The Abu Dhabi bourse plans to launch a big blocks market that would bring transparency to private trades, an official said.
"Some trades with large volumes which may be for strategic reasons, are often pre-arranged deals due to their size and nature," said Rashed al Baloushi, the deputy chief executive of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) in the capital. "Trading them through the regular market may not reflect their actual prices and circumstances."
Starting March 3, the ADX will have a separate market watch screen to cover private trades that are being made. Trades of those shares will not affect the closing price of the stock, or include in the index.
Brokers and investors will have to comply with the following conditions: The numbers of shares traded must not be less than 1 per cent of the capital of the company. The initiator of the trade must be one person, while the counter-parties cannot exceed 10 investors. The price of the transaction should not differ by more than 25 per cent of the previous closing price.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index declined 1.9 per cent to 2632.69 as protests continued to unfold in middle eastern countries. The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 3.6 per cent to 1536.45.
Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait's bourse lost 2.5 per cent to 6394.20. Bahrain's measure declined 0.2 per cent to 1471.54. Oman's index declined 1.1 per cent to 6895.01. Qatar's bourse lost 1.6 per cent to 8563.84. The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index lost 0.7 per cent to 6334.90.