Amman Stock Exchange: Has the economic transformation begun?
In economics, some numbers describe the present, while others reveal how people perceive the future. The performance of the Amman Stock Exchange in 2025 may have provided one of the clearest signals yet that expectations surrounding an important part of the Jordanian economy are changing.
The ASE General Index rose by 45.1 per cent in a single year, increasing from 2,488.8 points at the end of 2024 to 3,611.6 points at the end of 2025. This was the highest annual closing level since 2007. According to Amman Stock Exchange data, and based on Bloomberg figures, the Jordanian market ranked first in the Arab region and thirteenth globally in terms of index growth during 2025.
Yet the significance of this performance goes well beyond the 45.1 per cent increase in the index. Other market indicators moved in the same direction. The market capitalization of listed companies rose to approximately JOD 26.5 billion, an increase of 50.1 per cent in one year. Trading value increased from around JOD 1.2 billion in 2024 to approximately JOD 2.2 billion in 2025, representing an increase of 80.6 per cent. Around 1.1 billion shares were traded during the year.
These figures suggest that the market’s performance was not simply driven by a limited number of stocks. Share prices increased for 106 listed companies, including 90 companies whose share prices rose by at least 10 per cent. Several major sectors also recorded significant gains. Banks rose by 45.7 per cent, extractive and mining industries by 77.3 per cent, transport by 51.8 per cent, and electrical industries by 119 per cent.
The key economic question, however, is whether this strong market performance reflects a genuine improvement in corporate and economic fundamentals or whether it represents mainly a repricing of financial assets.
The available evidence provides part of the answer. Listed companies on the Amman Stock Exchange generated after-tax profits of approximately JOD 2.348 billion in 2025, compared with JOD 2.081 billion in 2024, an increase of 12.9 per cent. This represents the second-highest historical level of profits recorded by listed companies. Pre-tax profits also increased by 9.6 per cent, reaching JOD 3.269 billion.
This combination is economically significant. We are not looking at rising stock prices in isolation. We are seeing higher share prices, a substantial increase in market capitalization, stronger trading activity, and higher corporate profitability occurring at the same time.
Financial markets are fundamentally forward-looking. Stock prices reflect expectations about future earnings and cash flows, adjusted for interest rates and perceived risk. A rise in share prices can therefore reflect stronger expectations about future corporate earnings, lower perceived risks, greater liquidity seeking investment opportunities, lower financing costs, or a combination of these factors.
This is why the performance of the Amman Stock Exchange should be considered within the broader context of the Jordanian economy. Real GDP grew by 2.75 per cent during the first nine months of 2025, compared with 2.53 per cent during the same period of 2024. The economy also recorded growth of 2.81 per cent in the third quarter.
The stock market’s strong performance therefore did not occur against a backdrop of economic contraction. It took place alongside continued economic growth and improved performance in several sectors. At the same time, however, it would be incorrect to interpret a 45.1 per cent increase in the stock market as equivalent to economic growth of 45.1 per cent. The stock market does not measure GDP. It reflects the market value of listed companies and investors’ expectations about their future performance.
The banking sector is particularly important in this context because of its significant weight in the Amman Stock Exchange. The sector operated within an environment characterized by monetary and financial stability. The Central Bank of Jordan also reported growth in customer deposits and credit facilities, while banking resilience and liquidity indicators remained strong during 2025.
Liquidity provides another important part of the explanation. Trading value increased by 80.6 per cent, substantially faster than the 45.1 per cent increase in the market index. This indicates that market activity expanded at a faster pace than prices.
Greater liquidity matters because it improves investors’ ability to enter and exit the market, supports more efficient price discovery, and helps address the limited trading activity that can characterize smaller capital markets. But liquidity by itself is not enough.
The more important question is whether this liquidity can move beyond the trading of existing shares and contribute to financing new investment. This is where the stock market can move from being a mirror of the economy to becoming an instrument for financing the economy.
If higher market valuations strengthen companies’ ability to raise new equity, finance expansion, and undertake investment projects, the capital market can become a genuine source of economic growth. If activity remains largely concentrated in the trading of existing shares and rising asset prices, however, the direct impact on the real economy will remain limited.
