MANAMA: Oman, among the GCC, is at the top for deploying the best liquidity, volatility and transparency mechanisms for the listed companies followed by Bahrain, a research analysis which covered almost 600 companies across the GCC claimed.
The report which has been in preparation for a year unveils an analysis of GCC-listed companies according to 43 parameters, broadly covering three main areas: trading history, corporate communications and disclosure. The investigation, which examined 581 companies across 24,983 pieces of data, should be of interest to investors, corporations and regulators. It should be particularly useful for outside observers of the GCC stock markets who are less familiar with the region.
According to the report Oman is the BASIC scoring winner, with the best corporate governance practices, closely followed by Bahrain. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, although the most liquid and mature markets in the region scored the lowest. There is no linear relationship between market capitalization and BASIC, however very large companies have better scores.
The National Investor (TNI), one of the region’s leading merchant banks, and Hawkamah, The Institute for Corporate Governance have published their joint research entitled Back to BASICs, a liquidity, volatility and transparency analysis of GCC— listed companies.
The report recommends that companies should monitor their score and seek improvement. It is suggested that this is simply a matter of improving the quantity and quality of information they disclose to the public.
