Malaysia’s first Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs), namely ABF Bond Index Fund and FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI etf (FBM KLCI etf) have declared an income distribution of 4.65 sen and 2.80 sen per unit respectively for its financial year ended 31 December 2018 with AmInvest managing both ETFs.
ABF Malaysia’s income distribution of 4.65 sen per unit in December 2018 represents an income distribution yield (the rate of the return of the ETF based on income distribution) of 4.06 per cent, which was computed based on the ETF’s net asset value of RM1.1457 per unit as at 31 December 2018.
ABF Malaysia is the only bond ETF in the market and its portfolio consists of mainly Malaysian government bonds. It tracks the performance of Markit iBoxx®ABF Malaysia Bond Index.
FBM KLCI etf is designed to follow the performance of its benchmark index, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI, which comprises Malaysia’s top 30 largest companies in terms of market capitalisation.
During its financial year, FBM KLCI etf declared a total income distribution of 3.30 sen per unit (inclusive of the above final income distribution of 2.80 sen and an interim income distribution of 0.50 sen declared on June 2018), which represents an income distribution yield of around 1.91 per cent
The yield was computed based on the ETF’s net asset value of RM1.7286 per unit as at 31 December 2018.
“Investing in ETFs is an easy and cost-effective way for investors to gain exposure and diversify their current investment portfolios, which can help reduce overall portfolio risk during times of market volatility,” said AmInvest chief executive officer, Goh Wee Peng.
“We laud the latest enhancements to the ETF framework by Bursa Malaysia Berhad such as the introduction of qualifying criteria for investors trading in leveraged and inverse ETFs, as well as, the expansion of the permitted short selling framework to allow the short-selling of new types of ETFs from the current equity-based ETFs.
“Improvements such as these will help drive growth and industry innovation, and thus create a more vibrant ETF ecosystem,” Wee Peng added.
AmInvest dominates the market as the largest ETF provider in the country with around RM1.42 billion worth of assets under management.
For the past three years, it has been recognised as Malaysia’s Best ETF Provider by The Asset based in Hong Kong
