"Abu Dhabi Securities" During 2025, it will achieve qualitative achievements that have consolidated its global presence

Abu Dhabi, January 6, 2025 – The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Group achieved a series of qualitative achievements and unprecedented milestones during the year 2025, which constituted a transformative year that coincided with the celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the market.

During the year, the Abu Dhabi Securities Market strengthened its position as the second largest market in the region, and consolidated its global presence through the establishment of the Abu Dhabi Securities Market Group, which brought together the Abu Dhabi Securities Market, the Abu Dhabi Clearing Company, and the Abu Dhabi Depository Company, within a unified structure.

This strategic transformation represented a structural development in the market’s operating model, and pushed its path towards advanced market standards, by providing an integrated, high-performance trading, clearing, and settlement infrastructure that supports multiple asset classes, including stocks, traded funds, debt instruments, and derivatives, within one platform, which expanded access to the capital market, enhanced connectivity between markets, and facilitated deeper investment flows, confirming Abu Dhabi’s position as a leading global investment destination.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange became the first market in the Arab world to list securities from the United States through the dual listing of two traded investment funds listed on the New York Stock Exchange, with assets under management approaching approximately 10 billion US dollars. It was also the first market in the region to list traded investment funds of a special nature, one of which focuses on quantum computing, and the other tracks companies driving the growth of artificial intelligence globally, in addition to listing the first digital bond based on distributed ledger technology in the Middle East and North Africa region.

In parallel, the market expanded its international presence by welcoming the first trading member for remote trading for individual investors and the first general clearing member, which enhanced the market’s depth, accessibility, and global spread.

Since January 2020, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange Index has recorded sustained growth, outperforming the Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets and FTSE Russell Emerging Markets Indexes, reflecting the market’s depth, liquidity and long-term attractiveness to global investors.

With the total market value exceeding the barrier of 3.1 trillion dirhams, the group continued to expand capital formation channels, allowing companies to raise the necessary financing to expand locally and internationally, and enabling more than 1.2 million investors from more than 200 nationalities to participate in the emirate’s economic growth story.

The listed companies achieved combined net profits amounting to about 140 billion dirhams during the first nine months of the year, with an annual growth of approximately 19%, while they distributed 74 billion dirhams in cash dividends in 2025, which reflects the solidity of returns in the market.

The trading movement also confirmed the stability of the market’s strategic direction, as the value of trades exceeded 385 billion dirhams, with an annual growth of 12.6%, and the average daily trading value increased by 12.1% to reach 1.52 billion dirhams, which reflects broader participation from various categories of investors and a more liquid and flexible secondary market.

The group continued to give priority to empowering investors and enhancing ease of access, as it launched solutions supported by artificial intelligence aimed at simplifying investment decisions by transforming complex disclosures into clear and easy-to-use information. Integration with the “Tamm” platform for unified government services in Abu Dhabi also enhanced the market’s harmony with the emirate’s digital strategy, and allowed more than 11 million citizens, residents and companies in the UAE to register and access the capital markets seamlessly.

The global connectivity system witnessed additional expansion through partnerships with platforms such as eToro, Thunder, UBank,

The group launched the “Markets Pulse Lab” at Liwa University, the second within its financial education program, to complement the developed virtual trading platform, academic partnerships, and specialized financial awareness campaigns.

The market provides institutional investors, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and global asset managers with effective access to primary and secondary markets, enhancing liquidity, market flexibility, and efficient price discovery.

Individual investment appetite is also witnessing growth in terms of size and maturity, supported by digital innovation and the diversity of investment products. The listing of five new ETFs during the year contributed to expanding access to transparent and diversified investment strategies, and strengthening the leadership of the Abu Dhabi Securities Market as the largest and most active ETF market in the region, bringing the total number of listed funds to 20 funds.

Competitive financial distributions in the market continue to support long-term wealth building. In December, the market launched the FTSE Abu Dhabi Market Index for the highest cash dividends, which is the first regional index that focuses on corporate cash dividends, and includes 17 highly liquid companies that distributed more than 52 billion dirhams to investors in 2025.

The distributions of these companies constituted more than 70% of the total market distributions, with an average index return of 5.28%, significantly exceeding the global average return of between 1.5% and 3%, which enhances Abu Dhabi’s position as a preferred destination for investors seeking fixed income and sustainable capital formation.

During the year 2025, the market value reached 3.13 trillion dirhams, compared to 3 trillion dirhams at the end of 2024, an increase of 4.6%. The market value of dual-listed companies reached 52.2 billion dirhams, compared to 41.4 billion dirhams at the end of 2024, an increase of 26.2%.

Trading values ​​reached 385 billion dirhams, compared to 342 billion dirhams during the year 2024, an increase of 12.6%, while trading volumes reached 102 billion shares, compared to 90 billion shares during the year 2024, an increase of 13.4%.

The number of deals reached 5.6 million deals, compared to 4.6 million deals during 2024, an increase of 22.2%.

The value of foreign investors’ trades (buy + sell) amounted to 299 billion dirhams, compared to 262 billion dirhams during the year 2024, an increase of 13.8%, and their trades constituted about 39% of the total trades in 2025, while the values ​​of Emirati investors’ trades (buy + sell) amounted to 472 billion dirhams, compared to 422 billion dirhams during the year 2024, an increase of 11.8%.

At the institutional level, the trading values ​​of institutional investors (buy + sell) amounted to 600 billion dirhams, an increase of 10% compared to 548 billion dirhams during the year 2024, and their trades constituted 78% of the total trading in 2025, while the trading values ​​of individual investors (buy + sell) amounted to 167 billion dirhams compared to 136 billion dirhams in 2024, an increase of 22.9%.

The value of cash dividends for listed companies reached 74 billion dirhams, compared to 67 billion dirhams in 2024, an increase of 9.4%, and the profits of listed companies reached about 140 billion dirhams from the beginning of the year 2025 until the end of the third quarter of 2025, compared to 117 billion dirhams in the same period in 2024, an increase of about 19%.

During the year 2025, the market witnessed the listing of 20 securities, including Alpha Data – an initial public offering worth 600 million dirhams in the main market, Orascom Construction with a dual listing – the main market, and Sagas Investment in the Nomu market, in addition to 3 traded investment funds, 8 debt instruments, 3 of which were green, and the listing of the first digital bond in the region based on distributed ledger technology, and 3 subscription rights, “United Arab Bank, and Abu Dhabi Bank.” Commercial and Fidelity United Insurance, in addition to two ETFs, “dual listing on the New York Stock Exchange, which is the first of its kind in the Arab world.”

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