KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — Syariah-compliant investment manager i-VCAP Management Sdn Bhd’s MyETF MSCI Malaysia Islamic Dividend posted a 1.5 sen premium over its RM1 issue price in its first trading day today.

One minute into trading, the exchange trading fund recorded a transaction of 5,000 units.

Chief Executive Officer and Director Mahdzir Othman said the newly-listed fund is focusing on investors with a medium-to long-term investment horizon, even in the face of the US Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing exercise.

“It represents a safe investment for investors because it does have some dividend yield factor into it,” he told reporters after the MyETF MSCI Malaysia Islamic Dividend listing exercise today.

Mahdzir added the exchange traded fund (ETF) in Malaysia is still at an early stage and a lot of education needs to be done to raise investors’ awareness.

“It has a lot of potential. In fact, that ETF is a big thing outside Malaysia,” he said, adding that the company is looking to list another fund this year.

“We probably will start with about 20 million units and we might go through the same process of subscription but we probably want to see more take-up from the investors later on,” said Mahdzir.

As at December 31, 2013, the company’s shareholders fund stood at RM27.5 million while its total assets under management currently stands at RM1.044 billion. — Bernama