Dubai: From today (January 10), the Abu Dhabi stock market will have a FTSE touch.
This means the ADX General Index, the main one for the Dh1.5 trillion market cap stock exchange, will be branded as ‘FTSE ADX General Index’. This follows an alliance between ADX and FTSE Russell to develop co-branded indices. FTSE Russell is owned by London Stock Exchange Group.
Thus, the ‘FTSE ADX’ sector indices will take the place of the existing sector indices. ADX is the first exchange in the region to make FTSE Russell its index administrator. The FTSE Russell has nearly $16 trillion benchmarked to its various indexes.
Further new indices will be co-developed under the partnership to support ADX’s “vision of introducing new tradable index products on its market”. The exchange launched single stock futures in the fourth quarter of last year following an agreement sealed in September with Nasdaq in September to deliver matching, real time clearing and settlement technology as ADX broadens its asset class offerings.
This is the second Shariah-compliant sub-fund of the Chimera Umbrella Fund to track the S&P Dow Jones Indices Shariah compliant index. It has been designed to replicate the S&P Saudi Arabia Shariah Liquid Top 30 – 35/20 Capped Index.
The index tracks the performance of the Top 30 most liquid Shariah-compliant equities on the Saudi Exchange. This will provide access to local and regional investors to capitalize on Saudi Arabia’s “attractive economic fundamentals” using the ETF as a vehicle.
Basar Shueb, Chairman of Chimera Capital, said: “The launch of this latest ETF builds on the success of the current ETFs which have exceeded the Dh300 million mark in less than 18 months.”
Chimera Capital is a subsidiary of Chimera Investment. The Chimera S&P UAE Shariah ETF will be managed by Chimera Capital’s onshore company, Chimera Capital, which is licensed by the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) as an investment management company. BNY Mellon will act as the ETF’s global custodian. Authorized Participants for the fund are International Securities, EFG-Hermes, Daman Securities, BHM Capital, and Arqaam Securities.
“Our partnership with FTSE Russell is part of ADX’s wide-ranging strategy to develop a dynamic exchange, which includes investment in state-of-the art market technology and increasing the opportunity set for investors and issuers,” said Saeed Hamad Al Dhaheri, CEO and Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. “The new range of FTSE-ADX indices will provide robust benchmarks and support the listing of index derivatives, ETFs other index-based products on the exchange.”
At the same time, the exchange’s market cap more than doubled to Dh1.6 trillion with net foreign investment reaching Dh15.2 billion.
