(MENAFN - Emirates News Agency (WAM)) Non-GCC investors were net buyers on ADX in the first half of 2009 announced Tom Healy, Chief Executive of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.
Giving details of first half performance and trading statistics, Healy also said that the ADX Index, market capitalisation and volumes were all up in the first half of 2009, influenced by an appreciation for the positive long-term economic outlook for Abu Dhabi.
Commenting on the ADX statistics for the first half of 2009, Healy made a number of observations about the trading patterns amongst different types of investors as well as the overall value and volumes of trading and the companies most traded by investors.
"Interestingly, while non-GCC investors only owned 4 percent of the value of stocks listed on ADX, they accounted for around 30 percent of all trading, buying and selling shares worth nearly AED16bn (4bn), giving them net purchases of AED 600m (163 million) worth of shares," said Healy.
"The number of institutional investors has also increased by 7 percent', he continued. "Many institutional investors tend to be from outside the UAE, and increasing their number is an important objective for us in encouraging a diversity of shareholder types." UAE Nationals remained the highest owners of shares by value, with AED 217bn (59bn) worth of shares, 92.5 percent of the total value of shares owned.
Healy also said it was a good sign that volumes had picked up in the first half of 2009, compared to the second half of 2008: "We saw a fall in volumes towards the end of last year. Since the beginning of this year however, they have risen 39 percent to over 20 billion shares from under 15 billion shares.
"As we would expect, given the lower values of shares, however, the value of trading is down by 48 percent, with shares worth AED 36bn (9.8bn) changing hands in the first six months of this year compared to AED70bn (19bn) in the latter half of 2008." ADX added one listed company - Green Crescent Insurance Company - in the first half of the year, taking the total number of companies up to 66 and a combined market capitalisation of over AED 282bn (77bn), a 12 percent increase on the end of 2008.
Etisalat is still the largest company listed on ADX by market capitalisation, followed by National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
In terms of the companies most traded on ADX, ALDAR was the highest traded, with over AED 8.5bn (2.3bn) worth of shares changing hands. ALDAR was followed by Sorouh, with AED 6.4bn (1.7bn) and then RAK Properties, Dana Gas and Aabar Investments.
