Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) Chief Executive, Rashed Al Blooshi said that the continuous growth in ADX performance during the past 16 years is closely aligned with the vision and aspirations of the wise leadership that considers the improvement of the performance as the best way to continue achieving comprehensive development.
“ADX was established in the year 2000 and has promptly become among the top regional markets in terms of return on investment, innovation, performance, digital transformation, and the ability to attract foreign & institutional investments. We would have never achieved such successes which continue to serve Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030 without the constant support of our wise leadership.” said Al Blooshi.
ADX Chief Executive added “As we celebrate our 16th anniversary, we are taking time not only to look back on our achievements and performance, but also to look forward at the new opportunities ahead. FTSE, Russel Investment, S&P, S&P Dow Jones, and MSCI inclusion of ADX to their emerging market index is proof of the commitment that we have undertaken to achieve international recognition and to facilitate access for international investors.”
“Abu Dhabi economy continues to achieve good levels of growth, a fact that strengthens confidence locally and internationally and brings further optimism in the Exchange. It also reflects the successful efforts made by the government to transform the challenges of fluctuating global oil prices to opportunities for more diversity of economic structure through strengthening the performance of non-oil activities to achieve the goals of Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. ”
Al Blooshi also said that ADX, representing one of comprehensive development means in the Emirate, has succeeded in making 2016 a year of digital transformation by introducing number of innovations to that end, of which is the implementation of Blockchain technology-based services, thus becoming the first financial market in the MENA region to introduce such technology to its stream of services.
“Vision clarity and transparent execution of Abu Dhabi’s development goals have reinforced the confidence in our future plans. Thus it was no surprise that in 2015 ADX won the award of the most innovative stock market in the GCC, which was followed by 4th Middle East Financial Markets Excellence Award in 2016.” Added ADX Chief Executive
Al Blooshi added that as ADX moves into 2017, we will be maintaining focus on our strategic priorities and we expect to deliver another year of good performance and growth given the attractiveness of stock prices and the good P/E Ratio – in addition to the increased return on investment for listed companies.
By the end of first half of 2016, the market capitalization of all listed companies on ADX stood at 459 billion Dirhams, of which 433 billion Dirhams was for local listed companies.
Also during the first half of 2016, margin trading reached 9 billion Dirhams. While the number of registered investors on the Exchange since inception up to the first half of 2016 exceeded 960,000 investors, of which 7200 institutional investors, with around 5000 being foreign institutional investors.
Meanwhile, ADX General Index closed at 4498 points by the end of the first half of 2016, surging by 4% and 191 points since the beginning of the year. Whereas the total trading value, buy and sell, reached 56.5 billion Dirhams by the first half of 2016 – with 24.3 billion Dirhams during the second quarter.
Listed companies profits during the first half of 2016 reached 17.41 billion Dirhams, with the banking sector representing %63 of total profits during the second quarter.
The total foreign and institutional investments during the first half of 2016 reached 7 billion Dirhams. Meanwhile the market value of shares owned by foreign investors during the first half of the year reached 43 billion Dirhams, increasing by 10% compared to 2015.
Some of ADX key achievements include launching the Smart Kiosk (SAHMI) the first of its kind for a financial market in MENA region, and also being the first in GCC to adopt XBRL as the financial reporting standard for listed companies, as well as being the first in GCC to: list Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), implement automatic monitoring system (Smart System) which can monitor and record automatically transactions and other trading activities on the, listing of Shares of Private Joint Stock Companies.
