Tide is turning for Malaysian equities

AMID the oft-narrated story of Malaysia's battered ringgit that earned it the rep as one of the worst-performing currencies in the region last year, the rise of its stock market so far in 2017 appears to be somewhat dwarfed. Good news is no news, some say.

Even so and despite the currency's volatility persisting earlier this year, the strong comeback of the Malaysian stock market, deemed by one foreign house as the "most unloved mainstream emerging market", is a story worth paying attention to.

The Malaysian stock market's key index is up 6.2 per cent year to date, regaining some ground after the losses of prior years, some of which stemmed from the sell-off in November last year following Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election. That trumps the key stock indices in Japan, China, Australia, the Philippines and Thailand although it has some catching up to do with the Singapore and Hong Kong bourses that have surged more than 10 per cent over the perio…