The Malaysian Bond and Sukuk Almanac 2020

Year 2020 is finally behind us. It was an extraordinary year for many people. For the common people, lives were greatly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. For bond market investors, the gains from the bond market were nothing short of eye-catching. The Ringgit bond market performance as measured by the benchmark RF BPAM All Bond index, rose 6.86% to end the year at 188.887 point from 176.759 point a year ago. However, in terms of percentage, it had not surpassed the previous year gains of 8.72%, considering the fact that year 2020 was more volatile in nature. Investors were in panic selling mode in the early part of the year due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) but slowly and eventually regained its composure when Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) stepped in to lower the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) to record lows of 1.75% from 3.00% over the course of the year.

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