Singapore Exchange (SGX) today announced the expansion of its Southeast Asian equity derivatives suite with the introduction of the SGX MSCI Malaysia Index Futures contract.  This new Index Futures, which covers a total of 43 component stocks from Malaysia, will commence trading from 9 February 2015. The SGX MSCI Malaysia Index Futures has also been certified by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and can be directly offered and traded in the U.S. from launch.

Investors seeking exposure into the key economies of Southeast Asia, which collectively represents more than 85% of Asia's gross domestic product, can efficiently tap on SGX's suite of index products for a comprehensive coverage comprising Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia.

As the economy of the Southeast Asia region grows, this region will take on a larger weightage in global benchmark indices and the need of more efficient access and risk management instruments will increase in tandem.

"Given Malaysia's importance as an anchor economy in the region, we are glad to see MSCI Malaysia Futures added to the suite of Asian equity index futures on SGX. Southeast Asia's proportion of global asset portfolios is growing and the economies offer huge capital market potential. With CIMB's focus and strong investments in this region, we see many ways to cooperate and provide better hedging and trading solutions for our clients," said Carol Fong, CEO, CIMB Securities.

"SGX's focus on providing new products and services helps to bring a client-friendly product shelf for global portfolio managers to manage equity risk in Asia. J.P. Morgan is delighted to be a part of the ongoing process here in Singapore which sees the advancement of the region's capital markets," said David Martin, Head of Cleared Derivatives, Asia Pacific, J.P. Morgan. 

"We are pleased to grow our partnership with SGX, as the first market maker for the SGX MSCI Malaysia Index Futures. With the expansion of SGX MSCI Futures offering, investors will benefit from margin offsets between SGX equity contracts that will enhance the efficiency of their capital use.  As the market maker for seven other equity index futures contracts, we have played a key role in the spread of listed Asian risk management tools and are committed to the development of these tools responding to our clients' needs," said Pascal Lambert, Group Country Head, Singapore and Head of Corporate & Investment Banking, Southeast Asia, Societe Generale.

SGX offers global investors Asia's most comprehensive portfolio of derivative offerings covering over 80% of Asia's key capital markets. SGX is also Asia's most liquid offshore market for key Asian equity derivatives including the benchmarks of China, Japan and India.



distributed by