Bursa Malaysia’s pre-tax profit falls by 2.93 per cent to RM270.6 million

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s pre-tax profit for financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 (FY16) fell by 2.93 per cent to RM270.6 million compared with RM278.8 million in FY15 amid the challenging year for capital markets globally.

Revenue eased by 2.26 per cent to RM506.78 million versus RM518.50 million in 2015.

“The year was marked by greater regulatory and geopolitical changes and ambiguity.

These have impacted the global economic landscape and heightened volatility in the financial markets,” chief executive officer, Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan, said in a statement yesterday.

He said the global economic conditions were expected to remain challenging this year, given the uncertainty over the pace of recovery in major global economies.

However, Tajuddin said, against such a challenging environment, Bursa Malaysia has delivered a commendable performance on the back of a diversified revenue stream, its robust cost management discipline and continued developmental efforts.

He said in 2016, Bursa Malaysia launched two key developmental initiatives.

The first was Bursa Malaysiai, the world’s first end- to- end integrated Islamic securities exchange platform, and the second, introduction of Tin Futures contract to complement the Gold Futures contract and widen the exchange’s product offerings.

“Bursa Malaysia remains committed to preserving market confidence and integrity.

“We also plan to expand our developmental role through providing greater access to fund raising to small and medium enterprises in the local market, strengthening our Islamic value proposition and widening our regional footprints in Asean,” he said.

Tajuddin said Bursa Malaysia aimed to further liberalise access to the market to give investors greater opportunities to trade and invest.

The exchange remained cautiously optimistic despite the market volatility and would continue to support the growth agenda for the capital market, he said.

“The domestic institutions are expected to continue to provide the liquidity support to the equity market given Malaysia’s resilient and strong economic fundamentals,” he said. — Bernama