Saudi Arabia will set relatively low listing requirements for its second stock market in order to draw smaller companies to the bourse, which it aims to launch at February 2017, regulators have told securities firms. A presentation to securities firms by the Capital Market Authority (CMA) and the Saudi Stock Exchange proposes that companies with minimum capitalisations of SAR10mn (USD2.7mn) will be allowed to list on the new market – 10% of the capitalisation required for the main market. Companies would be permitted to float a minimum of 20% of their shares and have as few as 50 public shareholders, compared to 30% and 200 shareholders. To minimise speculative price swings, regulators said they would limit direct investors in the new market to institutions, excluding ordinary retail investors; institutional investors include government-related entities and professional investors with large portfolios and records of trading routinely. Other investors could tap into the market via mutual funds. The presentation did not say if the new market could include companies now traded on the main market, but specified that companies could move to the main market after trading for at least two years on the secondary. The exchange also planned to launch a new index for the top blue-chip stocks trading on the main market. (Reuters)