Investors

Bitcoin and Ethereum touch all-time high in October

October marked a record-breaking month for cryptocurrencies with Bitcoin touching its all-time high in October. With bitcoin price soaring, the market cap for bitcoin also breached the 1 trillion threshold. The second largest cryptocurrency – Ethereum, also touched its all-time high of USD 4,402 in October, on the back of upward crypto momentum and a recent technical upgrade to the Ethereum network. Ethereum based meme cryptocurrency – Shiba Inu soared 155% in the last week of October and 1,000% over...

Filling the gap in ESG framework: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has asked banks to help it develop an environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework, as per a recent article in Reuters. According to the article, development of ESG framework was likely a precursor for a multibillion dollar bond sale, which would be the Saudi wealth fund's first. ESG has been one of the hottest topics in the world of finance. There is ample demand from investors for ESG compliant instruments but due to lack of...

Foreign investment in Saudi stock market up by 150%

It is reported that the foreign investment in the Kingdom's stock market increased by more than 150 percent by the end of Q2 2021, compared to late 2018. Banking, basic materials, energy and communications attracted the most foreign investment. This can be attributed to the Saudi Arabia’s efforts to develop the financial market and expand the institutional investment base. The value of foreign investment in Saudi Stock Market was USD 73.6 billion in 2021Q2 comprising mainly of Qualified Foreign Investors...

GCC Asset Management and its challenges

Interview with Mr. M.R.Raghu, CEO, Marmore MENA Intelligence How big is GCC Asset Management industry and who are the major players? The GCC Asset Management Industry manages around USD 59 billion in assets, spread across 223 funds across the region. The Saudi asset management industry leads the region managing 87% of the assets and having 57% of the funds domiciled in the country. Kuwait comes in at a distant second, having 5% of the total AUM domiciled in the county....

استراتيجيات تخصيص أصول صناديق الثروات السيادية في دول مجلس التعاون الخليجي

The GCC SWFs are bestowed with the responsibility to preserve and grow the national wealth for the future generations and simultaneously, facilitate social development, economic diversification and enhancement of the domestic infrastructure. Based on these objectives the SWFs have been successful in devising and executing their investment strategy in the past. However, over the last few years, the regional SWFs have been operating under several challenges such as low interest rates, new normal oil prices, geopolitical shocks and beginning of...