Abu Dhabi: 2019 was a year of recovery for the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) according to the group’s chief executive Khalifa Al Mansouri, who said that trading value was up 33 per cent in the first 11 months of the year compared to the same period in 2018.
“In 2019 we were blessed, we consider this a recovery year; [in] the first 11 months we saw an increase in trade value by about 33 per cent compared to the first 11 months of 2018,” he said at the SALT Leadership Conference.
“We also saw an increase in the number of investors … Market capitalisation saw an increase of about seven per cent compared to last year,” he added. Al Mansouri put the recovery down to better market sentiment and more investors looking to position themselves within the region.
“One part is the [positive] sentiment and one part is the effort from the international investors to reposition themselves within the region.
“ADX has been stable over the last 10 years, we did not see a lot of volatilities when it comes to hot money coming in and out; 2018 was one of our low years so the recovery is a good recovery.”
Al Mansouri also spoke on the need to innovate and use the latest technologies to ensure that ADX remains a competitive market place, highlighting how ADX introduced concepts such as block chain for e-voting for its listed companies.
“We also did two digital transformations in the last five years [and] we’re going [to do this for] the third time because of the rapid changes in technology.
“We understand the disruptive nature of technology and we’re trying to accommodate and steer that technology toward offering our products and services to a wider base of investors, he added.
“At the end of the day if you’re not on the innovation train you’re [going to be] left behind on the station, and so this is part of our strategy to be one of the leading exchanges when it comes to adopting and implementing new technologies,” Al Mansouri said.
