KUALA LUMPUR (July 16): Bursa Malaysia Bhd (KL:BURSA) may report a weaker set of earnings for the second quarter amid lower trading activity, and miss its own profitability target for the year, analysts said.

Net profit for the April-June quarter (2QFY2025) will likely come in as low as RM51 million, a decline of up to 37% year-on-year, according to CIMB Securities’ estimates. That would bring six-month net profit to RM118.5 million, accounting for just 43% of the consensus full-year estimates.

“We had already anticipated a weaker 2QFY2025 due to lower trading activity driven by cautious market sentiment following the US tariff announcements,” the research house flagged. Policy clarity on US tariffs, however, could support recovery in trading volume in the second half of the year, it noted.

Bursa Malaysia is slated to announce its 2QFY2025 results on July 29. Wild swings rocked global markets in the second quarter as investors grappled with a series of trade policy flip-flops by US President Donald Trump.

The average daily trading value of securities in 2QFY2025 was RM2.4 billion, a decline of 38% year-on-year and 14% quarter-on-quarter. In the derivatives space, the average daily contracts rose 5.9% year-on-year but declined 11.3% quarter-on-quarter to 90,669 contracts.

For Maybank Investment Bank, Bursa Malaysia’s pretax profit for the full year will likely come in at RM350 million, below the company’s own target of between RM369 million and RM408 million.

The research house noted that every RM100 million change in equity average daily trading volume will affect its FY2025 net profit estimates by RM8 million.

Bursa Malaysia's share price has declined over 10% year-to-date as soft first-quarter results confirmed worries of investors and analysts over weak trading volume due to the tariff turmoil.

Out of 17 research houses covering Bursa Malaysia, there are 10 ‘hold’ and one ‘sell’ calls, outnumbering six ‘buy’ recommendations. The average target price stands at RM8.11, according to Bloomberg, just about 3% away from its last traded price of RM7.84.