Asian ETFs Debut in Saudi Arabia: A New Bridge Between Two Economic Regions

This week marks an important milestone in the expansion of financial relations between the Asian financial center Hong Kong and the oil-rich Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Two exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that track stocks listed in Hong Kong and China are being introduced to the Saudi market. The Albilad CSOP MSCI Hong Kong China Equity ETF, which raised an impressive 10 billion Hong Kong dollars, ended its first trading session on Wednesday at 9.97 riyals. Initially launched with an issue price of 10 riyals, this fund is already the largest of its kind on the Saudi exchange. Immediately following this is the launch of the SAB Invest Hang Seng Hong Kong ETF, which also starts on Thursday with an issue price of 10 riyals. With these significant new additions, the economic bond between Saudi Arabia and the Asian markets is further strengthened, which is likely to be of interest to both investors and the underlying economies.