KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 14): The recently-announced stamp duty waiver on trading of shares of mid- and small-cap companies will apply to firms with a market capitalisation of between RM200 million and RM2 billion as at Dec 31, 2017. 

This was said by Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) and Bursa Malaysia Bhd in a statement today, outlining the operational details of several measures aimed at boosting trading volume in the equity market that were announced on Feb 6. 

The measures, announced by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, also include a six-month waiver on trading and clearing fees for new individual investors, liberalisation of margin financing rules, and permitting intra-day short selling. 

SC and Bursa Malaysia said the stamp duty waiver is for three years from March 1, 2018 to Feb 28, 2021, and the list of eligible companies would be reviewed annually and determined as at Dec 31 every year. 

The regulators said the six-month fee waiver is only for first-time investors who open a central depository system (CDS) account with a participating organisation and undertake trading between March 1 and Aug 31 this year. 

Asc for the the liberalisation of margin financing rules, the regulators said the current 200% limit of the effective participating organisation’s shareholders’ funds will be removed. 

In the case of intra-day short selling, the SC has approved its framework, while Bursa Malaysia is putting in place the necessary rule changes and system enhancements. 

“The exchange is targeting to launch the framework in the second quarter 2018,” they said. 

The two regulators said further details on the introduction of trading specialist and the implementation of the market corridor between Malaysia and Singapore, would be released in due course. 

Except the intra-day short selling, all measures, together with the introduction of volume-based incentive, would be effective March 1.