ASE still on downward trajectory

AMMAN — Prices of shares listed in the Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) continued falling back on Wednesday, impacted by the decline of the majority of sectors, particularly mining, as well as some speculative shares.اضافة اعلان

The general index of the closing share prices at ASE dropped to 1,766.03 points, a decline of 0.7 percent.

Total trading value for Wednesday reached JD5.3 million, with 7.1 million shares traded through 2,407 transactions.

The decline is attributed to apprehension regarding company disclosures on performance results for the first quarter of 2021, in addition to the fact that many companies have held their general assemblies for the year 2020 and distributed cash dividends.

This is on top of the fact that trading during the month of Ramadan, based on customary investor behaviors, is characterized by a tendency to refrain from building new financial expansions, which reflects on the volume of trading and share prices.

On Monday, and on the occasion of Jordan’s centenary and the 22nd anniversary of the establishment of the ASE, Minister of Finance Mohammad Al-Ississ sponsored a ceremony to announce the official launch of the the new electronic trading system Optiq.

Optiq is designed based on the latest international standards and specifications of financial market technology and electronic trading systems. It is characterized by high speed and efficiency in receiving and processing purchase and sale orders, while also offering many technological and functional features for security trading, supporting new financial instruments and linking them efficiently with sytems and applications linked to the trading system. Optiq also offers the ability to trade via modern trading applications.

Optiq trading system, a winner of the best trading system in the 2020 Tech Insight Awards – Europe, is a joint project between four Arab countries; Oman, Tunisia, Lebanon, and Jordan. It was built by the company Euronext, which one of the leading companies in the development of trading solutions, and it owns and operates European stock exchanges.

The visit to the ASE by the finance minister, along with a number of government officials, is deemed significant, as it sends a positive message and provides moral support and optimism regarding enhancing the activity of the bourse, amid calls to energize the ASE, mitigate obstacles facing it, particularly scarce liquidity, and encourage banks and investment funds to pump cash into the bourse.