Riyadh – Mubasher: Financial markets have faced exceptional challenges in 2020 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the consequent preventive measures, but managed to play a major role despite the economic hardships, Chairman of the Saudi Capital Markets Authority (CMA), Mohammed Al Kuwaiz, said.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the AFE Annual Conference Saudi 2021, organized by the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) in partnership with the Arab Federation of Exchanges (AFE), Al Kuwaiz said that Tadawul played an important role last year. Initial public offerings (IPOs) on Tadawul attracted SAR 5.5 billion, compared with SAR 4.2 billion in 2019, excluding the IPO of Saudi Aramco, reflecting a 34% growth.

Al Kuwaiz added that SAR 6 billion were collected through capital hikes for Tadawul-listed companies through rights issues, compared with only SAR 100 million in 2019.

We saw notable growth in debt instruments with a total value of SAR 200 billion in 2020, up by 65% compared with SAR 120 billion in 2019, he further noted.

Al Kuwaiz emphasized that the pivotal role of the financial market resulted from exerting great efforts and not by chance, pointing to the 2008 global financial crisis that led to major reforms across the markets, indicating that last year, financial markets were much more resilient and attracted investors during the pandemic.

Mubasher is the Platinum Sponsor of AFE Annual Conference Saudi 2021, held on 29-30 March.