Published on: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 |
Kuala Lumpur: Bursa Malaysia Bhd has launched three new palm oil plantation indices Monday as part of its strategy to strengthen Malaysia's position as a global player in the palm oil industry.
Via partnership with FTSE Group, the indices are FTSE Bursa Malaysia Palm Oil Plantation Index (ringgit denomination), FTSE Bursa Malaysia Asian Palm Oil Plantation Index (ringgit) and FTSE Bursa Malaysia Asian Palm Oil Plantation Index (US dollars).
FTSE Bursa Malaysia Palm Oil Plantation Index will be based on the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Emas Universe while the Asian related palm oil plantation indices are based on the FTSE Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Australia and New Zealand Index and are available in gross and net of tax versions.
Its chief executive officer Datuk Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said the new palm oil plantation indices would expose investors to the long-term growth potential of the lucrative, billion dollar palm oil industry, both in Malaysia and Asian region.
"These new indices will complement and offer a platform for growth of palm oil plantation related capital market products such as Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and other structured products, which can span across equities, derivatives and commodities markets," he said at the launch here Monday.
Combined, these three indices which include the world's liquid and large cap companies, will allow investors to track the performance of listed companies which derive their substantial revenues from palm-oil related activities.
Yusli said records showed that these companies had demonstrated strong performance in terms of investor interest in their stocks.
"The three years back cast values of these new indices indicated that the palm oil plantation indices outperformed the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index by 40 percent," Yusli said.
Under the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Asian Palm Oil Plantation Index, 18 companies will be tracked by the index including IOI Corporation, Sime Darby, Wilmar International Ltd and Kuala Lumpur Kepong.
"The new indices would also strengthen our crude palm oil (CPO) futures market as they bridge between the cash and derivatives markets for hedging and arbitraging opportunities," he added.
On whether there were plans to have a new index for CPO futures, Yusli said it was one of the products in the pipeline but no timeframe had been fixed at the moment.
"Based on the indices, we can also work with investment banks or other intermediaries interested to set up ETFs. There are some parties who are interested but we don't have any details at the moment," he said. - Bernama
