MALAYSIA'S stock exchange operator Bursa Malaysia said on Tuesday that exchange trading links between Singapore and Malaysia are possible within six to 12 months.

The linkage will take place after infrastructure systems upgrades by both Bursa and the Singapore Exchange, with Bursa expecting its derivatives trading volumes to grow by 50 per cent this year despite global market turmoil.

'The implementation will take six months. The trading link will be up and running possibly by end of this year, but more likely early next year,' Bursa chief executive Yusli Mohamed Yusoff told reporters at an industry event.

The two operators have been in talks for a possible link for the past two years. As for talks Bursa has been engaged in since last year on possible strategic stakes in the stock exchanges of Indonesia and Vietnam, Mr Yusli said he expected trade linkages with other regional bourses to be created first.

'In terms of acquisitions of stakes, I think that would depend on whether the other markets are ready and available,' he said, adding that it is something Bursa would look at in the medium term.

Mr Yusli told Reuters in an interview on Monday that Bursa hopes to become a regional commodities trading hub forging alliances with other markets such as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

Despite faster turnaround of 1,300 trades per second with the system upgrade, he said he expected the 20 per cent growth target the exchange operator had set for itself to be 'challenging'.

'January was good, February was lower, we hope the market will pick up. Given what's going on outside the country, we got to wait and see,' he said, referring to the ongoing upheavals in global financial markets.

But he expects the volume of derivatives trading to climb this year from the low base of six million contracts last year.

Bursa rolled out its new derivatives trading system last November and has been seeing record highs, he said, without providing exact figures. -- REUTERS

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