The CEO of the Amman Stock Exchange, Mazen Wathafi, said that the profits of public shareholding companies decreased by a small percentage compared to the first quarter of this year and last year, at a time when the number of profitable companies increased compared to the losing ones.

Al-Wathaifi confirmed during an extensive interview with “The Kingdom” that the ASE witnessed during the first quarter of this year 2023, despite the difficult circumstances and crises that the region and the world went through, a positive path, in continuation of the positive path that the stock market witnessed during the years 2021 and 2022, despite the decline in prices Stocks in light of the season of distributing cash dividends to shareholders, as stock prices in the financial markets witness a decline commensurate with the value of the dividends.

He said, “Profits after tax in the first quarter of this year amounted to 590 million dinars, compared to 631.2 million dinars for the first quarter of 2022, a decrease of 6.5%.”

“The Amman Stock Exchange was one of the best 3 major Arab stock exchanges in terms of the performance of the general index during the year 2022,” according to previous statements by the stock exchange.

He added that the number of profitable companies for the first quarter of this year reached 107 companies, with profits amounting to 612 million dinars, compared to 100 companies that achieved profits in the first quarter of last year.

Al Wathafi indicated that the number of losing companies decreased to 53 in the first quarter of this year, while the number of losing companies was 60 in the first quarter of last year.

The losses of these companies also decreased, reaching 22.3 million dinars in the first quarter of this year, compared to 28.8 million dinars in losses in the first quarter of 2022.

Wazafi believes that there are currently challenges facing the financial markets, including the Amman Stock Exchange, represented by crises at the global level, low liquidity, and raising interest rates locally and globally.

(Chief Executive Officer of the Amman Stock Exchange, Mazen Al-Wahafi, during an interview with Al-Mamlaka TV, conducted by colleague Alaa Allan. Salah Malkawi / The Kingdom)

– Negotiations with several companies –

Wathafi pointed out that the stock exchange has returned to its activity since the opening of economic sectors after the Corona crisis and the return of operational activity of public shareholding companies.

And that in 2021 the Amman Stock Exchange index achieved an increase of 27.8%, and this is the highest gain achieved by the stock exchange since 2005.

Al-Wahafi stressed that the improvement of the stock market indicators means an improvement in the return for the investor in the stock exchange.

Al-Wahaifi links the improvement of corporate profits to several factors, including the positive performance indicators of the national economy, the most important of which are high economic growth rates, high exports and tourism income, monetary and financial stability, and the positive rating of the national economy by global rating institutions such as Fitch and Standard & Poor’s.

He said that these indicators proved the resilience and ability of the national economy to overcome crises and challenges.

He stressed that in the year 2022, public joint-stock companies achieved unprecedented profits, amounting to 2.42 billion dinars, which is an increase of 85% compared to 2021.

He stressed that the rise in stock prices during the past two years is not related to a limited number of companies, but rather to dozens of companies whose number exceeded 100 during the past two years, more than seventy of which the rate of increase in their share prices exceeded 15%.

As for the number of companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange, he said that they amount to 167 companies listed in the first and second markets of the Amman Stock Exchange, 107 of which achieved net profits in the results of the first quarter of this year.

And he indicated that there are 60 companies traded in the unlisted stock market (the third market), which are companies whose shares are available for trading through this market because they do not meet the conditions for listing in the stock exchange.

He pointed out that one company was listed last year in the stock exchange, and there are negotiations with several companies, including family-owned ones, to be listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. There is a specialized committee in the stock exchange that follows up on this file.

Regarding the total trading volume last year, he said that it amounted to nearly 2 billion dinars, indicating that the ambition exceeds these numbers many times over, which requires the assistance of the stock exchange to enhance its work by all its partners.

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