KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 10): Maybank Investment Bank Bhd (Maybank IB) is positive on the plantation sector’s outlook for this year, and has assigned a “stable” outlook rating for the banking and construction sectors. “The big discount of CPO price to Argentina soybean oil price suggests that CPO price is unlikely to fall substantially in the near-term. Maybank IB had also projected CPO price for 2022 to be at RM3,200 per tonne compared with RM4,430 per tonne in 2021, noting that Malaysian planters remain exposed to foreign labour risk. Meanwhile, MaybankIB said that construction players would be busy in 2022, but headwinds remain. “Risks include disruptions to construction activity due to lockdowns and weak order book replenishment which may lead to substantially lower construction earnings,” it said.
