The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) closed the first half of 2026 with a market capitalisation of 2.8 trillion dirhams, as the exchange pressed ahead with infrastructure upgrades, new international partnerships and a drive to broaden the investor base across borders and asset classes.
Trading value reached 171 billion dirhams over the period, with total trading volume rising 3.7% year on year to 50.3 billion shares. Average daily traded volume climbed 9% year on year to 423 million shares, and the number of individual trades grew 12% to approximately 3.3 million. Market makers accounted for 15% of total traded value, up three percentage points year on year, reflecting an ongoing effort to deepen liquidity rather than rely solely on order-driven activity.
Net positive inflows reached 1.4 billion dirhams, a 13.7% year-on-year increase. Institutions represented 78% of total trading value, a figure consistent with the exchange’s positioning as a wholesale venue rather than a retail-led marketplace. International investors accounted for 48% of total trading value, while UAE nationals increased their share by six percentage points to 52%.
Opening the infrastructure to global banks
Two participant milestones stand out. HSBC joined as the first foreign General Clearing Member alongside First Abu Dhabi Bank, and Morgan Stanley entered as the first international remote trading participant. Both developments lower the operational friction for global asset managers and prime brokers looking to access Abu Dhabi-listed securities without routing through a local intermediary. The ADX also signed a Letter of Intent with Borsa Italiana and expanded its Tabadul cross-border hub by adding the Amman Stock Exchange, with ADIB Securities becoming the first UAE bank on the network.
The exchange added four new listings in the period, including two dual-listed ETFs from the New York Stock Exchange, a route that gives international retail and institutional flows exposure to the Abu Dhabi market through a familiar wrapper. The ADX also facilitated rights issues for Sharjah Islamic Bank and Annan Investment Holding.
Abdulla Salem Alnuaimi, group chief executive officer of the ADX Group, said the exchange’s focus remained on “building a deeper, more liquid, and more internationally connected market that supports Abu Dhabi’s role as an open, leading, and preferred global economy.”
Regulatory and competitive context
The ADX sits within a Gulf exchange landscape that has grown increasingly competitive for international capital. The Saudi Exchange (Tadawul) remains the region’s largest by market capitalisation, while the Dubai Financial Market and Nasdaq Dubai have pursued their own connectivity and listing strategies. Against that backdrop, the ADX’s emphasis on post-trade infrastructure, including the launch of AD Clear and AD CSD as dedicated clearing and settlement subsidiaries and the integration of hybrid cloud capabilities, signals a deliberate move to align with the operational standards expected by global custodians and prime brokers governed by IOSCO and Basel settlement frameworks.
The exchange’s financial inclusion work also drew attention this period. A “Digital Loans against Investments” product was launched with Wio Bank, enabling investors to borrow against their securities holdings digitally. The Zoud financial wellbeing initiative and the Al Ramz Trading Competition supported retail investor education. These initiatives are consistent with wider UAE policy goals around broadening domestic capital market participation, part of the country’s Towards the Next 50 national development agenda.
The near-term indicators worth tracking are whether the HSBC and Morgan Stanley memberships translate into measurable uplift in institutional traded value in H2, the progress of the Borsa Italiana partnership towards a formal agreement, and the pace of new listings as the regional IPO pipeline navigates a more volatile second half.
The post ADX Posts 2.8trn Dirham Market Cap in H1 2026 Amid Infrastructure Push appeared first on The Fintech Times.