This is perhaps the most important challenge facing the Amman Stock Exchange in the next stage. The objective should not simply be to maintain a rising index, but to strengthen the economic role of the market by increasing the number of listed companies, broadening the investor base, deepening market liquidity, improving disclosure and corporate governance, and developing new financial instruments.
There is also an opportunity to encourage large private and family-owned businesses to consider public listing when economically appropriate. A deeper equity market can provide companies with alternative sources of long-term financing while giving investors greater access to productive investment opportunities.
For this reason, the indicator to watch in 2026 should not be the stock market index alone. A more meaningful assessment requires looking at corporate earnings growth, dividend distributions, trading activity, market capitalization, private investment, credit to the private sector, and GDP growth together.
These indicators provide a more complete picture of whether the improvement in financial markets is becoming connected to the real economy.
The fundamental transformation we need is for confidence to translate into new investment, for liquidity to translate into financing, for corporate profits to translate into expansion and higher productivity, and for a deeper capital market to translate into greater capacity to finance the economy.
At the macroeconomic level, the ultimate objective is not simply higher stock prices. It is for the Amman Stock Exchange to help transform rising financial asset values into higher investment, production, productivity, and employment.
If this transition takes place, the remarkable performance of the Amman Stock Exchange in 2025 will represent more than an exceptional year for the stock market. It could mark the beginning of a new phase in which Jordan’s capital market plays a more significant role in financing and supporting sustainable economic growth.
In economics, some numbers describe the present, while others reveal how people perceive the future. The performance of the Amman Stock Exchange in 2025 may have provided one of the clearest signals yet that expectations surrounding an important part of the Jordanian economy are changing.
The ASE General Index rose by 45.1 per cent in a single year, increasing from 2,488.8 points at the end of 2024 to 3,611.6 points at the end of 2025. This was the highest annual closing level since 2007. According to Amman Stock Exchange data, and based on Bloomberg figures, the Jordanian market ranked first in the Arab region and thirteenth globally in terms of index growth during 2025.
Yet the significance of this performance goes well beyond the 45.1 per cent increase in the index. Other market indicators moved in the same direction. The market capitalization of listed companies rose to approximately JOD 26.5 billion, an increase of 50.1 per cent in one year. Trading value increased from around JOD 1.2 billion in 2024 to approximately JOD 2.2 billion in 2025, representing an increase of 80.6 per cent. Around 1.1 billion shares were traded during the year.
These figures suggest that the market’s performance was not simply driven by a limited number of stocks. Share prices increased for 106 listed companies, including 90 companies whose share prices rose by at least 10 per cent. Several major sectors also recorded significant gains. Banks rose by 45.7 per cent, extractive and mining industries by 77.3 per cent, transport by 51.8 per cent, and electrical industries by 119 per cent.
The key economic question, however, is whether this strong market performance reflects a genuine improvement in corporate and economic fundamentals or whether it represents mainly a repricing of financial assets.
The available evidence provides part of the answer. Listed companies on the Amman Stock Exchange generated after-tax profits of approximately JOD 2.348 billion in 2025, compared with JOD 2.081 billion in 2024, an increase of 12.9 per cent. This represents the second-highest historical level of profits recorded by listed companies. Pre-tax profits also increased by 9.6 per cent, reaching JOD 3.269 billion.
This combination is economically significant. We are not looking at rising stock prices in isolation. We are seeing higher share prices, a substantial increase in market capitalization, stronger trading activity, and higher corporate profitability occurring at the same time.
Financial markets are fundamentally forward-looking. Stock prices reflect expectations about future earnings and cash flows, adjusted for interest rates and perceived risk. A rise in share prices can therefore reflect stronger expectations about future corporate earnings, lower perceived risks, greater liquidity seeking investment opportunities, lower financing costs, or a combination of these factors.
This is why the performance of the Amman Stock Exchange should be considered within the broader context of the Jordanian economy. Real GDP grew by 2.75 per cent during the first nine months of 2025, compared with 2.53 per cent during the same period of 2024. The economy also recorded growth of 2.81 per cent in the third quarter.
