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Palestinian Stock Exchange Lacks Public Regulation

It's time for the Palestinian Securities Exchange, the first Arab stock exchange to be privately owned, to become a public company.
A Palestinian trader looks at the exchange board in the West Bank city of Nablus’ Stock Exchange on October 8, 2008. Arab stock markets tumbled for the fourth day running today amid growing fears that policymakers may be powerless to stop the worst financial shock since the Great Depression. AFP PHOTO /JAAFAR ASHTIYEH (Photo credit should read JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP/Getty Images)
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Any modern state should seek to establish a modern stock exchange to buy and sell various types of stocks and attract foreign and domestic investment, including small-scale traders, because doing so boosts the economy. Stock markets have become indicators that are followed by economic and financial-policy makers.

Stock markets are tools for investment and development, but they can also play a role in financial crises, as happened in east Asia in 1997, when the economies of Thailand, Indonesia and others collapsed overnight. For this reason, stock markets are usually highly regulated and governments can sometimes directly intervene in them, as happened in Egypt after the revolution.

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