Talk on Stock Valuation

Lee during the talk

“Investors shall adopt a combination of defensive and active investment strategies amidst global uncertainties,” enthused Lee Chung Cheng at the Investment Awareness Talk titled “Stock valuation in practice and investment strategy”. The talk was held at Sungai Long Campus, which was jointly organised by the Department of Accountancy and Department of Economics from Faculty of Accountancy and Management (FAM) on 28June 2017. 

Present at the talk were JF Apex Securities Berhad Vice President and Head of Dealing (Equity) Kong Ming Ming, FAM Dean Dr Sia Bee Chuan, FAM Deputy Dean Dr Hen Kai Wah, FAM lecturers and students.

As part of the University and the faculty’s initiative to offer students a holistic learning experience, the talk enabled the participants to keep abreast of the practical stock analysis methodologies from both quantitative and qualitative approaches.  The participants were also enlightened by Lee’s sharing on the equity outlook and some major global events to watch out in 2017, which gave them a glimpse of how to pursue a long-term investment strategy. 

The talk also aimed to educate students on how to analyse and value a company in practice, where Lee inspired the participants with the preferable valuation methodologies that the analysts derive target price for a company.  Lee elucidated further regarding his research experiences. He said, “Different valuation methodologies such as Price-to-earnings ratio (PER) and Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) can be applied for companies across the multiple sectors or industries.”  

“2017, a year of uncertainty and heightened volatility because the market outlook is still dictated by a slew of external and internal uncertainties,” advised Lee. It was a bottom-up strategy that Lee mentioned of as being an important approach in stock selection under current heightened volatility by ignoring the market noises.

Like-minded, Dr Sia also spoke of the talk as a crucial platform to deliver students with the practical valuation and investment strategy. She said, “It is crucial to learn from the investment practitioners and experts about what’s going on in the practical world, learn from experts and gained added-value knowledge that supplements the learning from classrooms and textbooks.”

Interactive Q&A session

An interactive Q&A session was carried out towards the end of the talk. The students, as millennial and future young investors, raised a few questions about how to sustain the investment strategy over the long term, how to aim for a worthwhile stock specifically and how to incorporate both the fundamental and technical analysis practically in investing.

 Kong delivering the future career prospect in stock brokerage house

“We are truly grateful to UTAR and FAM for inviting us to deliver the stock valuation in practice and investment strategy to students.  For future career prospect, students may probably consider being a licensed stock broker, or a researcher in a stock brokerage house upon their graduation,” said Kong.    

The talk ended with the presentation of the token of appreciation to Lee and Kong by Dr Hen and a group photograph of the participants. 

Lee is the Head of Research for the Research Group of JF Apex Securities Berhad based in Kajang. The company and its research division cater to institutional clients-corporate and fund managers as well as local retail investors. The research division of JF Apex Securities Berhad analyses and research on Malaysian listed large-cap and small-to-mid capitalization stocks, which covers automobile, construction, consumer, glove, industrial, oil and gas, plantation, property, and telecommunication sectors.

Dr Hen (right) presenting a token of appreciation to Lee (left)

Dr Hen (left) presenting a token of appreciation to Kong (right)

Front row from left: Dr Aye Aye Khin, Dr Hen, Kong, Lee and Raymond Ling Leh Bin