Bursa Malaysia Berhad To Discontinue Index Base Adjustment For Dividends

Bursa Malaysia Berhad (Bursa) has decided to discontinue the current practice of adjusting the index base for dividends of RM0.50 and above effective Friday, 1 July 2005.

Head of Information Services, Mr Raghbir Singh Bhart said that the Executive Committee (EXCO) of Bursa made the decision after careful consideration and in concluding that the practice of adjusting the index base did not have much impact on the KLCI.

“The KLCI is price index, not a total returns index. Major index providers such as FTSE and S&P do not carry out adjustments on dividends for their price indices, unless they are total return indices.

“We would like to be consistent with the other index providers. We are also not aware of any other exchanges adopting a discretionary dividend adjustment for price indices,” Raghbir said.