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FEDERATION OF EURO-ASIAN STOCK EXCHANGES SEMI ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 2008AMMAN STOCK EXCHANGEJalil TarifChief Executive OfficerThe Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) hasrecently accomplished many projectsaiming at enhancing market efficiency andupgrading the services provided to themarket participants.The Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) hasrecently accomplished many projects aiming atenhancing market efficiency and upgrading theservices provided to the market participants.The ASE in cooperation with Dow Joneslaunched the Dow Jones ASE 100 Index. Theindex is a broad benchmark index that tracksthe performance of the 100 largest stockslisted at the ASE based on free-float marketcapitalization. The Dow Jones ASE 100 Indexwas developed to meet the demand for indexbasedproducts at the ASE and eventually toreplace the ASE general price index. The DowJones ASE 100 is expected to further enhancetransparency, visibility and accessibility of theperformance of the ASE for Local, regional andinternational market participants by applyingDow Jones Indexes' well-known and widelyused index methodology.For the first time, the Jordan SecuritiesCommission issued a Code of CorporateGovernance for the companies listed at theASE. The introduction of this code isconsidered as an important step forward in thefield of monitoring and transparency over thepublic companies and in preserving the rightsof all stakeholders in these companies.The ASE started a new project to build theJordan National Financial Center. His MajestyKing Abdullah II laid the foundation stone forthis project. This center will contain: the ASE,Securities Depositary Center, Financial StudiesInstitute, Brokers’ Offices, Investors’ Galleryand many other facilities. The cost for thisproject is expected to reach US$ 100 million.The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) hasaccepted the full membership of the ASEduring its annual meeting in October 2007,which was held in Shanghai/China. This isattributed to the developments of Jordancapital market in general and the technical,legislative developments of the ASE inparticular, besides abiding by transparencyand disclosure principles.To enhance the international exposure, the ASEheld Jordan Capital Market Day in March 2008in London in cooperation with London StockExchange. This day was a great opportunity forJordanian companies to raise funds and attractforeign investment. Also the ASE will organizethe 2nd Capital Market Conference in NewYork in September 2008.As for the ASE performance, the ASE FreeFloat Weighted Index at the end of July 2008stood at 4630 points compared with 3675 atthe year 2007 with an increase by 26%. ASEindex weighted by Market Capitalization closedat 10399 points at the end of July 2008compared with 7519 points at the end of 2007,an increase by 27.7%. Trading value by theend of July 2008 reached US$ 21.3 billion withan increase of 31.7% compared to the sameperiod of 2007. The number of shares tradedincreased by 54% compared with the sameperiod of 2007, reaching 3.9 billion shares, andthe number of transactions increased by 31%,reaching 2.7 million transactions. The ASEmarket capitalization reached US$41.2 billionby the end of July 2007, with an increase of81.6% over the end of 2007, representing358% of the GDP. The net investment of non-Jordanian investors increased by US$ 330.5million by the end of July 2008. As a result,non-Jordanian investors ownership in the ASEmarket capitalization increased to 50.9%.FUTURE OUTLOOKThe ASE will embark on a number of keyprojects that will ensure maintaining the lead thatthe ASE has amongst Arabic and regional stockexchanges:• Establish Jordan National Financial Center.This center will contain: the ASE, the SDC,Financial Studies Center, Brokers’ Offices,Investors’ Gallery, and many other facilities.• Upgrade the ASE Trading System. In thisregard a contract was signed with AtosEuronextMarket Solutions and GL Trade for EUR 2.5million. The new trading system is V900 and is afully Linux environment. It should be mentionedthat this system is applied in major stockexchanges. This system will be more flexible toimplement market rules and will highly improvesystem capacity and lower latency.• Demutualization of the ASE. The ASE shallbecome Shareholding Company totally ownedby the Government as a first step. In the secondstep the Government will sell stakes to financialinstitutions, brokerage firms, internationalinstitutions, public, and other parties.• Introduce Internet trading. The legal andtechnical structure for this project has beencompleted.• Adopt new marketing strategy. The ASE hasadopted a marketing and promotion strategybased on three main fields: Awareness,Marketing and Media. The implementation of thisstrategy started in the 2007 and will continue inthe coming years.• A new website now is under construction, witha new look and theme, many information andfeatures will be added to the new site.• Introduce new financial instruments such asETFs and derivatives.CONTACT INFORMATIONContact Name Mr. Sami HattabE-mail shattab@ase.com.joWebsite www.exchange.joPAGE 28