The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) plans to launch margin-trading and covered short-selling to capitalise on the inclusion this week of Qatari equities in the MSCI emerging markets index.
UAE shares are also to be included in the index at the end of May. This will increase the number of countries represented in the MSCI emerging markets index to 22.
Speaking at a dinner for brokers in London on 24 May, QSE chief executive officer Rashid al-Mansoori said that action has been taken to make investing in Qatari equities attractive to long-term investors. He said further innovations would enhance the attractions of the QSE.
“(W)e continue to work with the regulator to introduce margin-trading and covered short-selling regulation,” Al-Mansoori said. “The liquidity aspect is our top priority given its importance to the domestic and international investor base. In this sense, the development of QSE’s trading environment (now covering UTP, DvP and Scila) reflects best international practice providing investors with new investment opportunities backed by the existence of efficient and effective systems.”
Al-Mansoori said exchange-trade fund (ETF) products were now on the agenda.
“The QSE is working on two live ETF projects,” he said. “One of these will be an ETF based on government fixed income risk from an Asian borrower and the second product is likely to be an ETF based on a representative Qatar-country index. We hope to introduce these ETFs to the market in the next 6 months…these transactions will be larger (by an order of magnitude) than anything else currently listed in the region.”
For more see www.meed.com.