The Chief Executive officer of the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE), Mr. Mazen Wathaifi, said that the repercussions of the spread of the Coronavirus had a clear impact on the performance of the ASE and on the listed companies, like other Arab and International stock exchanges, which were affected in varying degrees. He also said that the repercussions of the spread of the virus, the closure of the economic sectors, and the procedures that were taken as a precautionary measures to limit the spread of the pandemic formed pressure on the world's economies and on companies’ activity, same situation for national economy and Jordanian companies. The trading value at the ASE decreased during 2020 reaching JD1.0 billion; a decrease of 33.9%, compared with JD1.6 billion for the year 2019. The number of traded shares reached 1.1 billion shares, traded through 421 thousand transactions, compared with 1.2 billion shares traded during 2019 through 503 thousand transactions.
The ASE price index weighted by free float shares ASE100 decreased to reach 1657.2 point at the end of 2020, compared with 1815.2 point by the end of 2019; a decrease of 8.7%. In addition, the ASE price index weighted by free float shares ASE20 decreased to reach 806.5 point at the end of 2020, compared with 891.0 point by the end of 2019; a decrease of 9.5%. The market capitalization of listed shares at the ASE decreased to JD12.9 billion; a decrease of 13.5% compared with the end of 2019. Thus, the market capitalization of listed shares at the ASE for 2020 constituted 41.5% of the GDP.
As for the non-Jordanian investment at the ASE, the statistics showed that the total value of shares that were bought by non-Jordanian investors during 2020 was JD96.9 million, representing 8.9% of the overall trading value, while the value of shares sold by them amounted to JD164.4 million. As a result, the net of non-Jordanian investments showed a negative value of JD67.5 million. Accordingly, Non-Jordanian ownership in companies listed at the ASE by end of December 2020 represented 51.1% of the total market value, 32.5% for Arab investors and 18.6% for non-Arab investors.