RIYADH (Agencies)
Saudi Arabia's main stock index rose on Tuesday as the market regulator lifted restrictions on Gulf Arab citizens trading on the biggest Arab exchange.
Nationals of Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain can trade in all Saudi stocks with immediate effect, the Capital Market Authority said in a statement posted on the bourse Web site late on Monday.
Those nationals had previously been restricted from investing in Saudi banks and other financial services.
"The Saudi Stock Exchange should treat with complete equality citizens of the Gulf Cooperation Council and Saudi citizens with regards to owning and trading in listed shares," the Capital Market Authority said.
The Saudi index is the only loser in the Gulf so far this year, down 0.9 percent at Monday's close. The benchmark was up 0.84 percent at 0951 GMT on Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia's cabinet ordered the bourse regulator at the end of August to remove constraints on investors from five other Gulf Arab oil producers.
A cabinet statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency said the move was in line with the resolutions of a 2002 summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
"The council of ministers authorizes the Capital Market Authority (CMA) to do what is required for ... full equality between nationals of the GCC in holding and trading stocks," it said.
The GCC is a loose political and economic alliance that also comprises the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, and Oman.
The GCC summit held in Qatar in December, 2002 sanctioned that all nationals of the bloc receive equal treatment in all economic activities and set 2007 as a deadline for the implementation of the resolution.
In 2005, the kingdom said that it would open its stock market to fellow Gulf Arabs but sectors such as banking and insurance would remain off-limits.
Last August, the kingdom announced plans to ease restrictions on Gulf Arab institutional investment in its bourse. The CMA said then it would allow government investment institutions, pension funds and social insurance funds based in the six GCC monarchies to invest in the Saudi bourse.
Some Gulf private sector institutions such as investment banks have been active in the Saudi market for years, sometimes through special investment vehicles.
Most Gulf states have some restrictions on foreign investment in stocks.
The momentum of reform picked up after the Saudi market crashed in February 2006. The CMA allowed the kingdom's foreign residents to invest directly in stocks after the crash, hoping to revive confidence as capital fled the market. |
