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According to Bursa Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, the potential of the Islamic capital market remains promising both in Malaysia and abroad. During his keynote address at the Shariah Investing Virtual Conference 2020 Abdul Wahid said that in Malaysia alone, the industry of Islamic funds had demonstrated impressive growth. As of March, syariah funds stood at RM170 billion, representing 23% of total industry assets under management (AUM). Syariah unit trust funds' net asset value (NAV) stood at RM99 billion. Abdul Wahid added that there are opportunities for further product innovation and development to provide investors with more syariah-based products.

Malaysia’s Islamic finance sector is expected to sustain double-digit growth to reach almost RM3 trillion in 2020 under the second Capital Market Masterplan. The chairman of Bursa Malaysia, Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar, said the country’s Islamic funds industry has demonstrated impressive growth. The country is the third-largest market for global Islamic finance products and the world’s largest Sukuk issuer. At Bursa Malaysia 79% of the listed companies are Shariah-compliant and Shariah market capitalisation makes up 70% of the total market capitalisation of RM1.6 trillion. Over the last ten years Shariah indices consistently outperformed its conventional counterparts. Thus, Shariah-compliant investments are an attractive source of value for investors.

Malaysia’s stock exchange (BMSC) has launched a framework for Islamic stock lending. The introduction of Islamic stock lending aims to provide a Shariah-compliant alternative to the securities borrowing and lending negotiated transaction framework (ISSBNT). According to Bursa Malaysia, Islamic stock lending will provide a more facilitative trading environment and improve trading liquidity. Any person approved by BMSC to be an approved supplier may enter sell its own securities. An approved user is required to have a minimum of RM 50 million (USD 12.2 million) in shareholders funds. Initially, close attention will be given to extending Islamic exchange traded funds in particular, as well as enhancing levels of liquidity.

Bursa Malaysia launched the first Shariah-compliant alternative to the Securities Borrowing and Lending Negotiated Transaction (SBLNT) framework, called Islamic Securities Selling and Buying Negotiated Transaction (ISSBNT). The new ISSBNT framework is based on the SBLNT model and is expected to provide a more facilitative trading environment for securities. Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said market participants would now have an alternative avenue which is compliant with Shariah principles. The model was chosen because it is more widely used by the market due to its flexibility. Tajuddin noted that ISSBNT is expected to bring an uplift of around 5 to 10% growth in funds transaction in the next 12 months.

The Tenaga Nasional Bhd informed the stock exchange that it has issued RM2bil Islamic medium-term notes (sukuk wakalah). This is the first issuance under the sukuk programme of up to RM5bil in nominal value set up last month. The programme has a tenure of 50 years starting from the date of this first issue.
Tenaga Nasional Bhd told the Bursa Malaysia that based on its consolidated statement of financial position as at May 31, 2017, its consolidated gearing would then increase to 0.70 times from 0.66 times. Additionally the sukuk wakalah issuance would not have any impact on the earnings, earnings per share and net assets per share of the company for the current financial year.
Earlier this year, Tenaga Nasional Bhd had said the proceeds raised from the programme would be used to finance capital expenditure, investment, general corporate purposes, working capital requirements and/or refinance any existing financing facilities and to defray any fees and expenses of the sukuk programme.

Bursa Malaysia added Inter-Pacific Securities Sdn Bhd (Inter-Pac Securities) to its Islamic Participating Organisations (Islamic POs) list. Bursa Malaysia CEO Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan welcomed the new company and said that with this addition investors would have a wider choice of Islamic POs to represent them. Inter-Pac Securities Director Tan Mun Choy expressed his gratitude for Bursa Malaysia's approval to carry out Islamic stockbroking services.
With the inclusion of Inter-Pac Securities, there are now 12 Islamic POs carrying out Islamic stockbroking services of which 1 is on a full-fledged basis (BIMB Securities) and the other 11 are on a window basis.

As a global leader in the field of Islamic finance, Malaysia boasts with state-of-the-art infrastructure and unparalleled government support. The development of Commodity Murabaha (CM) transactions on Bursa Malaysia under its Bursa Suq Al Sila’ enabled the country to try to snatch away the business of liquidity management by Islamic banks from the London Metal Exchange (LME). Bursa Malaysia’s Suq Al Sila’ is a representation of trading in commodities with complete irrelevance of commodities to the intended outcome. This exceeds simple exchange of cash between two participating banks.

DanaInfra Nasional Bhd's RM300 million sukuk aiming to partially fund the Klang Valley’s mass rapid transit (MRT) will make its kick-start retail trading of bonds on Bursa Malaysia. Moreover, it is likely that the sukuk will attract he issuance of private debt securities such as conventional bonds and Malaysian Government Securities (MGS) which will be publicly available. According to Tajuddin Atan - CEO of Bursa Malaysia Bhd - a number of parties have expressed their interest in issuing retail bonds. In addition, there should be ample amount of issuance for the successful trading of these bonds on the local exchange.

TH Plantations Bhd (THP) has made a sukuk murabahah programme worth up to RM1bil in nominal value. The establishment is made together with the Pilgrimage Fund Board. THP made known to Bursa Malaysia that RM200mil of sukuk have been issued as part of the programme. The tenure of the sukuk is up to 15 years with a maturity date Oct 29, 2027.

Read more on: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/10/31/business/12250...

Bursa Malaysia topped the world’s exchanges in terms of value of sukuk programme listings in 2009, recording a total of USD17.6 billion. Since its inaugural sukuk listing in August 2009, the Exchange listed 12 sukuk by end of December 2009 which contributed towards this development.

Bursa Malaysia’s regulated platform has not finalised the precise structure yet. But according to Bursa Malaysia CEO Yusli Mohamed Yusoff Short-selling is perceived as an essential ingredient for capital markets to perform efficiently.

Liau Y-Sing reported on Reuters, 5 March that Malaysia's stock exchange will launch in June a platform to allow banks to execute Commodity Murabaha transactions, a popular but controversial Islamic contract with a market worth more than USD 100 bn according to the International Islamic Financial Market. Any tangible asset that is sharia-compliant can be used in commodity murabaha transactions and palm oil is one obvious example. Malaysia is the world's No. 2 palm oil producer.

But some religious scholars have criticised the structure, saying it resembles conventional-based lending instruments. The Accounting and Auditing Organisation for Islamic Financial Institutions is of the view that the contract, while not invalid, is not ideal.