Bursa Suq Al-Sila' Expands Commodity Offerings with RBD Palm Olein (By MIFC)

Bursa Suq Al-Sila' (BSAS), the world's first end-to-end Shariah-compliant commodity trading platform, has added RBD Palm Olein as a new commodity offering to meet greater demand from local and international players for commodity-based Islamic financing and investment. Trading in the new commodity began on 17 April 2012 and RM75 million (USD25 million) worth of trades have been recorded as of 23 April 2012.

The inclusion of RBD Palm Olein complements BSAS's existing commodities, namely the Crude Palm Oil and Plastic Resin. This will provide more diverse product offerings for clients trading on the BSAS platform and is in line with Bursa Malaysia's strategy to expand the range of tradable instruments on the Exchange.

Dato' Tajuddin Atan, Chief Executive Officer of Bursa Malaysia, said, "As the pioneering facilitator and early leaders in Islamic finance, Bursa Malaysia is in a unique position to advance the development of the Islamic capital market. The introduction of RBD Palm Olein on Bursa Suq Al-Sila' will provide more choices for clients and solidifies BSAS' position as a successful commodity trading platform to facilitate Islamic finance needs.

"We foresee this move to further boost trading volume and meet the demand for larger offerings particularly from clients in the Middle East. This will also increase the visibility of crude palm oil, the star crop in this region, and allow for greater participation from commodity players and refiners."

The daily average trading value on BSAS currently stands at RM1.5 billion (USD0.5 billion), a three-fold increase compared to 2010. BSAS has a membership base consisting of both local and international players.

"The development of the Islamic capital market is one of the Exchange's strategic priorities to propel Bursa Malaysia to be a leading marketplace in Asia. We will grow this segment further by enhancing and introducing innovative products and services to encourage more participation from the market," Dato' Tajuddin added.

BSAS is an international commodity platform that is able to facilitate commodity-based Islamic financing and investment transactions under the Shariah principles of Murabahah, Tawarruq and Musawwamah. This fully electronic web-based platform provides industry players with an avenue to undertake multi-commodity and multi-currency trades globally.