Year in review
Damascus Securities Exchange achieved a significant result in 2023 in terms of all performance indicators. DWX, has increased to reach its highest value since the launch of DSE, which closed at (60,172) points with a percentage change of 99% compared to the previous year.
Trading volumes and values (including the value of Block trades) also had increased during the year 2023 compared to 2022, by a rate of 29% for trading volume and 137% for trading values This was due to the good performance of the listed companies, which was reflected in its periodic financial disclosures during the year, besides the relatively low stock prices compared to the depreciation of the local currency and the high rate of inflation, that encouraged investors to invest in stocks as a good investment opportunity.
As for the market capitalization value, it increased to exceed (10.8 trillion) SYP with a percentage change of (98%) compared to 2022.
The economic and financial sanctions imposed on Syria led to a significant slowdown in the establishment of new companies. In addition, the existing companies faced obstacles with the lack of electricity, gas and oil, which affects its activities & led to a reduction in DSE ability to increase the number of listed companies because of the difficulties that limit companies’ ability to meet the appropriate conditions for listing. With the lack of resources & scarcity of necessary operational materials, Damascus Stock Exchange also faced major operational difficulties in operating the servers and the network equipment system on one hand. On the other hand these equipment became out of support. Therefor DSE now is in the process of developing & upgrading its IT infrastructure through purchasing new equipment: servers, Storage Aria Network SAN, and network equipment, in parallel with working on contingency plan: DR. As a result of all these circumstances we had witnessed a high rate of employees’ turnover during last year.
In the context of developing market tools and services, raising the efficiency and effectiveness of trading; DSE was working on adding more indices that are of interest to the investor & meet his options. All technical requirements have been completed in accordance with the necessary standards and conditions, to adopt Islamic index DIX by the end of 2023 to be one of the group of three DSE indices (DWX, DLX, DIX)
Regarding DSE effort to increase the number of listed companies, National Islamic Bank NIB obtained the preliminary approval for listing to be finally listed at 31/01/2024. During the past year, brokerage firms were supported to apply online trading services which increase & facilitate the trading process in line with digital development.