马来西亚零售市场到底有多糟糕？

Setting aside whether these companies make or lose money, I wanted to look at market confidence. I compared the 52-week high share prices of six familiar listed Malaysian retailers with their prices this week: 99 Speed Mart, MR D.I.Y., Eco-Shop, Padini, AEON and Senheng. Measured from their respective highs, their combined market value has fallen by about RM17.3 billion. 99 Speed Mart and MR D.I.Y. alone lost about RM8.3 billion and RM6.1 billion; Padini's share price nearly halved and Senheng fell more than half. This is not a loss of RM17.3 billion, and no bank account shrank by that amount; the highs fell on different dates, so the figure is a sum of separate declines. What it does show is that the price the market is willing to pay for these retail businesses is much lower than at the peak. Business owners look at orders and this month's sales; investors also buy expectations for the next few years. A company can keep making money, but if the market thinks growth will slow, or the same profit will be harder to earn, it lowers the valuation. Six companies can't represent the whole industry, but they send a signal worth thinking about. Was the market too optimistic before, is it too pessimistic now, or is retail going through changes we don't fully see yet?