World's youngest stock market struggles in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — The day's trading is about to begin on the world's youngest stock exchange, and the MYANPIX index and opening share prices flash across an electronic screen, but barely a footfall or a voice are heard within the cavernous, colonial era building in the bustling heart of Myanmar's commercial capital.

Only three companies are listed on the board and at the end of the day just 7,221 shares were traded, compared with nearly 839 million the same day on the New York Stock Exchange.

Since the YSE, a joint venture between Myanmar, Japan's Daiwa Institute of Research and the Japan Exchange Group, began trading in March, only 20,000 investors have ventured into the market.

A half-century of harsh military rule in this Southeast Asian country of 55 million brought economic ruin and isolation from the international community and global financial trends.

Just a week after trading began on the Yangon exchange, a democratically elected government headed by former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi took power.

[...] the United States has lifted nearly all of the economic sanctions it had imposed on the former military regime, freeing up remittances from abroad which experts say may help fuel the market.

Myanmar is drafting legislation to allow foreign investors into the market and to permit continuous trading, rather than the current two daily auctions.

Rolles, a veteran of stock markets in emerging economies, said the government could help, for example, by offering tax breaks to companies that list shares on the exchange.