CEO of Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) Rashid Al Mansoori said that QSE is working on two live ETF projects. 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.
“In terms of AUM these transactions will be larger (by an order of magnitude) than anything else currently listed in the region,” he said in a dinner event, QSE hosted in London for senior representatives of sell side Brokers and Institutions. “We hope to introduce these ETFs to the market in the next 6 months,” he added.
The event was held the Dorchester Hotel in London and the purpose of this event was to meet with the key traders and sales executives who are responsible for the international order flow into the Qatari Market. This event complimented the previous road show event where in QSE meet with key decision makers from a number of the world’s largest international buy side institutions.
Al-Mansoori,who headed the QSE delegation, delivered a speech about the achievements and future plans of QSE and why it is a favorable investment destination for international fund managers and investment institutions. He said that: “we believe we have made significant progress at a legislative and technical level, infrastructure and systems, disclosure and governance practices, awareness-raising and spreading the culture of investment; as well as the diversification of investment tools and services provided to investors.”
Al-Mansoori recognized the role played by the sell side institutions in presenting an efficient and easy access to the Qatari Market for the international investors. He welcomed the feedback provided by those present on how to further enhance the accessibility to the Qatari Market.
He highlighted that QSE has implemented a number of measures to enhance the liquidity of the market. He added that “these measures include tick size changes, adjusting the trading hours, enhancing the number of brokerage firms, assisting in licensing a number of banks as custodians, introducing the concept of liquidity provision and securities lending and borrowing. Secondly, we have introduced DvP and DMA schemes for foreign brokers, the latter through a sponsoring local broker. Thirdly, QSE has introduced a number of new investment tools such as bonds and treasury bills, as well as launching various new indices.” “These infrastructure changes are of course market-wide and therefore benefits the international investor base too. Foreign investors generate 40 % of the total turnover and the Sell side brokers are responsible for facilitating this order traffic into the market by ensuring prompt execution and best services to the investors,” Al-Mansoori added He stated that QSE is keen to implement the world best practices in securities trading, clarifying that: “As we speak we continue to work with the regulator to introduce margin trading and covered short selling regulation. 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.”
Source : Qatar News Agency
