Trading value in GCC stock markets reaches $618bn

Muscat: Gulf financial markets saw approximately 401.7 billion shares change hands during 2025, surging 19.5 percent compared with 2024, as the value of traded shares reached $618 billion, according to the latest data released by the GCC Statistical Centre (GCC-Stat).

The composite general index gauging the performance of Gulf financial markets stood at approximately 165.2 points by the close of 2025, registering a decline of 3.8 percent compared with the end of 2024.

The total market capitalisation of Gulf financial markets in 2025 reached around $3.9 trillion, retreating 6.2 percent compared with 2024.

The total number of companies listed on Gulf financial markets reached 779, while the number of companies whose shares are permitted to be traded by GCC citizens on Gulf exchanges stood at 756, equivalent to 97 percent of all listed companies, with the figure reaching 100 percent on the Bahrain, Muscat, Qatar and Kuwait bourses.

In 2025, Gulf financial markets experienced sweeping regulatory and legislative developments encompassing the oversight of financial markets and investment funds, the refinement of offering and listing rules, the bolstering of corporate governance, the regulation of trading conduct and the enhancement of market-making mechanisms, alongside an expansion in digital platforms and financial technologies.

The year 2025 also witnessed the strengthening of risk-based supervision and oversight, the development of financial market infrastructure and the modernisation of capital adequacy frameworks, in addition to an expansion in sustainability-related disclosures and the upgrading of systems governing the electronic issuance of securities.

Within the framework of reinforcing Gulf integration, the cross-border registration regulation for investment funds entered into force as the first unified regulatory framework for a financial product across the GCC states, alongside continued work on initiatives to support the listing and trading of bonds and sukuk, to promote dual listings and electronic interconnection between bourses and to unify the investor number for GCC citizens.