The Federation of International Stock Exchanges (FIBV) monthly newsletter (Focus) for April 2000 contained the following news about ASE:
On 26 March 2000 the Amman Stock Exchange launched its electronic trading system. Up to now, the trading was effected via an open-outcry system. In October 1996, the Amman Stock Exchange signed an agreement with the Bourse de Paris and SICOVAM, the French depository, to obtain technical assistance for the modernization of the stock market in accordance with international standards of trading, clearing and settlement.
Clearing and settlement operations will also be conducted electronically. A Securities Depository Center was created that will carry out the transfer of ownership.
Electronic trading started with ten company shares, Gradually, the stock exchange will move on with the rest of listed shares which will continue to be traded manually, At the end of December 1999, the Exchange listed 151 domestic companies with a total market capitalization of $ 5,827.7 million. Its share turnover amounted in 1999 to $ 548.6 million, and its bond turnover (corporate bonds, government securities, Treasury bonds) reached $ 5.8 million last year.
The Amman Stock Exchange opened in 1978 following an initiative of the central bank and, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The Exchange is one of the most developed in the region, and it is included in inebriation indexes prepared by the IFC and Morgan Stanley, Individual shareholders are the main investors in the market, with limited participation by the government and institutional investors, More than 40 percent of total market capitalization are in the hands of foreign shareholders.– (ASE)
