‘Exciting’ Saudi opportunities as market opens in June

Saudi Arabia is pressing ahead with plans to open its stock market to foreign investors in June. Currently, non-resident foreigners, through swaps, only make up 1% of the market in terms of both value traded and percentage held. This is compared to 64% ownership in Turkey and about 30% in Brazil and South Korea.

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Oliver Bell, T. Rowe Price

“This is an exciting development – given the size, $554bn market cap, and depth of the market,” Oliver Bell, manager of T. Rowe Price’s Middle East & Africa Equity and Frontier Markets Equity funds, says. “There are 168 listed companies covering 15 industries in Saudi Ara-bia – from petrochemicals, banks, telecoms, hospital groups, educa-tion and travel companies.

The notable exception is oil, which re-mains state controlled. A further attraction for global investors is the liquidity of the market, which can trade up to $4bn a day.”

T. Rowe has invested in Saudi, via swaps, since 2006. It makes up 21% of its Middle East & Africa Fund and 7% of the Frontier Markets Fund.