Return, risk and optimum portfolio of stocks in Malaysia

Abstract

The paper computes the return and risk (systematic and unsystematic) from investments in stocks, determines the optimum portfolio of stocks, and develops a fundamental model for beta of stocks, using data of the Malaysian economy. The sample consists of 27 companies (three from each of the nine sectors) and 10 years annual data (1984 to1993). The findings suggest that skilled investors have a lot of scope to out perform the market. In particular, out of 27 companies studies, stocks of two companies, viz. Rothmans and Pernas International Hotel and Property, have yielded higher return with lower risk than the market index, and the optimum portfolio delineated gives a return of 32.2% with a beta of 0.62, which stand at more than twice and about two-thirds of those on the market index, respectively. The results of the fundamental model for beta are not so good but they indicate that the leverage and earnings variability are the only two determinants of beta out of the six determinants hypothesized in the paper.