Riyadh — The Saudi Stock Exchange would ensure the weighting of national oil giant Saudi Aramco in its main stock index was not too large when the company listed its shares, CE Khalid al-Hussan said on Wednesday. "We have technical ways to address this issue," he told the Euromoney business conference. He said one step might be to impose an "index cap" on Aramco. He later told Reuters this would involve imposing a ceiling on its weighting in the index, a step taken by some exchanges in other countries. Saudi authorities plan to sell 5% of Aramco’s shares and list it in Riyadh and possibly one or more foreign markets in 2018 or 2019 as part of wide-ranging reforms designed to reduce the Saudi Arabian economy’s reliance on oil. The Saudi exchange’s ability to cope with such a huge listing, which could involve the world’s biggest initial public offer of equity, is a major concern among investors. The local stock market has a capitalisation of about $500bn, while officials have said the...
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