REPORT: The $500 Billion Saudi Stock Exchange Is About To Open To Foreign Investors For The First Time Ever

The Saudi stock will open up to foreign investors for the first time in its history this April, according to three Bloomberg sources. The long-awaited liberalisation was announced in the summer, but authorities refuse to put a solid date on the move.

It's worth just shy of $500 billion and until now, international investors have been basically blocked from buying Saudi stocks. Investors from gulf states were able to invest, but the largest exchange in the Arab world was inaccessible to anyone from further afield. Accessing exchange-traded funds was the best any other investors could hope for.

That all ends in just four months, according to Bloomberg: 

By market capitalisation, the Tadawul (Saudi stock exchange) is around the same size as the Moscow Exchange ($492.6 billion) and five times as big as Dubai's ($97.3 billion), according to the latest data from the World Federation of Exchanges. 

Earlier this year, Ashmore Group noted the big opportunities in Saudi Arabia, with rapid consumption growth driving stocks.

Those are looking a little less rosy now that oil prices have dropped. The Tadawul is down about 20% since September. But it's still up about 2% since late December last year, suggesting some resilience even as Brent crude prices have tumbled by nearly half.