Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange cuts trading commission by up to 90%

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) said on Sunday it was cutting its trading commission fees by between 50 per cent and 90 per cent as it seeks to attract investors into the market.

The measure comes amid Abu Dhabi’s wider plans to lower costs and reduce barriers for doing business as part of a Dhs50bn ($13.62bn) stimulus package launched last year to bolster the emirate’s economy.

The new trading commission fees will be effective from July 1, 2019, ADX said in a statement.

ADX’s cost for annual transactions of less than Dhs250m will be five basis points (0.05 per cent) of the transaction value against 0.10 per cent previously, the statement said.

The cost reduces to 0.03 per cent for transactions between Dhs250m up to Dhs500m and to 0.02 per cent for transactions over Dhs500m but less than Dhs1bn.

The cost goes down by 90 per cent to 0.01 per cent for transactions over Dhs1bn.

“This initiative is designed to reduce costs on investors, build confidence, increase liquidity as well as attract more investors into the exchange,” the statement said.

ADX had 8,395 institutional investors at the end of May 2019, including 6,318 foreign investors.

In the first five months of this year, institutional investors traded Dhs1.5bn of securities against Dhs890m in the same period last year, the statement said.