Saudi Arabia records 476% surge in market cap in last 5 years: CMA

Logo of the Capital Market Authority

The Saudi stock market, the largest in the region, took the ninth place among the world’s stock markets in terms of market capitalization in 2022 and the fourth place among G20, Yazid Al-Dumaiji, the Capital Market Authority’s (CMA) Undersecretary for Strategic and International Affairs said.

The Saudi stock market recently reported growth on various levels. The number of listed companies rose to 269 in 2022 from 188 in 2017.

The stock market also witnessed massive increases in market capitalization of SAR 9.9 trillion (or $2.6 trillion) last year, a surge of 476.5% in the last five years.

There are almost 80 applications under review for initial public offering (IPOs), Al-Dumaiji added.

Further, assets under management (AUMs) soared 90.1% in the last five years to SAR 743.4 billion in 2022, from SAR 391 billion in 2017.

The number of capital market institutions also saw a remarkable increase of 63% to reach 141 in 2022, compared to 86 in 2017, he added, noting that the total revenue of these institutions leapfrogged 144% to SAR 12.2 billion from 2017-2022.

Al-Dumaiji added that Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) witnessed a rise of 388% in foreign investments to reach a historical level of SAR 347 billion in 2022, from SAR 71 billion in 2017. Foreign investor ownership accounted for 14.2% of free float on Tadawul last year, compared to 12.8% in 2020.

Since Tadawul joined global emerging markets indices, net foreign investments stood at nearly SAR 183.9 billion in 2022, recording the highest net inflows estimated at around SAR 43 billion in 2022 alone.

The top official added that the CMA continues to develop the rules regulating foreign investment in securities to enhance the Saudi capital market efficiency and attractiveness to foreign investors.

He added that fintech permits in the Kingdom reached 29 recording an increase of 262.5% compared to total permits in 2020.

The market regulator seeks to introduce further enhancements in the fintech field, particularly security tokens. The CMA has recently received security token-linked fintech models in Q4 2022 in addition to three applications.