KUALA LUMPUR, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian capital market grew 12.6 percent year-on-year to 3.2 trillion ringgit (816 billion U.S. dollars) last year, with total fundraising of 146.6 billion ringgit, the Securities Commission Malaysia said Thursday.
"The capital market has recorded strong growth across all segments. We have seen higher level of investor participation in the market," the regulator's chairman Ranjit Ajit Singh said during the launching of the Securities Commission Malaysia annual report 2017.
According to the report, Malaysian equity market capitalization rose 14.4 percent year-on-year to 1.9 trillion ringgit with positive performance across all key indices.
Meanwhile, the total bond outstanding increased by 10.1 percent year-on-year to 1.3 trillion ringgit.
The Islamic capital market size in Malaysia also expanded 11.9 percent year-on-year to 1.9 trillion ringgit, continuing to maintain its leading position with a market share of 38 percent in global sukuk issuance, a sort of Islamic financial certificate.
The country's assets under fund management went up 11.5 percent year-on-year to 776.2 billion ringgit, mainly driven by the expansion of the unit trust industry.
Ranjit opined that the outlook for Malaysian capital market this year remains optimistic, although the fundraising is projected to slowdown to 120 billion ringgit, from 146.6 billion ringgit last year.
"The capital market will remain vibrant with emerging market growth to continue outpacing growth in developed market.
"The economic fundamentals in Malaysia are extremely strong, and there are improvements in corporate earnings, we think the positive sentiments overall will continue. So we think 2018 will be a good year," Ranjit said.
The fundraising this year will be mainly driven by capital raising in the corporate bond and sukuk market, which is expected to amount to about 100 billion ringgit this year, according to him. (1 Malaysian ringgit = 0.26 U.S. dollar)