Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Tajuddin Atan said the higher earnings in the 9 months were due to the resilient performance of the Securities Market which was supported by continued growth in the Derivatives Market and Islamic Capital Market.
KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia recorded a slight increase in net profit in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2018 despite the market volatility and challenging global economic environment.
The stock exchange operator reported on Wednesday its net profit rose by 0.4% to RM224.04mil from RM223.04mil in FY17. Revenue dipped by 1.2% to RM550mil from RM556.83mil.
“Cost-to-income ratio improved by one percentage point to 44% while return on equity (ROE) remained stable at 26%.
The increase in net profit was supported by higher operating revenue of RM523.3mil, a 0.2% increase from FY2017 and lower operating expenses which fell by 3.6% on-year due to lower technology and staff costs.
“The board of directors has approved a second interim dividend of 11.6 sen per share for FY2018, amounting to approximately RM93.7mil, which is payable on Feb 28, 2019,” it said.
For the fourth quarter, its net profit fell 6.1% to RM51.85mil from RM55.27mil a year ago. Its revenue declined by 8.7% to RM128.91mil from RM141.20mil.
Earnings per share were 6.4 sen compared with 6.9 sen. It proposed a dividend of 11.6 sen compared with 18.5 sen.
Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said for FY18, despite market volatility and challenging global economic environment, Bursa’s financial performance remained resilient.
"Throughout the year, to create a more facilitative environment, we continued implementing initiatives to further enhance the vibrancy and liquidity of the market. This included the launch of Intraday Short Selling (IDSS) for all investors, liberalising margin financing rules and the six-month waiver of trading and clearing fees for new individual investors (until Sept 18, 2018).
“The launch of the Mini FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mid 70 Index futures contract (FM70) provided the opportunity for a wider group of retail investors to participate in derivatives trading,” he said.
Tajuddin said for FY18, securities market trading revenue increased by 2.4% to RM265.8mil.
He said was mainly due to from higher average daily trading value (ADV) for the securities market’s on-market trades (OMT) in FY2018, which grew by 3.4% to RM2.4bil from RM2.3bil in FY2017.
Non-trading revenue dipped by 0.1% to RM165.9mil due to lower listing and issuer services revenue which fell by 2.7% year-on-year from FY2017 from lower number of corporate exercises and circular perused in FY2018.
“This was partially offset by the higher market data revenue, up 4.9% to RM36.2mil from RM34.5mil in FY2017,” he said.
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