Qatar Exchanges Becomes Full Member in World Federation of Exchanges

(MENAFN- Qatar News Agency) In a new recognition of the progress achieved by Qatar Exchange at various technical, regulatory and operational levels, Qatar Exchange today obtained full membership in the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) after it had been a Correspondent Member for many years. In a speech delivered to the WFE 53rd Annual Meeting being held in Mexico, Rashid Bin Ali Al-Mansoori, CEO of Qatar Exchange, expressed his gratitude and happiness to grant Qatar Exchange full membership in the World Federation of Exchanges and considered it a new step in the context of integration with the global financial markets and stock exchanges Al-Mansoori added "I'd like to use this opportunity to thank you, the Board and all my colleagues here for accepting Qatar Exchange for full membership of the WFE We are happy to be part of an organization that represents markets worldwide that are fair, transparent, well regulated and that play an important role in the economies of our respective countries." In just over 15 years we've made significant progress Our listed companies represent a good part of our domestic economy, local investors are active and increasingly sophisticated and more and more, international investors are attracted to our market by the strong economy of Qatar and the reliable market infrastructure, Al-Mansoori stated Al-Mansoori confirmed Qatar Exchange commitment to implement the best international standards, pointing out that the acceptance in the WFE membership has been achieved as a result of remarkable developments and commitment with best international practices in terms of providing better services to local and international investors, which was reflected in upgrading the Qatari market status by MSCI into an emerging market It is worth mentioning that the membership of the World Federation of Exchanges reflect the commitment of member stock exchanges with the generally accepted international standards to allow attracting more investment The WFE membership is an important reference for many international investors about the investment atmosphere in the member markets because the membership reflects the member exchanges' commitment to implement the best international practices and standards Established in 1995, the Doha Securities Market (DSM) officially commenced operations in May 1997 Since then the Exchange has grown to become one of the leading stock markets in the GCC region and for two consecutive years (2010, 2011), was the best performing stock Exchange in the GCC In June 2009, the DSM was renamed the Qatar Exchange (QE) QE currently has 42 listed companies and its market capitalization is over QR500 billion (US$127 billion) The primary aim of QE is to support Qatar's economy by giving investors a platform through which they can trade fairly and efficiently QE also provides the public with access to market information, ensures correct disclosure of information, and enforces securities regulations QE is regulated by the Qatar Financial Markets Authority.