KUALA LUMPUR (April 20): CIMB IB Research has maintained its "neutral" rating on the automotive sector and named Berjaya Auto Bhd (BAuto) as its top pick for the sector, citing Mazda's sustainable sales volume growth and successful new model launches as their reasons.
In a note today, the research house said the sales of Mazda vehicles and spare parts in Malaysia and the Philippines saw its sales volume grow sharply by 81.1% month-on-month (m-o-m) and -12.9% year-on-year (y-o-y).
It said that in terms of market share, Perodua stayed in pole position with 36.1% in March, Proton's share fell by 4.4 percentage points to 11.3%. Honda, at 15.2% market share, remains the leading non-national brand, followed by Nissan and Toyota.
Meanwhile, it said Mercedes Benz performed well this month, increasing its market share to 2%, on top of leading sales volume among luxury brands with its 49.7% m-o-m growth.
It said overall, the outlook for the automobile sector remains neutral.
The research house said despite the rebound in total industry volume (TIV) this month, with sales volume increasing by 28.8% m-o-m to 48,800 units, it expects full sales volume growth to remain flat this year due to damp market sentiment and the impact of a weak currency.
It said that annualised, the TIV for this month accounted for only 78% of CIMB's full-year TIV forecast at 520,260 units.
Furthermore, it said the increase in TIV m-o-m was not unexpected as February was a short month, and companies with financial years ending in March tend to push sales to boost numbers before reporting season.
Sales volume fell drastically by 27.5% y-o-y. However, CIMB mainly attributed this to the number of purchases brought forward in anticipation of the goods and services tax (GST), which was implemented on April 1, 2015.
CIMB stated that although its forecasts have downside bias, sales may be expected to pick up in the second half of the year when a number of new launches are planned.
At 11.28am, BAuto gained one sen or 0.46% to RM2.20 with 437,400 shares done.