RAPID DEVELOPMENT: Given how far it has come, it is easy to forget that Qatar’s exchange began life in 1995 with just 17 listed companies and a market capitalisation of around QR6bn ($1.6bn) – more than a hundred times smaller than its current level. Non-Qataris have only been allowed to invest in the market since 2005, a development that resulted in a period of rapid capital growth that lasted until the global economic downturn in 2008. In June 2009 the Doha Stock Market (DSM), as it was then known, underwent the most significant structural change since its inception, striking a strategic partnership with NYSE Euronext which saw the US multinational financial services corporation pay $200m for a 20% share of it, its largest investment in a foreign bourse. The move resulted in a rebranding of the DSM as the QSE and the implementation of a development strategy centred on technological and procedural advancement to bring the exchange in line with international best practice. Its elevation to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, formalised in 2014, was a direct result of this effort.
