DOHA: Qatar Exchange (QE) Tuesday welcomed Standard and Poors (S&P) Dow Jones decision to upgrade the Qatar market from a Frontier Market to Emerging Market, describing this decision as a positive step that will attract further foreign investments to the Qatari stock market.
Hailing the decision, QE CEO Rashid Bin Ali Al Mansoori said the rating upgrade clearly reflects the positive steps taken by Exchange for the development of the market infrastructure and the implementation of a number of important projects and initiatives over the past few years.
He said, this decision follows the results of the efforts pursued by QE and other concerned parties in the financial markets of the State of Qatar.
"This upgrade will attract more international investors to the stock market, on the grounds that many international investors are interested in investment in the emerging markets as the upgrade reflects the compliance with the best international practices and standards," said Al Mansoori.
A statement issued by S&P Dow Jones said, the upgrade of Qatar status reflects meeting the S&P Dow Jones requirements for inclusion in emerging markets, especially the degree of openness of the market to the international investment community and an established and well-tested operational framework.
According to S&P statement, the Qatari market has also met the quantitative requirements as defined for Emerging Markets as several large companies have increased their foreign ownership limits to encourage further foreign investment.
QE also introduced the DVP (Delivery Versus Payment) settlement system in 2011 and enhanced it twice in 2012 to ensure full protection of investors' assets in case of rejection by the seller.
The other requirement was the availability of securities lending and borrowing facilities, which have been launched at QE and are currently available for use by liquidity providers as a mechanism to prevent settlement failures.
The statement also highlighted the market participation in QE and viewed it as in line with the standards set by other emerging markets for its robustness and ease of entry into the market.
The S&P Dow Jones Indices is a global resource for index-based concepts, data and research and home to iconic financial market indicators, such as the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial AverageSM. (QNA)
