Ahead of the general elections on Wednesday, the Palestine Securities Exchange (PSE) reported it was the best performing stock exchange in the world as the Al Quds Index increased by 306.61% during 2005. In a press release, PSE said that "trading surged in 2005 to reach $2.096 billion, which is more-than-double of all values for all years since the first trading session in 1997 and until 2004."
It added that the market capitalization surged to almost $4.5 billion, that is as big or bigger than stock markets in seven of the 10 new European Union members. However, this is still far compared with other markets in neighboring Arab countries.
"Three companies were listed on the PSE during the year, which brought the number of listed companies to 28. In January 2005, the PSE welcomed the listing of a new pharmaceutical company, Berzeit Pharmaceutical Co. (BPC), Golden Wheat Mills (GMC) began trading in June 2005 and Bank of Palestine (BOP) joined the PSE in November 2005," the statement read.
It added that this number is expected to grow further after the promulgation of a number of laws including the securities law and the establishment of the Capital Market Authority (CMA), which commenced operations in August 2005 to supervise non-bank financial institutions, including the PSE," the press release concluded.
