CIMB Bhd : promotes trading literacy amongst ASEAN youth for the sixth year running

Kuala Lumpur: CIMB Group announced the five National Champions of the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge 2015, a cross-border simulated stock trading challenge for undergraduates in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia. The five National Champion teams will meet for the Regional Finals (Grand Finale) on 18 January 2016 to compete for the Regional Champion title.

Hamidah Naziadin, Group Chief People Officer, CIMB Group said, 'ASEAN is an economic bloc that offers generous opportunities for wealth creation. Leveraging our CIMB footprint and network, we created the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge to give university students an invaluable opportunity to hone their competitive skills in stock trading. CIMB as a leading ASEAN banking group is proud to mirror this year's ASEAN theme of 'Our People, Our Community, Our Vision' through the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge.'

Hamidah added, 'The CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge is a special annual initiative for us. CIMB is passionate about talent development and there is no other company or institution in ASEAN or even the world that provides a learning platform where students can trade in five stock exchanges using virtual cash, but be rewarded with real cash prizes. The Challenge also aspires to open the minds of our ASEAN youth. We are encouraging young people to think out-of-the-box, to break mental barriers, to see beyond their home country and tap into the great potential of ASEAN for work and play.'

The National Champions for the 2015 Challenge are:

From a modest beginning with just 16 Malaysian teams in the first CIMB Stock Challenge in 2010, this year saw more than 2,400 teams registered with 6,700 students from 188 universities across five ASEAN countries.

The Challenge is in its sixth edition, and rewards university teams with the best trading strategy and those with the highest Net Realised Percentage (NRP) from simulated trading based on real time prices on Bursa Malaysia, the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), Singapore Exchange (SGX), the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx). HKEx was added this year, in the spirit of broadening the Challenge's reach into one of ASEAN's most dynamic neighbours and regional commerce hubs.

The Challenge offers a total of US$38,000 in cash prizes. On top of the US$12,000 Grand Prize, the Regional Champion team (to be announced in January) will go on an educational trip to the London Stock Exchange. The Regional runners-up will be awarded cash prizes of US$8,000, US$5,000, US$3,000 and US$1,500 respectively.

Malaysia Airlines is the official airline for the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge and will be sponsoring flights for the National Champions, their lecturers, and the CIMB country judges to Kuala Lumpur for the Regional Finals in January.

One of the partners for the Challenge is Talent Corporation Malaysia Berhad. TalentCorp Malaysia Chief Executive Officer Johan Mahmood Merican said, 'We are pleased to support CIMB for the third time in the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge as part of its national talent development agenda. In furthering Malaysia's economic transformation, the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge is very much in line with TalentCorp's focus to enhance graduate employability and promote talent diversity. This opportunity provides awareness and industry exposure for young talent to exciting career prospects in equity market trading at a regional ASEAN level.'

ASEAN CIMB Stock Challenge 2015 to date

This National Level awards presentation is the culmination of the first round of trading which commenced at the start of trading hours on 5 October 2015 and concluded at the end of trading hours on 23 October 2015, with teams competing in a fully-simulated online trading environment to achieve the highest Net Realised Percentage (NRP)*.

The top three teams with highest NRP in each country were then invited to present their strategy paper. The team with the best strategy paper went on to be awarded as National Champion in their respective country. Concurrently, the top three teams (for NRP) in every country were awarded US$800, US$500 and US$400 respectively.

Each team received US$80,000 in virtual start-up capital to invest real-time in securities listed on Bursa Malaysia, the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), Singapore Exchange (SGX), the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx).

More information about the CIMB ASEAN Stock Challenge 2015 can be found at https://stockchallenge.itradecimb.com/

* Example: If the team starts with a total virtual capital of US$80,000 and ends the competition with US$200,000, the Net Realised Percentage will be 150% [based on the calculation of (200,000 - 80,000) / 80,000].