Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: As part of its effort to provide the best services, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) has partnered with FTSE Russell, the global index, data, and analytics provider, to become the stock market’s benchmark administrator for domestic equity indexes.
FTSE Russell will provide daily index calculations on ADX’s General Index which includes all listed companies and nine sector-specific indexes, banks, consumer staples, energy, financial services, industrials, insurance, real estate, services, and telecommunications.
In addition, a new series of sustainable finance as well as Shariah compliant indices will be planned as part of this new agreement.
ADX’s indexes will transition to FTSE Russell’s index methodology while being co-branded; this shall cover more than 66 companies listed with a total market cap of approximately $145 billion by end of 2019.
The UAE is classified by FTSE Russell as a ‘Secondary Emerging’ market within its Global Equity Index Series (GEIS) where the UAE listed companies currently represent 0.93% of the FTSE Emerging Index, a widely used global benchmark.
Commenting the agreement, the CEO of ADX, Khalifa Salem Al Mansouri, said: “The announcement coincides with the first steps and implementation phases of “Dynamic 20/20” which is the starting point of our ADX One business development strategy. The new indexes will enhance our market attractiveness to foreign investors and improve the global competitiveness of our trading environment”.
Meanwhile, FTSE Russell’s group director, information services, LSEG and CEO, Waqas Samad, noted: “The agreement demonstrates FTSE Russell’s commitment to working together with market participants across the Middles East region. We look forward to working closely with ADX and index users to launch a range of new benchmarks in the coming months”.
