Well, the bells have rung from London all the way to the UAE! Abu Dhabi has announced its bourse partnership with the FTSE Russell to develop co-branded indices. ADX hopes that the tie-up can help it to create new indices that help realize its vision to offer further tradeable index products on its market.
Being the first in the region to have a benchmark index administrator like FTSE Russell is major. It highlights the ambition of ADX — it may be local but it's going global. It signals its chops to the global investor, allowing ADX to court and (hopefully!) top the AED 15.2b it got in 2021.
Why it matters
GCC bourses are getting competitive — this move (that is seen as the first in the GCC) makes it clear that ADX is looking for a promotion from its current position as the second-biggest regional exchange. All in all, great for the region's public markets!
