Bursa Malaysia’s Q4 earnings fall 6.2% to RM51.9m

Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s net profit in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2018 (Q4FY18) was down by 6.2% to RM51.9 million, from RM55.27 million a year ago, mainly due to lower contribution from the securities segment.

Revenue for the quarter declined 8.7% to RM128.9 million, compared with RM141.2 million in the previous corresponding quarter.

The exchange has approved a second interim dividend of 11.6 sen per share for FY18, amounting to about RM93.7 million which is payable on Feb 28, 2019. With that, the total dividend (including special dividend) declared for the year amounts to 33.6 sen per share.

Bursa’s full-year net profit was slightly up by 0.4% to RM224.04 million, from RM223.04 million a year ago, while revenue decreased by 1.2% to RM550 million, against RM556.8 million previously.

For the year under review, securities market trading revenue increased 2.4% to RM265.8 million from RM259.6 million in FY17, mainly due to higher average daily trading value (ADV) for securities market’s on-market trades (OMT) in FY18.

However, non-trading revenue saw a marginal decrease of 0.1% to RM165.9 million from RM166.1 million in FY17 due to lower listing and issuer services revenue.

Bursa CEO Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said despite market volatility and challenging global economic environment, the exchange’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,” he added.

At 2.35pm, Bursa’s share price was trading 7 sen or 0.9% lower at RM7.32 on 751,900 shares done.