• March 3M-SIBOR up by 20bps MoM, highest in 22 months.
• Hong Kong’s domestic loans grew by 1.55% YoY and 0.13% MoM in February. Malaysia’s domestic loans growth increased 72% YoY and rose 0.16% MoM in February.
• Maintain OVERWEIGHT. We remain positive on banks. Bank dividend yields are attractive with upside surprise due to excess capital ratios. Improving economic conditions and rising interest rates remain tailwinds for the banking sector. SGX is another beneficiary of higher interest rates.

3M-SOR and 3M-SIBOR up in March

Interest rates continued to increase in March. The 3M-SOR was up 31bps MoM to 0.79% while the 3M-SIBOR was up 20bps MoM to 0.67%. The 3M-SOR is 25bps higher than its 1Q22 average of 0.54% and has improved by 47bps YoY. The 3M-SIBOR is 14bps higher than its 1Q22 average of 0.53% and has improved by 23bps YoY (Figure 1).

Hong Kong loans growth rebounded while Malaysia loans growth continued in February

Hong Kong’s domestic loans grew by 1.55% YoY and 0.13% MoM in February. The YoY loans growth for February was a significant improvement from January’s negative loans growth of 6.42%, however the MoM loans growth for February moderated down from January’s MoM loans growth of 0.81%.

Malaysia’s domestic loans growth was 4.72% YoY in February and 0.16% MoM in February. The increase YoY in February was the highest recorded since March 2019.