The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has committed QR1bn for establishing a permanent market-making programme at the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), which is set to attract more listings, introduce more ETFs or exchange traded funds and derivatives.
This move by the country's sovereign wealth fund comes after the QSE saw the largest foreign investment flows in its history in 2022.
The commitment is set to run over the next five years and will cover 90% of the size of the market capitalisation listed on the QSE, offering an economic incentive by way of a rebate to lower trading costs for established market makers.
The permanent programme will help enhance liquidity in the market, improve price discovery, and diversify the capital markets in Qatar.
Through increased investor confidence, the programme will support to attract further foreign asset managers to invest in Qatar.
The QIA’s commitment to deepening its capital market is an important step to attracting foreign asset managers to invest in Qatar, and to stimulate retail participation that will help diversify and broaden the market. This QIA-sponsored market making initiative is a first step towards this goal and helps to further develop the Qatari financial markets.
Higher liquidity will further attract investors into the market while improving price discovery and boosting investor confidence.
The local bourse had recently amended the list of securities eligible for the market making to include more stocks.