The stock market’s strong performance therefore did not occur against a backdrop of economic contraction. It took place alongside continued economic growth and improved performance in several sectors. At the same time, however, it would be incorrect to interpret a 45.1 per cent increase in the stock market as equivalent to economic growth of 45.1 per cent. The stock market does not measure GDP. It reflects the market value of listed companies and investors’ expectations about their future performance.
The banking sector is particularly important in this context because of its significant weight in the Amman Stock Exchange. The sector operated within an environment characterized by monetary and financial stability. The Central Bank of Jordan also reported growth in customer deposits and credit facilities, while banking resilience and liquidity indicators remained strong during 2025.
Liquidity provides another important part of the explanation. Trading value increased by 80.6 per cent, substantially faster than the 45.1 per cent increase in the market index. This indicates that market activity expanded at a faster pace than prices.
Greater liquidity matters because it improves investors’ ability to enter and exit the market, supports more efficient price discovery, and helps address the limited trading activity that can characterize smaller capital markets. But liquidity by itself is not enough.
The more important question is whether this liquidity can move beyond the trading of existing shares and contribute to financing new investment. This is where the stock market can move from being a mirror of the economy to becoming an instrument for financing the economy.
If higher market valuations strengthen companies’ ability to raise new equity, finance expansion, and undertake investment projects, the capital market can become a genuine source of economic growth. If activity remains largely concentrated in the trading of existing shares and rising asset prices, however, the direct impact on the real economy will remain limited.
This is perhaps the most important challenge facing the Amman Stock Exchange in the next stage. The objective should not simply be to maintain a rising index, but to strengthen the economic role of the market by increasing the number of listed companies, broadening the investor base, deepening market liquidity, improving disclosure and corporate governance, and developing new financial instruments.
There is also an opportunity to encourage large private and family-owned businesses to consider public listing when economically appropriate. A deeper equity market can provide companies with alternative sources of long-term financing while giving investors greater access to productive investment opportunities.
For this reason, the indicator to watch in 2026 should not be the stock market index alone. A more meaningful assessment requires looking at corporate earnings growth, dividend distributions, trading activity, market capitalization, private investment, credit to the private sector, and GDP growth together.
These indicators provide a more complete picture of whether the improvement in financial markets is becoming connected to the real economy.
The fundamental transformation we need is for confidence to translate into new investment, for liquidity to translate into financing, for corporate profits to translate into expansion and higher productivity, and for a deeper capital market to translate into greater capacity to finance the economy.
At the macroeconomic level, the ultimate objective is not simply higher stock prices. It is for the Amman Stock Exchange to help transform rising financial asset values into higher investment, production, productivity, and employment.
If this transition takes place, the remarkable performance of the Amman Stock Exchange in 2025 will represent more than an exceptional year for the stock market. It could mark the beginning of a new phase in which Jordan’s capital market plays a more significant role in financing and supporting sustainable economic growth.
In economics, some numbers describe the present, while others reveal how people perceive the future. The performance of the Amman Stock Exchange in 2025 may have provided one of the clearest signals yet that expectations surrounding an important part of the Jordanian economy are changing.
The ASE General Index rose by 45.1 per cent in a single year, increasing from 2,488.8 points at the end of 2024 to 3,611.6 points at the end of 2025. This was the highest annual closing level since 2007. According to Amman Stock Exchange data, and based on Bloomberg figures, the Jordanian market ranked first in the Arab region and thirteenth globally in terms of index growth during 2025.
Yet the significance of this performance goes well beyond the 45.1 per cent increase in the index. Other market indicators moved in the same direction. The market capitalization of listed companies rose to approximately JOD 26.5 billion, an increase of 50.1 per cent in one year. Trading value increased from around JOD 1.2 billion in 2024 to approximately JOD 2.2 billion in 2025, representing an increase of 80.6 per cent. Around 1.1 billion shares were traded during the year.
These figures suggest that the market’s performance was not simply driven by a limited number of stocks. Share prices increased for 106 listed companies, including 90 companies whose share prices rose by at least 10 per cent. Several major sectors also recorded significant gains. Banks rose by 45.7 per cent, extractive and mining industries by 77.3 per cent, transport by 51.8 per cent, and electrical industries by 119 per cent.
The key economic question, however, is whether this strong market performance reflects a genuine improvement in corporate and economic fundamentals or whether it represents mainly a repricing of financial assets.
