BURSA Malaysia Derivatives Bhd reported an all-time high in yearly trading volume for all its products, as well as for crude palm oil futures (FCPO) for the year 2022.

In a press release today, it said a total of 19.1 million contracts were traded, surpassing the previous record of 18.4 million contracts in 2021 by 3.7%.

For FCPO, Bursa Malaysia Derivatives said a total of 16.2 million contracts were traded in 2022, breaking the previous record of 15.6 million by 3.8%.

“The higher trading volume is largely contributed by foreign institutions which accounted for 50% of the trading volume,” Bursa Malaysia Derivatives said.

Furthermore, it added that foreign institutions’ participation has also increased substantially by 27% from 2021. “This strong growth demonstrates the continued confidence from the global trading community in FCPO as an effective risk management tool in times of volatility,” it said.

Meanwhile, Bursa Malaysia Derivatives acting director Mohd Saleem Kader Bakas said the exchange is glad to see higher participation from global market participants in trading its products. 

“We will continue to improve the Malaysian derivatives market ecosystem and strengthen our offerings with innovative products to create more opportunities for investors to diversify and hedge their portfolio,” he added.

To ensure that the positive trading volume growth continues, Bursa Malaysia Derivatives said it is committed to develop and enhance its product offerings to meet the demand of investors and hedgers.

These, it said have resulted in the successful launch of the revamped Gold Futures (FGLD) Contract in September 2022 and the first environmental, social and governance (ESG) based futures contract in December 2022, which is the cash-settled FTSE4Good Bursa Malaysia Index Futures (F4GM) Contract.

The exchange has also seen active trading during the After-Hours (T+1) Trading Session, with a total of 1.49 million contracts traded in 2022 during T+1 Session, which amounts to 8% of the total day and night trading volume.

The highest daily trading volume during T+1 Session was recorded at 19,065 contracts on Dec 1, 2022, it said. — TMR