August was the best month to date for the The Yangon Stock Exchange (YSX), with a total of 322,176 shares traded. The total value of those trades was MMK 1.9 billion, according to the YSX monthly report. That number is up from MMK 1.22 billion in trades for the month of July.
A new online trading system may be partly responsible for the bump in trades. This month U Maung Maung Win, deputy minister of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, called on stakeholders to do their part to attract new investors. He spoke at the third annual Yangon Stock Exchange Expo event held on September first, including seminars and panel discussions.
Launched in 2016 with support from Japan, the YSX is still a new development for Myanmar. Indeed, Currently only five companies are traded on the exchange: First Myanmar Investment (FMI), Myanmar Thilawa SEZ Holdings (MTSH), Myanmar Citizens Bank (MCB), First Private Bank (FPB), and TMH Telecom Public Co. Ltd.
Growth has been relatively slow, although in August the Nikkei Asian Review reported that the YSX is developing an alternative market in which investors can trade shares of unlisted companies. Around 60 companies are eligible to be traded on the new market. This include companies with more than 100 shareholders and/or companies that have been publicly traded in the past. The Securities and Exchange Commission of Myanmar will allow foreign investors to trade on the YSX by the end of the year.
