1. Abstract
The purpose of this research is to compare the Qatari Capital Markets with those of four other
countries namely, India, USA, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore. India was chosen for its fast growth,
Saudi Arabia for its proximity, Singapore for its comparable size, and USA for its maturity.
The benchmarking is done on six levels: market instruments or market completeness, relative
size of the markets, governance and transparency, efficiency, liquidity, and volatility. Following
the findings of these comparisons the following recommendations are suggested to improve the
Qatari Capital Markets:
 A debt market should be introduced to create more sources of funds for the government
and corporations.
 Fluctuation of relative size of the market should be considered & studied more
thoroughly.
 A derivative market should be slowly and carefully introduced starting with index futures
to provide the market with a tool to decrease systematic risk.
 Concrete measures should be taken to improve the quality of disclosure and transparency
as Qatar ranks very low in this category.
 The Qatari market should benefit from the high liquidity in Saudi Arabia by exploring the
possibility of creating some sort of dual listing with the Saudi market.
 Liquidity and transparency are lower in Qatar compared to other countries. To improve
market efficiency regulators should focus specifically on these two factors.
Keywords: Liquidity, Efficiency, Transparency, Volatility
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