FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES
ANNUAL REPORT JUNE 2013
AMMAN STOCK EXCHANGE
2013 has been ended with a bullish
performance; the Amman Stock Exchange
(ASE) recorded the first annual gains in six
years.
Nader Azar
Acting Chief Executive Officer
The ASE has succeeded in ending 2013 with
gains after the losses it witnessed since 2008
till 2012. The ASE was able to achieve 53%
increase in total volume in 2013 which reached
US$ 4.3 billion in compare to US$ 2.8 billion
in 2012. The general Index increased by 5.5%
to close at 2066 points, the number of traded
shares reached 2.7 billion with an increase
of 13.5% and the number of transactions
reached 1.07 million with an increase of 10%. In
addition, the net of non-Jordanian investments
at the ASE recorded an increase of US$ 205
million.
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) was
established in March 1999 as a private
institution with administrative and financial
autonomy. It is authorized to function as an
exchange for the trading of securities. The
ASE is governed by a seven-member board of
directors. A Chief Executive Officer oversees
day-to-day responsibilities and reports to the
board. The ASE membership is comprised of
Jordan’s 62 brokerage firms.
To provide a transparent and efficient market,
the ASE implemented internationally recognized
directives regarding market divisions and
listing criteria. It also adopted procedures for
improving regulatory effectiveness.
2013 has been a coherent year for the ASE
in spite that it wasn’t an easy year for Jordan
on the economic level, due to a number of
economic challenges that has been existed
previously, in addition to the political unrest and
instability in the region. We anticipate that the
ASE could see a strong recovery during 2014,
and hopefully it might be the starting year for
growth.
On the other hand, the ASE continued its efforts
to update its technical infrastructure. And on the
legislative level, the Sukuk law has been issued
and Sukuk Listing and Trading Directives will be
issued soon, thus, we are sure that trading in
Sukuk will start during 2014.
In 2012 the ASE launched new market
segmentation where markets were reclassified
by virtue of the new Listing Directives. The ASE
began the implementation of the new trading
hours and the new price thresholds according
to the new segmentation. The price thresholds
for the shares of companies listed on the First
Market to become (7.5%) instead of (5%).
The price thresholds for the shares listed on
the Second and the Third markets remained
(5%). The new directives obliged all the listed
companies for the first time to provide the
ASE with their quarterly reports reviewed by
the companies’ auditors as of the first quarter
of the year 2013. Starting January 2013 the
ASE launched three indices pertaining to each
individual market.
The future outlook for the ASE has been
developed depending on the following areas;
enhancing operations through investing in
technology, modernizing the ETS, expanding
the services offered to market participants, and
increasing transparency through investing in
infrastructure and developing regulation.
We are confident that building on these areas
will support the ASE most strategic goal, which
is converting the legal status of the ASE to a
public shareholding company wholly and fully
owned by the government at the first stage.
FUTURE OUTLOOK
The ASE will embark on a number of key
projects. These projects can be summarized as
follows:
• Corporatization and Demutualization of the
ASE to be a public shareholding company
wholly and fully owned by the government.
• Continuing upgrading the technical
infrastructure and modernizing the Electronic
Trading System.
• Launching new financial instruments.
• Introducing new investment tools by listing
Sukuk Instruments and ETFs.
• Attracting foreign Investments.
PAGE 20