Kuwait’s Capital Market Authority (CMA) is considering requests from local companies to issue USD2bn of conventional bonds and sukuks, the chairman of the Capital Markets Authority, Nayef Al Hajraf, said on Wednesday. The applications are under study for final approval. He did not specify whether the issues would be in foreign or local currency. Bond issuance approved by the CMA totals USD4bn since new rules covering debt sales were introduced a year ago, while sukuks reached USD700mn, Hajraf added. He also said the CMA was working on creating regulations for a secondary market to trade bonds and sukuks in Kuwait. (Gulf News)