Bursa Malaysia is an exchange holding company incorporated in 1976 and listed in 2005 and has grown to be one of the largest bourses in ASEAN today. It operates and regulates a fully-integrated exchange, offering a comprehensive range of exchange-related facilities. The Exchange comprises a Main Market, the ACE Market and the LEAP (Leading Entrepreneur Accelerator Platform) Market, catering to companies at differing milestones of their corporate journey. Collectively, the three markets host more than 900 listed companies across 60 economic activities.
Bursa Malaysia is guided by its mission to provide easy access to diversified, impactful products and services tailored to the differing requirements of both domestic and foreign market participants. Its comprehensive product range includes equities, derivatives, futures and options, offshore and Islamic assets; and is complemented by a suite of exchange-related services such as listing, trading, clearing, settlement and depository. Other investment option offerings include collective investment schemes such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) and Exchange Traded Bonds and Sukuk (ETBS).
In its journey towards its aspiration to be a leading and responsible marketplace in ASEAN with global connectivity, Bursa Malaysia remains steadfast in its mission. As a high-performing organisation, Bursa Malaysia embraces a data-driven culture and continues to harness innovation and technology in its pursuit of excellence. The continuous efforts towards regional leadership and global connectivity is strengthened by strategic partnerships built on the principles of mutual value creation. Focused on the collective interests of all stakeholders, Bursa Malaysia remains committed to its continuous efforts in Creating Opportunities, Growing Value.
THE ISLAMIC CAPITAL MARKET (ICM) IS A KEY CONSTITUENT OF MALAYSIAN CAPITAL MARKET, SERVING AS A SOPHISTICATED PLATFORM FOR SHARI’A-COMPLIANT PRODUCTS AND SERVICES IN THE REGION
The Malaysia’s ICM has recorded a robust growth over the past decade. As of December 2019, the size of the Malaysia’s ICM increased by 6.4% to MYR2.0 trillion and accounted for 63.3% of the total size of the Malaysian capital market of MYR3. 2 trillion. Malaysia continues to maintain its leading position with a market share of 42% in global sukuk issuances.
The Malaysian Islamic funds industry has also progressed tremendously in tandem with global Islamic funds, and the industry has demonstrated impressive growth with the Islamic fund size of MYR176.9 billion, representing 21.6% of the total fund management industry. Additionally, Malaysia now leads the global Islamic funds industry with a 35.8% share of global AUM.
The Malaysian equity market has seen an increase of more than 300% in market capitalisation since 1997. As of December 2019, Shari’a market capitalisation stood at MYR1.1 trillion, which makes up 65.2% of the total market capitalisation of MYR1.7 trillion. As at end December 2019, the average daily trading value (ADV) of Shari’a-compliant securities traded on the Exchange was MYR1.2 billion, which is 64.1% of the overall ADV of MYR2.0 billion.
Bursa Malaysia, as a leading emerging market exchange, offers a good breadth of Shari’a-compliant securities that are listed on the Main, ACE and LEAP markets. As of December 2019, there were 714 Shari’a-compliant companies (or 76.9%) out of a total of 929 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia.
Bursa Malaysia is committed to the comprehensive development of its Islamic capital market and invests its resources into the market ecosystem to develop the infrastructure and enablers necessary for its long-term sustainability. Islamic capital market is an important area of development of the national economy and the Exchange has aligned its Islamic capital market priorities with this national goal. As such, Bursa Malaysia not only act singly as a stock exchange operator; but also in collaboration with key market players including government agencies, advisory firms and private organisations to move the Islamic capital market agenda forward.
It is worth noting that Bursa Malaysia has made leadership in Islamic capital market a main strategic aspiration, and the evidence suggests that it is on the right track to building a vibrant market for the future. While the Exchange is being recognised as a leader in the Islamic capital market, Bursa Malaysia faces greater competitive pressure from peer exchanges. Against this backdrop, it remains committed to continuous innovation of the market going forward without sacrificing its commitment to uphold Shari’a compliance.
THE WORLD’S FIRST END-TO-END SHARI’A- COMPLIANT BURSA MALAYSIA-i PLATFORM
As the leading exchange in the Islamic capital market, Bursa Malaysia continues to evolve and innovate. Launched in September 2016, Bursa Malaysia-i is the world’s first end-to-end Shari’a-compliant investing platform and a significant development by Bursa Malaysia to ensure that the exchange continues to offer a comprehensive suite of Shari’a-compliant investing and exchange-related services. It aims to further attract a wider pool of both domestic and foreign investors as well as issuers. Bursa Malaysia-i offers a comprehensive suite of Shari’a-compliant investing and exchange-related services, including listing, trading, clearing, settlement and depository services creating a more facilitative environment for investors to invest and trade via a Shari’a-compliant platform.
The platform supports Shari’a-compliant products that are listed on Bursa Malaysia, which include stocks (i-Stocks), Exchange Traded Funds (i-ETFs), Real Estate Investment Trusts (i-REITs) and Exchange Traded Bonds and Sukuk (ETBS), which allow investors to build a multi-asset Shari’a-compliant portfolio that can be benchmarked against Shari’a- compliant indices.
The establishment of Bursa Malaysia-i further elevates Bursa Malaysia’s status as a leading ASEAN marketplace and emerging-market leader for Shari’a-compliant trading activities across ASEAN and the world. Since Bursa Malaysia- i’s inception in September 2016, it has delivered positive and sustainable impact to the development of the country’s Islamic stockbroking services industry. There are currently 15 brokers providing Islamic stockbroking services. Having more intermediaries, such as these Islamic brokers will facilitate the promotion of Shari’a-compliant products and Shari’a investments on Bursa Malaysia-i.
In recent years, the Exchange has noted a mounting demand from international and domestic investors who are seeking Shari’a-compliant offerings as a diversification option to achieve insulation from the volatility of other asset classes. As of December 2019, the Exchange’s end-to-end Shari’a-compliant Bursa Malaysia-i platform has seen regional interests; reflecting interest in Shari’a-compliant responsible investment.
Bursa Malaysia-i is working closely with its Islamic brokers and other industry partners to provide awareness and education to the investing community and retail public on Shari’a investing on Bursa Malaysia-i and Shari’a-compliant investment instruments. It had reached out to all segments of the investing community by ramping up engagements with retail investors to promote Shari’a investing via roadshows, education programmes, and joint initiatives with industry partners. From 2017 to end 2019, Bursa Malaysia-i had conducted over 400 direct engagements with market participants including fund managers, institutional investors and over 100,000 retail investors.
Without a doubt Bursa Malaysia-i is a step in the right direction to ensure Malaysia’s position as the global leader in Islamic capital market. The introduction of Bursa Malaysia-i would deepen the Exchange’s role as the key Islamic capital market hub in the ASEAN region and beyond, and would elevate Malaysia’s role in advancing Islamic capital market services, and infrastructure for the global marketplace.
It is expected that Bursa Malaysia-i platform will grow steadily, complemented by the shift towards value-based investing that appears to track the increasing demand for Shari’a-compliant financial solutions. This has created a growing appetite for Islamic capital market products and services, and it is no longer just the domain of Muslim investors. Principled investing practices based on Shari’a are one part of the equation to living life responsibly through responsible, value-based investing.
