Arab stock exchanges witnessed growth by nearly $60 billion in 2012, following a slump in 2011. UAE’s twin stock markets and Saudi Tadawul accounted for around 80% of this growth.
In a report issued on Wednesday, Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) pointed out that the combined market capitalization of 14 Arab bourses have hit $944.2 billion at 2012-end, with an increase of $60.2 billion, compared to $884 billion at 2011-end.
Most Arab stock exchanges headed north, especially Dubai Financial Market (DFM), Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)) and Tadawul that performed best in 2012 and which witnessed a jump in their capitalization to about $49 billion. For Muscat Securities Market (MSM), it has recorded a capitalization of around $22.2 billion at 2012-end, compared to $19.6 billion at 2011-end.
On the other hand, Bahrain Stock Exchange (BSE) was the only bourse which witnessed a decline as it capitalization fell to $15 billion at 2012-end, compared to $16.5 billion at 2011-end.
Outside the GCC region, the Egyptian Exchange (EGX) recorded the best performance last year, with a leap in market capitalization from $48.6 billion in 2011 to $60.2 billion at 2012-end . Meanwhile, The Casablanca Stock Exchange (CSE)’s capitalization fell to $52.9 billion at 2012-end from $60 billion.
AMF further added in its report that the rest of the Arab bourses have achieved a growth in their capitalization, except for Damascus Securities Exchange (DSE) which hit lowest level since being listed in AMF’s stock market data base. DSE’s capitalization reached around $1.04 billion at 2012-end, compared to $1.5 billion at 2011-end.
