Arab markets’ trade volume at $ 711.61b

Investment managers are likely to increase their allocation to the UAE markets

Trading in the Arab financial markets amounted to $ 711.61 billion since the start of the year to November 19, with a total of 22.34 million deals, the UAE’s minister of economy said yesterday.

“Strong economic blocs requires maximum cooperation in order to overcome the challenges and difficulties faced by our joint work, which comes in the forefront of legislative structures varied and different organisational structures in the Arab stock markets and the difference in the listing and disclosure requirements,” said Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy said at a capital markets conference.

The value of these markets was $ 1.32 trillion. The Arab financial markets need to maintain a balance and stability which requires joint action to increase the attractiveness of investments, Al Mansouri said.

Investment managers are likely to increase their allocation to the UAE markets, a survey revealed.

About 47 per cent of the respondents of a survey are likely to increase the funds to the UAE market, while more than 50 per cent of those are likely to increase the allocation to Saudi markets. The Saudi regulator is likely to open the capital markets to the foreigners next year.

The survey also found that 40 per cent of fund managers expected to increase their equity allocations to Egypt and only 7 per cent to decrease them. The results of the survey also showed that funds are positive on many Gulf stock markets despite the recent slide in oil prices, which has lost more than 25 per cent since the start of the year.

Challenges

The capital markets regulator said it is facing challenges due to rapid changes in the capital markets.

Following the global financial crisis, the regulator faced challenges to revisit old legislations and they had to come up with new amendments, which took time as they had to go through a set process, said Abdullah Salim Al Turifi, chief executive of the Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority.

Last year witnessed a record 23 deal IPO in the Middle East and North Africa, which raised $ 3 billion, an increase of 64 per cent in terms of volume and 51 per cent in value terms.

The regulator said, “We are now facing challenges in the number of listing of companies on our exchanges,” without elaborating further.