KUALA LUMPUR (March 20): Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s share price pared gains today after rising as much as RM1.05 or 23.76% to RM5.47 in morning trades after Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said yesterday the statutory reserve requirement (SRR) ratio will be lowered by 100 basis points from 3% to 2% effective today.

Yesterday, BNM said in a statement the move will release approximately RM30 billion worth of liquidity into the banking system.

At 10.23am today, Bursa shares were traded at RM4.51 with 168,500 units transacted. Bursa’s share price rise earlier had made the stock the top gainer across the exchange.

TA Securities Holdings Bhd analyst Wong Li Hsia wrote in a note today that "we believe this 100 bps reduction in SRR is also in part an effort to ensure that Malaysia would remain on FTSE Russell’s watch list pending the next interim review in March 2020”.

Today, Bursa’s share rose as investors also took cue from the exchange regulator and the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) after they said yesterday they will maintain continuous trading and market operations to allow investors to manage their risks and opportunities during Malaysia’s movement control order (MCO) between Wednesday (March 18) and March 31 to curb the COVID-19 outbreak.

Yesterday, Bursa and SC said in a joint statement it is important for markets to remain open as closing them will neither mitigate nor address the underlying causes of market volatility.

"Instead, it will create greater uncertainty and adverse market sentiment by denying investors’ access to their investments,” they said.

Bursa and SC said their statement was issued in response to a call yesterday by the Association of Stockbroking Companies of Malaysia (ASCM) urging the Malaysian Government to suspend trading at Bursa.

ASCM has, however, denied issuing a press release urging the Government to immediately suspend trading at Bursa.

ASCM said in a statement yesterday it had not engaged any public relations firm to issue any statement on behalf of the association, and that its logo had been used without prior approval.

"The association categorically has not proposed the suspension of trading in the FBMKLCI in any shape or form," it said.

ASCM clarified that the previous press release, if anything, is the personal view of its chairman Datuk Dr Azman Manaf in his private capacity.