTE: I wrote this article last week, on January 3rd. The stock market has since went up by quite a lot especially Bumi-Commerce. Unfortunately, I’ve sold mine at a 4k loss just few weeks ago. Didn’t expect 1 China-related news to be able to cause the price to go skyrocket within few days.

NOTE: Spelled Burse instead of Bursa. =_= Corrected it. Sorry for the mistake

NOTE: The links to the stock will not show the updated price since The Star’s web site doesn’t allow that. You need to go and find the stocks manually in The Star Online : Business – Market Watch – Bursa Malaysia Stock Exchange