Source: news.bbc.co.uk

The Saudi Stock Exchange surpassed the London Stock Exchange as the world's second most active market for initial public offerings in the first five months of 2008, Thomson Reuters data showed.

The New York Stock Exchange topped the global IPO table with $24.4 billion, up 173% from the same period of last year.

The total of Saudi Stock Exchange IPOs jumped 322% from a year earlier to $8.5 billion with the listing of Al Inmaa [Growth] Bank, which raised $2.8 billion in the Kingdom’s biggest IPO.

al-Qabas, Kuwait, May 31, 2008