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Foreigners' Shareholding Drop on ADX in 2008

The drop in the values mirrors large-scale selling on global financial markets which went into tailspin after the recession hit Western markets.

“ADX performed well in comparison with other Middle East exchanges even though the share price index lost 47 per cent,” Healy told Khaleej Times.

The DFM fell 72 per cent for example and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawal lost 56 per cent of its share price index.

The ADX price-earnings (p/e) ratio, which is the valuation ratio of a company’s current share price compared to its per share earnings, was a comparatively high 16.2 at the end of 2007. By the end of 2008, it had fallen to only 6 as the crisis in the global financial system worsened during the second half of last year.

The chief executive of ADX said that UAE nationals owned shares valued at Dh262 billion, which was 87 per cent of total shares listed on the ADX at the beginning of 2008. “But things changed by the end of the year, when values were seen falling to Dh154 billion, about 91 per cent of the total shares in the market which increased the proportion of their shareholding by four per cent”, he said.

GCC nationals had investments worth Dh12.640 billion on ADX, four per cent of the total shareholding, which dropped to Dh6.96 billion, retaining its earlier four per cent ownership exposure. But foreign investors, who had shares worth Dh24.880 billion, nine per cent of the total shares at the end of year 2007 fell to Dh7.743 billion, which also led to shrinkage in their share ownership to five per cent. The four per centage points difference went to the UAE nationals.

Foreign investors bought shares valued at Dh40.6158 billion and sold Dh30.652 billion worth shares, during the year 2007, withholding shares amounting to Dh9.963 billion at the end of the year. 


haseebhaider@khaleejtimes.com

• Abu Dhabi