Foreign investors responsible for 53% of overall trading at ASE in 2018

AMMAN — The total value of shares bought by non-Jordanian investors during 2018 reached JD1.2318 billion, representing 53.1 per cent of the overall trading value, the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) announced on Thursday.

The value of shares sold by the foreign investors amounted to JD747.3 million, the ASE said on its website. 

The value of shares they bought during December totalled JD495.7 million, constituting 83.7 per cent of the overall trading value of last month, while the shares they sold during the same period amounted to JD34.8 million, according to the ASE.

As a result, the net of non-Jordanian investments in December 2018 showed an increase by JD460.9 million, compared with a decrease by JD2.9 million during the same month of 2017. 

The net of non-Jordanian investments in 2018 showed an increase of JD484.5 million, compared with a decrease by JD334.3 million for the previous year. 

The ASE in early December witnessed a sharp sell-off that experts, during interviews with The Jordan Times, attributed to the decision to impose an income tax on stock profits in the 2018 amendments to the Income Tax Law.

Earlier this week, the Cabinet announced that the tax was set in the new law at 0.0008 per cent of the value of traded shares (both from sellers and buyers), while it amended regulations under which brokerage companies and affiliates would be tasked with collecting the due income tax.

Market capitalisation of subscribed shares in the Amman Stock Exchange fell from around JD29 billion in 2007, to around JD16.2 billion in 2016, according to experts, who said that imposing taxes on profits would only worsen the situation.

Arab investors’ purchases during 2018 stood at JD214.4 million, or 17.4 per cent of the overall purchases by non-Jordanians, while the value of non-Arab purchases amounted to JD1,02 billion, constituting 82.6 per cent of the total purchases. 

Arab investors sales amounted to JD177.1 million, 23.7 per cent of non-Jordanians total sales, while the value of non-Arab sales amounted to JD570.2 million, representing 76.3 per cent of the total sales by non-Jordanians.

Non-Jordanian investors’ ownership in companies listed at the ASE by the end of December 2018, represented 51.7 per cent of the total market value, of which Arab investors’ share was 37.3 per cent and non-Arabs’ was 14.4 per cent. 

At the sector level, the non-Jordanian ownership in the financial sector was 56.5 per cent, while in the services sector it amounted to 18.3 per cent and in the industrial sector 61.4 per cent, according to the website.