KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 11): Public Bank Bhd, Genting Group and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) are CGS-CIMB Securities Sdn Bhd’s picks for the Covid-19 pandemic recovery theme after Pfizer and BioNTech announced encouraging Covid-19 vaccine trial results.

CGS-CIMB analysts Ivy Ng Lee Fang and Nagulan Ravi wrote in a note today that encouraging Covid-19 vaccine trial results could lead investors to switch out from Covid-19 beneficiary stocks to Covid-19 recovery plays on potentially higher share price upside potential.

"Our screening of companies that we have an 'add' call on that will benefit when international borders reopen and the global economy recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic are Genting Bhd, Genting Malaysia Bhd, MAHB, IGB REIT, IHH Healthcare Bhd and KPJ Healthcare Bhd — due mainly to higher tourist arrivals.

"For exposure to the economic recovery post-Covid-19, we favour the banking sector, which we recently upgraded to 'overweight' as we feel that most of the bad news has been priced in. 

"Our top picks in the banking sector are Public Bank, Hong Leong Bank Bhd, RHB Bank Bhd and AMMB Holdings Bhd,” the analysts said.

The media and oil and gas sectors could also benefit from the Covid-19 recovery theme. 

The analysts said the media sector is likely to see a recovery in advertisement expenditure and that Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd is its top pick. 

"The oil and gas sector could also benefit if crude oil price recovers due to higher oil demand, and our current top picks are Yinson Holdings Bhd and Dialog Group Bhd," they said.