Dubai’s stock exchange attracts over 167,000 new investors amid flurry of listings, IPOs

The number of investors in Dubai’s capital market jumped significantly over the course of one year, as more companies chose to float their shares and list on the local bourse. The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) attracted 167,332 new investors in 2022, up by 23 times from a year ago and bringing the total number of investor base to more than one million. Its net profit also surged more than 40%. Individuals from more than 200 nationalities accounted for nearly half (48.7%) of the investors with net purchases of AED 5 billion ($1.4 billion), highlighting the strong presence of foreigners on the bourse, DFM said late Tuesday. Last year, the GCC region saw a flurry of companies opting to float their shares amid high investor demand as economies make a strong comeback after the health outbreak. In Dubai, five leading government-backed and private companies, including the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and Salik, launched their initial public offerings (IPOs). Boost stock market activity The Dubai government had previously announced plans to list 10 state-backed companies in a bid to attract more investors and boost local stock market activity. “Our relentless focus on our capital markets development strategy has borne fruit, making DFM one of the most active markets globally for new IPOs and listings of 5 [entities],” said Helal Al Marri, Chairman of DFM. With the rise in investor interest in the local capital market, the DFM Company’s net profit for last year jumped by 41.7% to AED 147.1 million ($40 million), which echoes the “strong improvement” in trading value to AED 90 billion. Overall, the GCC IPO market recorded strong activity throughout last year despite volatility. The total number of IPOs from the GCC jumped to 48 issuances in 2022 from 20 issuances in 2021, according to Kamco Invest. Proceeds from the offerings rose about three times to $23.38 billion. Saudi Arabia led the offerings with 34 out of 48 total GCC IPOs debuting on either the Tadawul or Nomu. In terms of proceeds, however, the UAE topped the table, with its 11 offerings raking in more than half (59.7%) of the issuance proceeds at around $13.96 billion. (Reporting by Cleofe Maceda; editing by Seban Scaria) Cleofe.maceda@lseg.com

Dubai’s stock exchange attracts over 167,000 new investors amid flurry of listings, IPOs

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