The available evidence provides part of the answer. Listed companies on the Amman Stock Exchange generated after-tax profits of approximately JOD 2.348 billion in 2025, compared with JOD 2.081 billion in 2024, an increase of 12.9 per cent. This represents the second-highest historical level of profits recorded by listed companies. Pre-tax profits also increased by 9.6 per cent, reaching JOD 3.269 billion.
This combination is economically significant. We are not looking at rising stock prices in isolation. We are seeing higher share prices, a substantial increase in market capitalization, stronger trading activity, and higher corporate profitability occurring at the same time.
Financial markets are fundamentally forward-looking. Stock prices reflect expectations about future earnings and cash flows, adjusted for interest rates and perceived risk. A rise in share prices can therefore reflect stronger expectations about future corporate earnings, lower perceived risks, greater liquidity seeking investment opportunities, lower financing costs, or a combination of these factors.
This is why the performance of the Amman Stock Exchange should be considered within the broader context of the Jordanian economy. Real GDP grew by 2.75 per cent during the first nine months of 2025, compared with 2.53 per cent during the same period of 2024. The economy also recorded growth of 2.81 per cent in the third quarter.
The stock market’s strong performance therefore did not occur against a backdrop of economic contraction. It took place alongside continued economic growth and improved performance in several sectors. At the same time, however, it would be incorrect to interpret a 45.1 per cent increase in the stock market as equivalent to economic growth of 45.1 per cent. The stock market does not measure GDP. It reflects the market value of listed companies and investors’ expectations about their future performance.
The banking sector is particularly important in this context because of its significant weight in the Amman Stock Exchange. The sector operated within an environment characterized by monetary and financial stability. The Central Bank of Jordan also reported growth in customer deposits and credit facilities, while banking resilience and liquidity indicators remained strong during 2025.
Liquidity provides another important part of the explanation. Trading value increased by 80.6 per cent, substantially faster than the 45.1 per cent increase in the market index. This indicates that market activity expanded at a faster pace than prices.
Greater liquidity matters because it improves investors’ ability to enter and exit the market, supports more efficient price discovery, and helps address the limited trading activity that can characterize smaller capital markets. But liquidity by itself is not enough.
The more important question is whether this liquidity can move beyond the trading of existing shares and contribute to financing new investment. This is where the stock market can move from being a mirror of the economy to becoming an instrument for financing the economy.
If higher market valuations strengthen companies’ ability to raise new equity, finance expansion, and undertake investment projects, the capital market can become a genuine source of economic growth. If activity remains largely concentrated in the trading of existing shares and rising asset prices, however, the direct impact on the real economy will remain limited.
This is perhaps the most important challenge facing the Amman Stock Exchange in the next stage. The objective should not simply be to maintain a rising index, but to strengthen the economic role of the market by increasing the number of listed companies, broadening the investor base, deepening market liquidity, improving disclosure and corporate governance, and developing new financial instruments.
There is also an opportunity to encourage large private and family-owned businesses to consider public listing when economically appropriate. A deeper equity market can provide companies with alternative sources of long-term financing while giving investors greater access to productive investment opportunities.
For this reason, the indicator to watch in 2026 should not be the stock market index alone. A more meaningful assessment requires looking at corporate earnings growth, dividend distributions, trading activity, market capitalization, private investment, credit to the private sector, and GDP growth together.
These indicators provide a more complete picture of whether the improvement in financial markets is becoming connected to the real economy.
The fundamental transformation we need is for confidence to translate into new investment, for liquidity to translate into financing, for corporate profits to translate into expansion and higher productivity, and for a deeper capital market to translate into greater capacity to finance the economy.
At the macroeconomic level, the ultimate objective is not simply higher stock prices. It is for the Amman Stock Exchange to help transform rising financial asset values into higher investment, production, productivity, and employment.
If this transition takes place, the remarkable performance of the Amman Stock Exchange in 2025 will represent more than an exceptional year for the stock market. It could mark the beginning of a new phase in which Jordan’s capital market plays a more significant role in financing and supporting sustainable economic growth.
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Amman Stock Exchange: Has the economic transformation begun?
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