Saudi Arabia on Sunday (February 26th) launched a parallel equity market designed to boost small and medium enterprises that closed up 20%, the maximum allowed in a single day, AFP reported.
The index on the parallel market, Nomu, listing seven companies, closed at 6,000 points with trading of 256 million Saudi riyals (about $67 million).
Argaam, a Saudi economic website, put the total capitalisation of the seven companies trading on Nomu at 1.8 million riyals ($479 million).
The companies listed are Raydan Restaurants, Baazeem Trading Company, Arab Sea, Al-Omran Trading, Abdullah Saad Abo Moati, Food Development Company and Al-Samaani Metal.
Argaam said Baazeem was the most active on Sunday with 2.2 million shares trading hands.
To be listed on Nomu, companies must have a market value of at least 10 million riyals ($2.7 million), a minimum of 35 to 50 shareholders and at least 20% of shares publicly owned.
Firms listing on the kingdom's main stock market, the Tadawul, must have minimum capitalisation of 100 million riyals, or 10 times that of the new platform.
Nomu's launch was announced last Monday by Tadawul, which said the new equity market was "an alternative trading platform with lighter listing requirements".
Saudi Arabia's "Vision 2030" reform plan to diversify its oil-dependent economy aims for small and medium sized firms to account for 35% of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 20%.
Tadawul, which has a capitalisation of about $400 billion, opened to direct investment by qualified foreigners for the first time in 2015.
