Since the launch of a new M$10 billion ($2.6 billion) government fund in January, the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange Composite Index (KLCI) has risen 2.3%.
The fund, called ValueCap, is controlled by two large government investment vehicles, Khazanah Nasional and Permodalan Nasional, and by Kumpulan Wang Amanah Pencen, the civil servants' pension fund.
According to the finance ministry, ValueCap is supposed to buy undervalued shares and improve liquidity in the stock market.
CIMB Research, the research arm of local investment bank CIMB, estimates that the fund constitutes 3.4 % of KLCI's market capitalization and approximately 31 trading days' volume (based on a three-month average).
Investors are divided as to whether the government's intervention is positive for the market and worried by a lack of clarity in the fund's investment objectives. "ValueCap is supposed to buy undervalued stocks but what happens if they become overvalued?" asks the head of a foreign brokerage's Malaysian office.