KUALA LUMPUR (March 15): Morgan Stanley analyst Nick Lord downgraded the recommendation on Malayan Banking Bhd to underweight from equal-weight.

* Price target (PT) lowered to RM9.50 from RM9.60. Maybank average PT is RM10.35.

* Maybank had 11 buy, 9 holds, 2 sells previously: Bloomberg data

* Analysts lowered their consensus one-year target price for the stock by 0.6 percent in the past three months. Forecasts range from RM8.90 to RM11.50. 

Performance Metrics

* Investors who followed Lord's recommendation would have received a negative 3.9 percent return in the past year, compared with the negative 3.1 percent return on the shares. 

* In the past five years and six months, Morgan Stanley has rated Maybank equal-weight three times, overweight twice and underweight once.

* The shares rose an average 3.6 percent in the periods rated equal-weight, fell an average 7.2 percent in the periods rated overweight and fell 0.2 percent in the period rated underweight.