Riyadh – Mubasher: Arab stock markets lost around $350 billion in market capitalisation in the first six weeks of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, according to the Secretary-General of the Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE), Rami El-Dokany.

El-Dokany's remarks came during the opening session of the AFE Annual Conference Saudi 2021, hosted by the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

El-Dokany referred that the financial systems have seen great changes during 2020, and that Arab stock markets are expected to face a new global financial system after the pandemic.

El-Dokany further remarked that Arab countries have benefitted from liquidity, globally injected in the markets, with the stock markets witnessing a recovery in market capitalisation by the end of 2020.and a noticeable improvement in the trading volume by 21%.

The Secretary-General of AFE noted that the AFE presidency has been moved to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul), one of the world's top 10 stock markets.

He added that Tadawul constitutes more than 75% of the total value of market capitalisation in the Arab markets.

It is worth noting that AFE Annual Conference Saudi 2021 is hosted by the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in partnership with the Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE) on March 29-30 and that Mubasher is the Platinum Sponsor of the event.