Kuwait to launch new trading system

The Kuwait Stock Exchange will start using on May 13 trading systems provided by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc to improve volumes in the Gulf’s fourth-largest bourse by market value, said director general Faleh al-Raqabah. “The system will be a qualitative leap for Kuwait’s stock exchange in terms of trading and surveillance,” al-Raqabah told reporters today in Kuwait City. “It would guarantee more flexibility, transparency and is the gate towards the introduction of derivatives and further developments in the upcoming future.” Kuwait signed in October 2009 a three-year KD18.3m ($65.7m) contract with Nasdaq OMX to provide it with the trading system and advisory services. The first phase of the system will remove the fraction market and add five industry sectors to the existing eight in line with Nasdaq’s company classification rules, he said. It will also include the start of a Kuwait 15 index that will include the 15 biggest companies by market value and liquidity, al-Raqabah said. “These companies will be revised and changed every six months, and the index will kick off at 1000” points, he said. The bourse also plans to introduce derivatives trading, including options and futures, along with exchange-traded funds, bonds and Islamic debt, al-Raqabah said. Kuwait’s benchmark stock gauge has rallied 11 percent this year compared with a 6.4 percent increase in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.