The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), Mr. Nader Azar, said that the ASE witnessed a slight decline in performance during 2015. The ASE price index weighted by free float shares decreased to reach (2136.3) point at the end of 2015 compared with (2165.5) point by the end of 2014; a decrease of (1.35%), despite this decline, the performance of the ASE is considered better than most Arab markets performance. The market capitalization of listed shares at the ASE decreased slightly to JD (18) billion; a decrease of (0.5%), compared with last year 2014 closing, constituting (70.7%) of the GDP.
In spite of the decline in the ASE price index, the trading value for the ASE increased during 2015 reaching JD (3.4) billion; an increase of (51%), compared with JD (2.3) billion for the year 2014. The number of traded shares reached (2.6) billion shares, traded through (899) thousand transactions, compared with (2.3) billion shares traded during 2014 through (956) thousand transactions.
As for the non-Jordanian investment at the ASE, which is distributed to more than one hundred nationality around the world, the statistics showed that the value of shares bought by non-Jordanian investors during the year 2015 was JD981.7 million, representing 28.7% of the overall trading value, while the value of shares sold by them amounted to JD971.1 million. As a result, the net of non-Jordanian investments showed an inccrease of JD10.6 million, compared to a decrease by JD22.2 million for the same period of 2014.
Accordingly, Non-Jordanian ownership in companies listed at the ASE at the end of December 2015 becomes around (49.5%) of the overall market capitalization, where Arab investors constituting (36.8%), and non-Arab investors constituting (12.7%) of the overall market capitalization of the ASE.
As for the performance of the public shareholding companies for the first three-quarters of the year 2015, the financial data for the (219) companies that provided the ASE with its quarterly reports revealed that profits before taxes of these companies have been risen to around JD (1.3) billion for the period (Jan-Sept) 2015 compared with JD (1.2) billion for the same period of 2014, an increase of (11.2%) .