KUALA LUMPUR (May 2): Amid volatilities, investors in the equity market are now more interested in short-term gains than long-term investments, according to RHB Investment Bank Bhd.

Its regional equity research head Alexander Chia said the stock market is "fluid", hence, RHB is also looking more for immediate-term returns.

"Our stock market strategy is to buy on weakness and to look from bottom-up stock picking ideas," Chia said during a media briefing after the launch of the investment bank's RHB Small Cap Book 20 Jewels 2019 edition here, today.

"Our focus will continue to be on the small-mid caps, which offer better growth, and lower P/E (price-to-earnings)," Chia added.

In terms of the FBM KLCI's performance, Chia noted that the bigger cap stocks have not been doing so well, mainly because there have been very little earnings growth to offer.

"Earnings growth is almost zero for this year, and there are downside risks to earnings in the coming quarters," said Chia.

Hence, he said there is a possibility that the stocks under RHB's coverage chart negative growths this year.

"But if you strip out the large caps from the overall basket of stocks that RHB covers… the growth and valuation are significantly better," said Chia, adding that RHB's forecast for the benchmark index is 1,682 points at end-2019.

He added that Malaysia's stock market remains relatively less attractive from a valuation and earnings growth standpoint, compared with other regional markets.