Chairman of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) Mohammad bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan has explained that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has several objects it wants to achieve by allowing eligible foreign financial institutions to invest in stocks listed on the Saudi Stock Market, or which the most important is to attract the specialized investors in order to promote the institutional investment and upgrade the level of research and studies on the Saudi Stock Market. In a press statement today, he said that the Authority is seeking since its inception to develop the Saudi Capital Market and that the decision allowing foreign investors will contribute to the achievement of this through a number of goals in short and long terms including the addition of specialized international investors' expertise to the local market, and promotion of the Authority's efforts towards increasing institutional investment in market as well as encouragement of the listed corporations to improve the level of transparency, disclosure and governance practices. On individuals whose 'Financial Institutions are Licensed by Authority', CMA Chairman emphasized that this step will contribute to the growth of their business through serving this new segment of customers, to be accompanied by an increase in the activities of awareness and different specialized conferences on financial investment and raising awareness in general about the financial market and investment in it,' noting that opening the market to foreign investment does not focus on levying of capital or pumping cash because the local market does not suffer from scarcity, especially since the average trading value is within the accepted global averages.
