KUALA LUMPUR: Macquarie Securities Group issued its pioneer index warrants based on the Standard and Poor's 500 Index (S&P 500) on Bursa Malaysia on Thursday.
The S&P 500 tracks the performance of the 500 largest companies listed on the New York and Nasdaq stock exchanges.
"The trading of the two call and two put warrants began at 9am today (Thursday), with the trading price ranging between 80 sen and RM1.00," said Barnaby Matthews, the division director and head of derivatives of South-East Asia.
He was speaking to reporters after the launch of the S&P 500 index warrants.
The introduction of the S&P 500 warrants on Bursa Malaysia, which are traded 23 hours a day and cover the full trading hours of the Bursa main board, will offer Malaysian investors an opportunity to trade in the US markets in the Malaysian time zone.
On another note, Matthews said that as of early this year, index warrants represented about 70% of the total warrants market turnover in the country, a jump from about 10% two years ago.
"So, we can say index warrants trading has become more popular in Malaysia," he added.
He said, however, the turnover contribution from index warrants dropped to around 50% in the previous quarter due to issues such as an expectation of an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, volatility of oil prices, the US presidential election, as well as Britain's exit from the European Union.
For this year, Matthews said the group is expected to list about four to six warrants quarterly, after the first issuance of the index warrants on Thursday.
It also plans to list the warrants in Thailand by the year-end after Malaysia and Singapore.
"At the moment, foreign indices are not allowed to be listed in Thailand.
But I think it is likely to change this year, so we expect to list the warrants there by year-end," Matthews said. - Bernama
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