Saudi may consider further opening of bourse to foreigners

Saudi may consider further opening of bourse to foreigners

“We want to study new ways through which the foreign investor can enter,” Adulrahman al-Tuwaijri, chairman of the Capital Market Authority told Al-Watan.

March 6, 2010 8:39 by kippreport

Saudi Arabia is planning to take further measures to open up its bourse to foreign investment, Adulrahman al-Tuwaijri, chairman of the Capital Market Authority (CMA), told Al-Watan newspaper. “We want to study new ways through which the foreign investor can enter,” he said.

The Kingdom’s bourse is only partially open to foreign investors, and in 2008, Saudi started allowing swap agreements between non-resident foreign investors and local intermediaries.

However, Tuwaijri warned that they have to be cautious. “It’s correct that foreign investment has many benefits but at the same time there is the risk of hot money getting in and then pulled out in large sums,” he said. “The current situations shows the [Saudi] market is stable, a stability that is the result of a rise in confidence,” he added.

Tags: bourse, foreign investment, open, Saudi

Previous Article GCC Next Article

Abu Dhabi awards $300 million gas project
March 6, 2010 | GCC

UAE’s non-oil foreign trade falls 16 percent in 2009
March 6, 2010

More on GCC

All GCC

1 Comment

Abdulaziz Z. Mahasen on March 7, 2010 12:16 pm

No one can argue that stability is not good, but to much restriction on the largest Arabic capital market will not do any good, another issue that rarely is discussed is the amount of public investment in the Saudi capital market.

The majority of the market capitalization is healed by government investment, this limits the amount of stocks available for trade.

“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.”