Here’s a look at Tadawul's key market reforms since 2010

Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) has announced a series of significant enhancements since 2010 to improve market access, efficiency and liquidity, bolster investor confidence, and enable fair evaluation of stocks.

Argaam compiled a list of the most significant market enhancements over the last ten years, as follows:

2010 - Tadawul launched exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

2011 - Tadawulaty services, which encompasses a bundle of new financial services targeted at the different segments of investors as well as issuers, was introduced.

2012 - Tadawul provided a breakdown of negotiated deals. The Capital Market Authority (CMA) decided to suspend trading on firms that fail to disclose their financial statements within the specified period.

2013 - Tadawul set the daily fluctuation limit of new market entrants on debut at 10 percent.

2014 - The closing price was based on ordinary transactions only (transaction value that exceeds SAR 15,000.

Tadawul also introduced regulations applying to companies with losses of over 50 percent of capital.

2015 - Tadawul offered the Independent Custody Member (ICM) service. In June 2015, qualified foreign investors (QFIs) were allowed to invest directly in Tadawul-listed stocks.

The equity market also launched the new X-stream INET trading platform. 

2016 - Market trading hours were changed to begin from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm local time. Real Estate Investment Traded Funds (REITs) were launched, with the first REIT fund listed on Tadawul. 

2017 - Adoption of the IFRS accounting standard for all listed companies.

- The market structure was applied to include 20 sectors (Industry Groups), instead of 15 sectors.

- Nomu Parallel Market was launched in February.

- Implementation of T+2 settlement and introduction of short-selling in April 2017.

- Trading commissions for tradable rights and ETFs were set at 0.155 percent, equal to 15.5 basis points (bps) of transaction value.

2018 - The Independent Custody Model (ICM) was updated to enhance QFIs access to the market. 

- Saudi Nomu parallel market was opened to foreign investors.

- Government debt instruments started trading on Tadawul.

- The auction method for determining closing prices for Tadawul and Nomu was adopted, instead of a volume weighted average price (VWAP).

2019 - MSCI and Tadawul announced the launch of the tradable index, MSCI Tadawul 30 Index (MT30).

- The First phase of Inclusion in FTSE Russell and S&P DJI indices.