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Bursa Malaysia Berhad today announced that its trading hours will remain unchanged following a recommendation by some industry players to shorten it by one hour. The recommendation to shorten the trading hours was made last year arising from slow trading due to dismal market conditions.
The decision to retain the current trading hours was made following a dialogue with industry participants. The feedback gathered from the dialogue session indicated that the industry was divided on the proposed shorter trading hours due to reasons such as operational matters and issues of impact to market competitiveness.
Bursa Malaysia's Chief Executive Officer, Dato' Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said, "Bursa Malaysia recognises the advantages of retaining the current trading hours in order to maintain regional liquidity, competitiveness and to provide access to a wide range of investors, both local and foreign, through the overlapping of time spans of regional stock exchanges. I believe our current trading hours are sufficient to ensure that there can be an overlap to crucial markets, such as the opening of the European markets by an hour, where our investors can respond speedily and rebalance their portfolios in an orderly manner rather than react the next day.
"There must be consistent policies when dealing in a globalised market and not a reaction to suit the current market sentiment. In fact, as a result of globalisation coupled with the growth of online trading, exchanges are considering the merits of moving towards extended trading hours," he added.
Bursa Malaysia's trading hours will remain from 9.00am to 5.00pm. The pre-opening session will be from 8:30am to 9:00am for the morning session; and from 2:00pm to 2:30pm for the afternoon session with a lunch break from 12:30pm - 2:00pm.
