Business | Investment
Number of Saudi Arabia investment funds rises
The number of investment funds in Saudi Arabia increased by 1.4 per cent to 215 in the first quarter of this year over the same period in 2006, according to a report.
- By Mariam Al Hakeem, Correspondent
- Published: 00:50 October 21, 2007
Riyadh: The number of investment funds in Saudi Arabia increased by 1.4 per cent to 215 in the first quarter of this year over the same period in 2006, according to a report.
The report released by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (Sama), the Kingdom's central bank, said that despite the increase in investment funds, the number of subscribers declined by 4.7 per cent compared to the first quarter of last year to 475,300.
"The shrinking of fund subscribers was coupled by a decline of three billion Saudi riyals, or 2.1 per cent, in the assets of these funds to 81.1 billion Saudi riyals," the report noted.
Investments in local currency in these funds decreased by 2.5 billion riyals or four per cent while investments in foreign currency dropped by 2.1 per cent or about 500 million riyals, the report added.
The report said that by the end of the first quarter of 2007, the share of investments in local currency was 72.9 per cent compared to 84.7 per cent in the first quarter of 2006.
At the same time the share of investments in foreign currency was 27.1 per cent compared to 15.3 per cent during the same period last year.
The report said that the investments by investment funds in local stock markets declined 8 per cent or 2.5 billion Saudi riyals to 28.4 billion riyals in the first quarter of 2007 compared to the same period last year.
At the same time investments by funds in overseas stock markets increased by 0.5 per cent to 57 billion riyals in the first quarter of 2007.
The report noted that investments by funds in local monetary instruments declined by 0.7 per cent to 4.6 billion riyals and investments in foreign monetary instruments declined by 5.3 per cent to 1.5 billion riyals.
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