Malaysian financial firm Maybank Kim Eng has upgraded shares in Neptune Orient Lines (NOL) from ‘sell’ to ‘buy’, and in so doing issued a vote of confidence in the beleaguered container shipping industry.
According to a Reuters report, the Malaysian bank predicts a demand-led recovery for container shipping on the back of US and European government interventions to bolster the global economy.
Maybank believes the EU’s bond-buying programme and the US’s most recent round of quantitive easing will stimulate increased global trade.
'While the current EU and US stimulus' direct benefits will take some time to materialise, what we see most important is the commitment to shoring up confidence in the respective regions' economies,' Maybank wrote, according to the Singapore Business Review.
'While this news has not gotten the market immediately euphoric, we see these steps paving the way for emergence from the bottom for beta plays such as NOL, from a demand-led perspective.”
