Myanmar's stock exchange began trading on Friday with a single listed company some three months after it opened in the country's commercial capital Yangon.

The Southeast Asian nation's economy was devastated by nearly 50 years of economic mismanagement under the military government, which ended direct rule of the country in 2011.

The outgoing semi-civilian government that replaced the junta ushered in numerous economic reforms. One of them was to launch the Yangon Stock Exchange in December.

"For 50 years there has not been a stock exchange, today is a historic day," said local tycoon Serge Pun, just before he rang the bell on trading at 11 a.m. (04:30 GMT) inside a renovated colonial building that once housed the country's central bank.

His firm First Myanmar Investment (FMI), one of Myanmar's largest companies, made the inaugural listing.

The exchange was a "farewell gesture" from President Thein Sein, said Deputy Finance Minister Maung Maung Thein. The outgoing government had emphasizedthe stock market as a way to catch up to more developed countries.

The president will hand over to the government of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) in a ceremony on March 30, after the NLD won a landslide electoral victory in November.