MULTI CURRENCY & COMMODITY TRADES ON BURSA SUQ AL-SILA BY YEAR END

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- Bursa Malaysia (Malaysian Exchange) is
working on introducing viable multi-currency and other commodity trades very
soon on the Bursa Suq Al-Sila, formally known as Commodity Murabaha House.

Bursa Suq Al-Sila means commodities market in Arabic.

The first commodity to be traded in the market was crude palm oil which saw
transactions worth RM200 million (US$71 million) exchanging hands on the first
day, said its Chief Executive Officer, Yusli Mohamed Yusoff.

"We are planning to expand the choice of the tradeable commodities as
Malaysia is rich with commodities and natural assets," Bursa said at the
launch of the platfrom at Bursa Malaysia here Monday.

CIMB Islamic was involved in the bulk of the trade today, he said.

Also present at the event was Second Finance Minister, Ahmad Husni Mohamad
Hanadzlah and Bank Negara (Malaysia's central bank) Governor, Zeti Akhtar Aziz.

The trading platform is operated by Bursa Malaysia, via its fully syariah
compliant wholly-owned subsidiary, Bursa Islamic Services Sdn Bhd.

Yusli said besides natural commodities, Bursa was also looking at
assets such as cars and electronic goods as the market's underlying assets.

CIMB Islamic Bank Chief Executive Officer Badlisyah Abdul Ghani said there
was great potential for the market as CIMB Islamic reported an average monthly
transaction of RM3 billion (US$857.14 million), last year, in commodity
mudarabah.

"Todate, transactions worth RM6 billion (US$1.71 billion) has been executed
by CIMB Islamic," he said.
-- BERNAMA