Govt explores Asean-wide trading link
KUALA LUMPUR: The government, together with Bursa Malaysia and the Securities Commission (SC), is exploring plans to link with other regional bourses after scrapping initial plans to link up with Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX).
Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said based on Bursa’s Asean Connect, the initiative would offer better market capitalisation opportunity rather than just linking up with only one stock exchange in the region.
“Bursa Malaysia has made recommendations. But for the time being, we want to study it. We are more interested in Asean Connect as we are part of the Asean community.
“We do not want to cause any unease among any of our Asean neighbours — why only Singapore and not other countries? The ‘Connect’ idea is good, but it should be Asean-wide,” he said on the sidelines of the Shariah Investing Fair 2018 here yesterday.
Former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had announced the establishment of a trading link between the two exchanges at the World Capital Market Symposium 2018.
A month after Pakatan Harapan took over Putrajaya, Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad announced that the Malaysia-Singapore Connect would be reviewed.
Singapore had asked Malaysia to clarify its position on the planned trading link.
A report quoted the Monetary Authority of Singapore as saying that it had asked SC to clarify its position and would await the capital market regulator’s update on the matter.
Lim said the government expected Malaysia to hit the earlier 5.5 to six per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth target this year.
He said even with the adverse impact from the ongoing global trade war, Malaysia would grow by at least five per cent annually for several years.
Lim said the Malaysian capital market had grown 12.6 per cent to RM3.2 trillion last year, with the conventional and Islamic capital market capitalisation expanding 14.4 per cent and 11.9 per cent respectively.
Fundraising through the equity market grew to RM21.7 billion from RM12.8 billion in 2016.
“This year has been a difficult one for the Asian equity market, but the performance of the domestic market has been encouraging amid a sea of red.
“While the FBM KLCI has fallen 1.7 per cent year-to-date, data from Bloomberg shows that our market is remarkably resilient compared with our regional peers in Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai, all of which have performed worse by dropping anywhere between 3.8 per cent and 17.7 per cent, largely due to the ongoing global trade war,” he said.