Saudi investments in DFM rise 25% to Dh7.5b in first quarter

Riyadh: Saudi investments in the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) rose 25 per cent to Dh7.5 billion during the first quarter of 2008 compared to Dh6 billion last year.

The value of bonds traded by individual Saudis in the Gulf and Arab capital markets reached Dh25.8 million, according to a latest report. The number of Saudis investing in DFM rose to 41,581 in the first quarter of 2008 compared to 28,569 in the same period last year. This means that around 13,000 new investors have entered the market.

Among foreign investments, the Saudi market maintained top position in the first quarter with Dh11.8 billion, which makes up 63.5 per cent of the total value of trading by GCC nationals. In terms of trading volume, Saudi investors comprised 43.8 per cent of the 94,839 Gulf investors. This constitutes seven per cent of the volume of investors in the market that accounts for 630,000 investors.

Trading figures

Saudis purchased around 621.6 million stocks for Dh3.5 billion through 67,837 deals in the first quarter of 2008, compared to 402.2 million stocks valued at Dh3.1 billion purchased during the same period last year.

Saudi investors sold 717.7 million stocks valued at Dh4 billion in 69,270 sale deals compared to 426.4 million shares worth Dh3.1 billion sold in the previous year.

According to a recent report, Saudi Arabia's direct foreign investments (DFIs) in the UAE reached $650 million. The kingdom holds the seventh position in terms of DFI in the country. The volume of DFI had reached $18.67 billion during 2007. Of these, Britain tops with investments worth $4.57 billion, and it was followed by Japan ($3.87 billion) and India ($3.87 billion). UAE has become one of the major destinations of foreign capital in the Middle East region. The unprecedented economic boom and the prevailing investment environment are the major factors that resulted in attracting huge volume of investments into that country.