The volume of shares traded on the Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX) in September sank to the lowest level of 85,237 shares, yet the value slightly rose to K838.6 million against August’s rate due to the increase in share prices, according to YSX’s monthly report. The trading volume last month plunged from 118,850 shares registered in August, the statistics indicated. The stock markets worldwide have reported their largest declines since the 2008 financial crisis. Similarly, the local equities market is also scared by the COVID-19 crash, a market observer points out.
In January 2020, 196,836 shares worth K1.25 billion were traded on the exchange while 188,919 shares, with estimated value of K1.48 billion were traded on the business in February and 228,913 shares valued K1.42 billion were traded in March respectively. It touched the lowest of K902 million with 173,808 shares in April. It rose to K1.2 billion with 200,416 shares being traded in May. The share volumes traded on the exchange surged to 221,682 in June, with estimated value K1.3 billion and then, it fell to $1 billion with 125,137 shares in July. Next, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar (SECM) allowed foreigners to invest in the local equity market in March 2020. Foreigners have held 53,850 shares in the equity market as of 2 October. In September, the share prices of the listed companies on the exchange, except EFR, also showed an increase compared with August’s prices. The share prices of FMI were closed at K10,000 per unit, MTSH at K3,700, MCB at K8,000, FPB at K22,5000, TMH at K2,700 and EFR at K3,000 respectively.
The YSX was launched three years ago to improve the private business sector. It disseminates rules and regulations regarding the stock exchange and knowledge of share trading through stock investment seminars. To boost the trading, the YSX had doubled its stock trade matching time from two to four per day last year. The exchange launched seven times matching per day on 26 March 2020. Since 2017, it has held promotional events to attract new investors and encourage existing investors to trade more actively. The stock exchange has also sought the government’s support to get more public companies to participate in the stock market and help more institutional investors, such as financing companies, investment banks, and insurance companies, to emerge. A total of 2.4 million shares worth K13.39 billion were traded on the YSX in 2019, a significant increase compared to the previous year, according to the annual report released by the exchange.
Source: The Global New Light of Myanmar