KUALA LUMPUR: Global index provider FTSE Group and Bursa
Malaysia Bhd today announced that Astro Malaysia and Felda Global Ventures will replace AirAsia and Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering (MMHE) on the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI following the semi-annual review of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia
Index Series.

In a joint-statement today, FTSE and Bursa Malaysia also announced changes to other indices in the stock exchange's index series.

The index series is reviewed semi-annually by the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Index Advisory Committee which is made up of leading market professionals who ensure that the index review fully complies with a set of highly transparent and publicly available index rules.

"The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI is widely used by investors as the primary benchmark for the Malaysian market, and forms the basis of a wide range of investment products, including the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI ETF, FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Futures (FKLI), FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Options (OKLI) and other index-linked financial products," the statement said.

The FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI reserve list, comprising the five highest ranking non-constituents of the index by market capitalisation will be SapuraKencana Petroleum, MMC, Lafarge Malayan Cement, AirAsia and Gamuda.

The appropriate reserve list will be used in the event that one or more constituents are deleted from the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI during the period up to the next semi-annual review, it said.

On the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mid 70 Index, the changes were the inclusions into the list comprising AirAsia, Gas Malaysia, IGB Real Estate Investment Trust and Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering while the exclusions were Ann Joo Resource, Fraser and Neave Holdings, TA Enterprise and Tan Chong Motor.

The changes will come into effect on December 24. -- BERNAMA