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Foreign investors consulting Saudi wealth management funds on Kingdom’s stock market: sources | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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A Saudi trader monitors stocks at the Saudi stock market in Riyadh on April 28, 2013. (Reuters/Faisal Al-Nasser)


A Saudi trader monitors stocks at the Saudi stock market in Riyadh on April 28, 2013. (Reuters/Faisal Al-Nasser)

A Saudi trader monitors stocks at the Saudi stock market in Riyadh on April 28, 2013. (Reuters/Faisal Al-Nasser)

Riyadh, Asharq Al-Awsat—Global financial institutions are consulting Saudi wealth management funds on the acquisition of potentially lucrative stocks listed on the Kingdom’s Tadawul stock exchange, sources have told Asharq Al-Awsat, following the decision on Tuesday to open the exchange to foreign investors in 2015.

One of the sources, who requested anonymity, said there had been “many calls over the last two days” to funds from foreign companies and institutions seeking information regarding “the reality” of the Saudi stock market and its listed companies.

Other well-informed sources who asked not to be named have told Asharq Al-Awsat the Capital Markets Authority, the Kingdom’s financial markets regulator that announced the decision on Tuesday, is set to release a list of draft provisions to regulate the entry of foreign investment into the exchange within 60 days.

The draft document will include proposed legislation limiting foreign investors to certain stocks, the sources said, echoing some past comments from the Authority.

Meanwhile, one of the sources said the Authority would press ahead with further regulations as part of a campaign to crack down on “negative financial practices that have proliferated in the past ten years.”

That source also said the new regulations would allow only legally and financially established firms entry into the Saudi stock market.

Tuesday’s announcement by the Authority suggested the market would only be open to foreign institutions, and not individuals.

It added that a final list of regulations regarding the liberalization of the Arab world’s largest bourse—at 530 billion US dollars by market capitalization—would be released within 90 days.