Malaysia Stock Exchange Launches Net-based Facility

Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (KLSE) has launched the KLSE Listing Information Network (KLSE LINK) to ease access and retrieval of information on companies listed on the stock exchange.

Costing a total of RM3 million (US$ 790,000), the Internet-based facility was developed to connect public-listed companies (PLCs), external company secretaries and merchant banks to KLSE. It is expected to further facilitate corporate disclosure and to promote market transparency.

“With KLSE LINK whereby announcements are going to be submitted, managed and disseminated electronically, there will be a shorter turnaround time for information to be disclosed to a wider audience in a more timely fashion,” said the executive chairman of KLSE, Datuk Mohd. Azlan Hashim. He added that it is also a secured way of submitting corporate announcements and information to the exchange.

Among the services available on KLSE LINK are PLCs announcement, financial reports and circulars to shareholders and prospectus, pre-formatted announcements, access through KLSE Web site, and search and retrieval capabilities.

According to KLSE’s assistant manager, Lew Tuck Wai, the process of submission normally begins with the preparation of the announcement done either by a PLC, external company secretary or merchant bank.

“Subsequent to that, the issuer will have to establish a connection to the KLSE LINK by getting on to the Internet. Once the connection is established, with a click of a button, the announcement will be sent to KLSE immediately,” claimed Lew.

“Upon receiving the announcement, the exchange will verify the information before publishing it to the public. Then the information will subsequently be made available for public access through the KLSE web site.”

According to Lew, the underlying system of the facility runs on Lotus Notes version 4.6.2, and the end users such as PLCs are required to install the KLSE LINK client application at their sites. These applications at the end users will be implemented and maintained by project manager Mesiniaga Berhad.

Users of the system will be provided with an ID and password to authenticate their identity for accessing to the facility. KLSE will charge the PLCs an access fee to use the service.

All 746 PLCs and 12 merchant banks have been progressively connected to the system which is expected to be utilized by more than 191,000 users every day.