The Director General of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) said the recent adjustment of regional stock exchanges was the result of unique market forces and some investors’ lack of investment maturity.
Essa Kazim was addressing over 350 businessmen at the MashreqForum, a periodic networking luncheon sponsored by Mashreqbank, held recently at the Emirates Towers.
In his speech, Kazim reviewed the performance of DFM during the past period of 2006 compared to previous years. He also pointed out that the trading value has total of 53 billion dollars till the end of May 2006 where the average of daily trading increased to 444 million dollars compared with the average of daily trading totaling 368 million dollars during 2005. In addition, the trading volume increased during the above period to 18.8 billion shares with the daily average of 157 million shares compared to a daily average of 85 million shares. This was, of course, reflected on the number of transactions that amounted to 1.2 million trading transactions during the past period of 2006 with a daily average of 9,825 transactions compared to a daily average of 5,780 transactions during 2005.
Kazim has also said that investment opportunities available at Dubai financial Market are very attractive, especially for the foreign investors. This is clearly manifested in the number and formation of the investors at the market where the total number of investors amounted to 127,000 during 2003. In fact, 2% of these investors were foreign investors whose volume of trading reached around 13% at that time out of total trading. In contrast, the total number of investors reached 519,000 in May of 2006 when 25% of them constituted foreign investors whose trading totaled around 30%. Moreover, the number of brokerage companies increased from 18 in 2004 to reach 66 until May, 2006.
Explaining the performance of regional financial markets, Kazim made it clear that DFM achieved the first position in terms of increase in the price index during 2005. As DFM price index showed an increase of 132% during that year. In addition, DFM achieved the second position in terms of trading Value during 2005 after the Saudi Stock Market and secured the second position in terms of trading volume after Kuwaiti Stock Market.
As for the primary market, Kazim has pointed out that the total volume of IPO's and increase in paid capital has considerably High on the level of GCC countries during 2005, as it reached around 20 billion versus 6 billion dollars in 2004. In fact, Dubai has achieved the highest volume of IPO's and increase in paid capital on the regional level, as it amounted to 5.2 billion dollars followed by Abu Dhabi that achieved 4.9 billion dollars and then Kuwait with 3.3 billion dollars.
“I would like to thank Mr. Kazim for his time and effort for sharing his views and speaking in MashreqForum,” Said AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, CEO, Mashreqbank.
“The recent changes in the stock market are extremely important and sensitive at this stage and we wanted to gather the biggest number of investors and business men with Mr. Kazim to be able to understand these changes and adjust to them accordingly,” continued Al Ghurair
The forum was very positively received where many of the attendees walked out with a better understanding to the stock market in the GCC.
Al Ghurair handed the ’Distinguished Speaker’ trophy of the MashreqForum to Mr. Kazim thanking him for speaking in the forum and for his continous efforts in upgrading the level of professionalism in dealings and transactions in the stock market.
In addition to being Director General of the DFM, Essa Kazim is a Director of the DIFC, Board Member of the DIFX, Coordinator General of the Dubai Quality Award, Member of the Dubai Council for Economic Affairs and Member of the UAE Economy and Trade Committee.
Kazim began his career as Senior Analyst in the Research and Statistics Department of the UAE Central Bank in 1988 and then moved to Dubai Department of Economic Development as Director of Planning and Development in 1993. He was then appointed Director General of the DFM in 1999.
He holds a Master degree in Economics from the University of Lowa and a Bachelors degree in Mathematics, Economics and Computer Science from Coe College, USA. In 1998, he also achieved a Masters degree in Total Quality Management from the University of Wollongong in the UAE.
Al Ghurair handed the ’Distinguished Speaker’ trophy of the MashreqForum to Mr. Kazim thanking him for speaking in the forum and for his continous efforts in upgrading the level of professionalism in dealings and transactions in the stock market.
Launched in early 2002, MashreqForums are invitational business occasions hosted by Mashreqbank in order to enhance communications within the business community and encourage the economic development in the UAE.
Each forum is addressed by a high profiled industry speaker to a gathering of the business elite, usually in the format of a luncheon.
"Mashreqbank understands the importance of building and maintaining close business relationships across different sectors that might not otherwise meet on a regular basis. The response to the forum from our corporate clients and invited speakers has been overwhelmingly positive," said Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, CEO of Mashreqbank.
Former speakers at the luncheons have included Sheika Lubna Al Qassimi, Ministry of Finance; Shaikh Tarik Al Qassimi, Chairman of the Economic Development Department, Government of Sharjah; Sultan Bin Sulayem, Chairman of Dubai Ports and Jebel Ali Free Zone Authorities; Mohammed Ali Al Abbar, Director General of the Dubai Department of Economic Development; Saeed Al Tayer, Managing Director and CEO, DEWA; and Mohammad Hassan Omran, formerly CEO and now Chairman of Etisalat.
