This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 1, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Hartalega Holdings Bhd, Dialog Group Bhd and Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) edged out YTL Corp Bhd, AMMB Holdings Bhd and Astro Malaysia Holdings Bhd from the spot in the 30-stock FBM KLCI following the semi-annual review of the index yesterday.

In a statement, FTSE Russell and Bursa Malaysia said the reserve list are Fraser & Neave Holdings Bhd, Top Glove Corp Bhd, Lotte Chemical Titan Holding Bhd, Westports Holdings Bhd and AirAsia Group Bhd.

They added that the KLCI reserve list, comprising the five highest-ranking non-constituents of the index by market capitalisation, will be used in the event that one or more constituents are deleted from the FBM KLCI in accordance with the index ground rules during the period up to the next semi-annual review.

The constituent changes take effect on June 18 and the next review will take place in December.

“The new additions to the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mid 70 Index are YTL Corp, AMMB, QL Resources Bhd, Astro, Magnum Bhd, ViTrox Bhd, Velesto Energy Bhd, Supermax Corp Bhd, Kerjaya Prospek Group Bhd and TA Global Bhd,” said FTSE Russell and Bursa Malaysia.

They will replace Hartalega, Dialog, MAHB, UMW Holdings Bhd, Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd, CapitalLand Malaysia Mall Trust, Eastern & Oriental Bhd, Lingkaran Trans Kota Holdings Bhd, 7-Eleven Malaysia Holdings Bhd and WCT Holdings Bhd.

For the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Hijrah Shariah Index, the new additions are Digi.com Bhd, QL Resources and Time Dotcom Bhd. Petronas Dagangan Bhd, UMW Holdings Bhd and MyEG Services Bhd will be deleted from the index.

Market cap is one of the many criteria that is considered by the regulators to select component stocks for the benchmark index.

Astro was among the worst performers since Nov 30 last year when the KLCI was last reviewed as its market cap fell by 53.9% to RM6.83 billion from RM14.8 billion on Nov 30. Similarly, AMMB’s market cap has dropped by 14.4% to RM10.7 billion as of yesterday from RM12.5 billion on Nov 30 last year. YTL Corp also saw a decline of 18.8% in its market cap to RM10.21 billion during the same period.