Today, the Capital Market Authority (“CMA") issued the Quarterly Statistical Bulletin (QSB) for the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2023. This comes as part of the CMA's aim to provide statistical information and data about the Saudi capital market for participants, market analysts, and academic and student researchers. Additionally, the CMA aims to raise the level of transparency and disclosure, and to stimulate and develop investments in the capital market.
The QSB data showed that the number of Listed Companies on the main market (TASI) increased to 231 companies in Q4 of 2023, with an increase of 3.6% compared to 223 companies in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, the number of listed companies on the parallel market “Nomu" reached 79, an increase from 46 companies at the end of Q4 of 2022, marking a 71.74% year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase.
The CMA approved the offering of four companies on the main market and eight companies on the parallel market during Q4 of 2023. Meanwhile, there are still 12 offering and listing requests for “TASI" and 43 requests for “Nomu" under study during the same period.
As for the value of ownership in the main market, foreign investments reached new historical highs, exceeding SAR 400.6 billion, an increase of 15.6% Y-o-Y in Q4 of 2023. This represents an approximately 5.6-fold increase since the Saudi capital market was directly opened to foreign investors in 2015, when it recorded SAR 72.15 billion.
The ownership percentage of qualified foreign investors (QFIs) represented 80% of foreign investments in 2023, totaling SAR 320.38 billion, an increase of 18.24%—i.e., about SAR 50 billion—compared to the same quarter in 2022.
Investment funds reached a new record high of 1,285 in Q4 of 2023, marking an increase of 36.55% Y-o-Y compared to 941 funds in the year-ago period. The number of public funds reached 291, while private funds reached 994, compared to 255 and 686, respectively, at the end of the year-ago period.
The number of subscribers in public and private investment funds exceeded 1.17 million, a growth rate of 73.19%, setting a new record as the highest in history, compared to 677.2 thousand subscribers during the same period of the previous year.
The largest number of subscribers in both public and private funds was in the real estate sector; the subscribers of real estate investment traded funds (REITs) constituted 51% of the total in public investment funds, while subscribers to private real estate funds accounted for 66% of the total in private investment funds.
As for Corporate Governance, 94 General Assemblies, attended by more than 20,000 shareholders, were held in Q4 of 2023, discussing 1,248 items, of which only 23 items were rejected.
The number of Chairmen of the Boards of Directors of companies listed on the Saudi market reached 280, while the number of Non-Executive Vice-Chairmen reached 240, and the number of Executive Vice-Chairmen stood at 35. The number of Board Members of companies listed in the Saudi market reached 1,330 Non-Executive Members and 171 Executive Members.
Regarding the Financial Technology (FinTech) Companies, the number of investors in the Robo-advisory platforms amounted to 137,891 investors at a value of about SAR 724.40 million. A total of 99 institutional clients, 7,913 qualified clients, and about 211,800 retail clients benefited from the services of FinTech Companies.
The number of Sukuk offered through Debt Instruments Offering platforms amounted to 425 in Q4 of 2023, at a total value of SAR 543.8 million. The number increased by about 243% Y-o-Y, and the total value of the offered Sukuk increased by about 228% Y-o-Y.
The QSB provides a variety of data on the Saudi capital market, including Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), Equity, Debt Instruments, Investment Funds and data regarding Capital Market Institutions, Listed Companies and authorized Financial Technology (FinTech) Companies. In addition, a full chapter about Corporate Governance.
The QSB can be viewed via the following link:
Quarterly Statistical Bulletin Q4 2023