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.

The Palestinian case

The Palestine Securities Exchange (PSE) is a private for-profit company established in 1995 in Nablus. It was the first Arab stock exchange to be 100% privately owned. Its first trading session was in February 1997, and by the end of 2012, it had 48 listed companies with a total market capitalization of $2.86 billion. Approximately 95% of stock owners are Palestinian and 5% are foreign, while Palestinians own 59% of the total shares and foreigners own 41%. Companies listed in the exchange made $120 million in profits in 2012.