06/05/2026

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BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | MAY 6, 2026

BNM likely to hold key rate but hike could come later this year

architecture that gives brokerages a practical foundation for AI adoption. Hong Kong and Singapore, where Longport Whale serves online brokers, traditional banking firms, banks and wealth management institutes in a stringent regulatory environment, serves as the primary reference market for its Malaysia expansion. The company said it aims to work with local industry participants as both an infrastructure partner and a contributor to the broader conver sation on responsible modernisation under CMP4. Despite this, the group posted a higher operating profit of RM33.9 million, compared with RM9.6 million in the previous financial year’s corresponding quarter. This was supported by ongoing cost opti misation initiatives, including tighter cost controls and enhanced opera tional efficiencies, which helped to cushion the impact of ASP pressure. For the full financial year ended March 31, 2026, the group delivered an improved PAT of RM101.9 million, up by 37% from RM74.4 million in the previous financial year. While revenue was softer at RM2.1 billion, operating profit grew to RM91.7 million, representing a 72.3% year-on-year increase. This was primarily attributable to higher plant utilisation, automation driven efficiency gains and continuous cost optimisation initiatives. The board has declared a first interim single tier dividend of 1.80 sen per share, payable on June 16. Hartalega posts higher PAT of RM40m in Q4 PETALING JAYA: Glove maker Hartalega Holdings Bhd posted higher profit after tax (PAT) of RM40 million for its fourth quarter ended March 31, 2026. This marks an improvement from RM14.6 million in the same quarter of the previous financial year. Revenue for the quarter stood at RM515.4 million, a decline mainly due to lower average selling prices (ASP) arising from the strengthening of the ringgit against the US dollar.

engineered by industry professionals and refined through years of first hand operational experience. For the Malaysian market, it addresses four priorities: a best-in class trading experience validated across competitive, highly regulated markets in Asia; system resilience and performance built for institutional scale, with high system performance and output, real time risk manage ment, and low system latency; global market connectivity spanning Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, US, and Japan without requiring system rebuilds; and an API-first, data-unified them that the market is in a good place, and Thursday’s decision will keep it there. “Stable rates mean homeowners’ mortgage payments will remain stable and new buyers have more predictability about what their payments will be. For a typical RM450,000 30-year home loan, a 25 basis-point rates decline would cut roughly RM60 to RM70 per month from your repayments. An increase of the same size would add that much to your costs. Even if rates do rise this year, the increase in expenses would not have much practical impact on owners and buyers.” The current interest rate environment has been good for residential property and the most popular homes with buyers are those priced between RM300,000 and RM600,000 in suburban Kuala Lumpur, the Penang mainland, and Johor, he noted. “Johor continues to deserve special attention. House prices there rose 6.9% last year, more than in any other state, and the cross border and infrastructure invest ment suggests demand there will keep growing,” said Ansari.

o There’s a case for predicting an increase in 2026, but it will depend on how economy and inflation perform between now and then, says Juwai IQI CEO

PETALING JAYA: Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) will likely leave the Overnight Policy Rate unchanged at 2.75% at its Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting to morrow, but may have to raise rates later this year, according to Juwai IQI co-founder and group CEO Kashif Ansari ( pic ). “We think the MPC will leave rates unchanged, but what’s most notable this time is that the committee actually has to consider evidence that it might have to raise rates later in the year,” he said. BNM, he added, has not raised rates since March of 2023 and at recent meetings, the committee has not had to consider the need to raise rates. PETALING JAYA: Hong Kong headquartered Longport Whale, a provider of artificial intelligence-ready securities trading infrastructure, is making its entry into the Malaysian market at the Bursa Malaysia Stockbroking Trade Fair 2026. The move comes as Malaysia’s Capital Market Masterplan 2026-2030 (CMP4) continues to hone in on local brokerages to modernise core systems, balancing investor ex perience, regulatory compliance, and operational resilience simultaneously. Malaysian brokerages are in creasingly confronted by a challenge

that goes beyond front-end up grades. Legacy architectures struggle to keep pace with digital-native investor expectations, rising cyber security standards, and the demand for multi-market expansion simulta neously. For many such brokerages, the question is no longer whether to modernise, but how to do so without adding complexity or disrupting the business continuity that clients depend on. Longport Whale CEO Zhong Hua said, “Core trading infrastructure must support continuous evolution – in 2026 will be the year when the discussion shifts towards whether rates should be moved upwards. “In part, this still-limited upward rates pressure reflects good financial news for Malaysian consumers and businesses. The 5.3% first-quarter GDP growth showed the economy is resilient despite the global situation. Along with growth, inflation is also up, although still moderate. Bank Negara also upped its forecast, saying inflation could reach 2.5% in 2026,” he emphasised In short, Ansari said, there is a case for predicting one rate increase later in the year, but that will depend on how the economy and inflation perform between now and then. For the May meeting, the case for holding rates steady is solid.

“Factors that could shake up Bank Negara’s plans include oil prices, which, if they remain high, would likely push inflation up. New tariffs from US President Donald Trump could also hit Malaysia’s exports. These unpredictable future events won’t change the com mittee’s decision at their meeting on May 7.”

However, he said, for the first time in two years, it now looks like Longport Whale to enter Malaysian capital market Ansari also said, “People ask me what it will mean for property. I tell

investor experience, compliance, and AI readiness – without adding un necessary complexity. “The brokerages that lead the next decade won’t be the ones with the best system today; they’ll be the ones whose systems are designed to keep getting better. “Longport Whale aims to bring its Asia-proven experience to help Malaysian brokers strike that balance.” Built on a cloud-native micro services architecture and trusted by more than 100 institutional clients in Asia, Longport Whale’s platform is

Education retains its importance in the Malaysian landscape for parents, students and stakeholders. The changes are fast paced with new developments in new fields of study such as cybersecurity, data protection, augmented and virtual reality, machine learning in education, digital education and artificial Intelligence. Leading the way are universities, who are invited to showcase their latest programmes, curriculum and content in our Education Focus for 2026.

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