AmResearch has maintained a 'overweight' call on the banking sector amid stronger loans application growth driven by higher growth of corporate loans applied and approved.

AmResearch in a research note today said loans application growth surged 37.5 per cent year-on-year in March, from 17 per cent year-on-year in February.

Loans approved growth picked up strongly to 44.7 per cent year-on-year in March, after rising only 7.1 per cent year-on-year in February.

'Moving forward, we foresee a stronger second half of 2011 as we still expect a pick up in corporate loans with the likely rollout of the government's Economic Transformation Programme by then,' it said.

Meanwhile, OSK Research in a separate research note said loans growth increased to 13.2 per cent year-on-year in March compared to 12.2 per cent year-on-year in February, mainly underpinned by growth in the business and household sectors.

The stronger growth in the business sector was due to higher loans growth for construction (17.7 per cent) and working capital (10.3 per cent) while better demand in credit cards (12.5 per cent) and personal use (14.3 per cent) contributed to household loans growth, it added. -- Bernama