*** Bahrain Bourse adopts GICS for listed companies | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

Bahrain Bourse adopts GICS for listed companies

 TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain Bourse announced adopting the Global Industry Classification Standard for listed companies, effective today, to enhance transparency and meet best international practices.

The deal aims at providing better information to international investors on the performance of sectoral indices and easier comparability with global peers and between companies and sectors. Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa, CEO of Bahrain Bourse, said: “With globalisation taking place at a fast pace, our market has also shown dynamic interaction with numerous changes in the global markets. It is imperative that we consistently aim to meet the growing needs of the global investment community.”

“The Global Industry Classification Standard successfully resolves many of the issues with previous classification systems, by reflecting the current state of all industries, identifying very specialised sub-industries, and portraying an accurate reflection of the marketplace as much as possible,” Shaikh Khalifa added. GICS will reclassify the companies on Bahrain Bourse in 11 sectors into seven sectors, based on their principal business activity

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(Level 1):

• Materials (will include one company),

• Industrials (covering Capital Goods, and Commercial & Professional Services and Transportation) - three companies,

• Consumer Discretionary (covering Consumer Services, Retailing, Automobiles & Components, and Consumer Durables & Apparel) - five companies,

• Consumer Staples (covering Food & Staples Retailing, and Food, Beverage & Tobacco, and Household & Personal Products) - four companies,

• Financials (covering Banks, Insurance, and Diversified Financials)- 22 companies,

• Communication Services (covering Telecommunication Services and Media & Entertainment) - three companies,

• Real Estate (covering REITs, and Real Estate Management & Development) - three companies. The remaining four industrial sector groups (Energy, Healthcare, Information Technology, and Utilities) will remain inactive as there are currently no companies listed on Bahrain Bourse for these groups.

However, these four industrial sector groups will be activated with immediate effect when relevant companies to those industry groups are listed.