KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Derivatives (BMD) continued its growth path in trading activity from the second half of 2019, achieving five historical all-time highs in January.
Bursa Malaysia said the open interest for all products hit a new high of 343,251 contracts on Jan 29, surpassing the previous high of 337,268 contracts registered on May 26, 2016.
“Open interest reflects the hedgers’ collective position in the Futures Exchange, mitigating their risk exposures in the physical market,” it said in a statement today.
This followed the two historical highs registered on Jan 28, when the total daily trading volume for crude palm oil futures (FCPO) and the total daily trading volume for all products recording their highest ever daily trading volumes of 107,062 and 140,945 contracts respectively.
As a result, Bursa Malaysia said, BMD ended January with a record monthly high trading volume of 1.54 million contracts, surpassing the previous high of 1.47 million contracts in November 2019.
This was mainly contributed by the active FCPO volumes, which achieved a historical month high of 1.26 million contracts traded, surpassing the previous record in November 2019 of 1.21 million contracts.
BMD acting CEO Samuel Ho said the strong support from the trading community and industry players had resulted in these achievements.
“In light of the global uncertainties, we anticipate that participation in the derivatives market will continue to grow. The continued growth in trading demonstrates the confidence of our customers in managing their price risk exposure through BMD’s product offerings.
“We will continue to develop the Malaysian derivatives market and improve the derivatives ecosystem to create a vibrant and sustainable capital market,” he said. – Feb 5, 2020, Bernama
