GCC stock markets are hitting record highs. Here’s why

GCC stock markets are hitting record highs. Here’s why

Image courtesy; Christopher Pike/ Getty Images

The GCC finished 2022 as one of the few bright spots in global initial public offering (IPO) markets. This trend has continued so far this year with companies in the region raising $3.4bn from 10 offerings in Q1 2023, according to the latest data from EY.

According to Kamco Invest’s projections in January, the pipeline for announced and rumoured public offerings could range between 27 and 39 companies throughout 2023. “Q1 2022 and Q1 2023 are by far the best performing quarters by IPO proceeds which the GCC has ever experienced up until now,” says Muhammad Hassan, capital markets leader at PwC Middle East.

There are a host of reasons why IPO markets in the region outperformed other geographies such as the relative resilience and immunity to global geopolitical events that drove passive index flows and index compiler weightings in favour of GCC stock exchanges.

Zahir Sabur, senior associate of Global Corporate at Reed Smith says the reforms being implemented in the UAE have had the desired effect of increasing not only the number of listings on both the Dubai Financial Markets (DFM) and Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) but have also raised the markets’ international profile.

“The