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The GCC Statistical Centre placed the trading value in GCC stock markets at $618 billion for 2025, according to data released on September 13. A total of 401.7 billion shares changed hands during the year, marking a 19.5 percent increase from 2024 levels. The overall composite index of GCC financial markets closed at 165.2 points, reflecting a 3.8 percent decline from the end of the previous year.
GCC-Stat figures show the combined market capitalisation of these markets reached $3.9 trillion at the end of 2025, a 6.2 percent decrease compared with the prior year. This performance followed a period in which the composite index had posted modest gains, the centre’s earlier releases indicated. The 2025 outcome represented roughly 3.5 percent of global market capitalisation in line with recent historical patterns.
The GCC Statistical Centre counted 779 listed companies across GCC financial markets by the close of 2025. Of that total, 756 companies, or 97 percent, permitted citizens from all member states to trade their shares. Full accessibility for GCC nationals stood at 100 percent on the exchanges in Bahrain, Muscat, Qatar and Kuwait, according to the centre’s breakdown.
Regulatory and legislative advances marked GCC financial markets in 2025, GCC-Stat reported. Updates addressed oversight of markets and investment funds, rules on offerings and listings, corporate governance standards, trading practices and market-making mechanisms. Expansion of digital platforms and financial technologies formed a further element of the changes detailed in the centre’s review.
The stock market data arrives as the GCC economies registered a combined GDP of approximately $2.4 trillion in 2025, placing the bloc among the world’s 10 largest economies. Sovereign wealth fund assets surpassed $5 trillion while commercial bank assets stood at about $3.9 trillion, a Gulf News report citing GCC Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi stated. Inward foreign direct investment stock reached roughly $792.7 billion that year, including $171.4 billion in intra-GCC flows.
GCC-Stat previously recorded market capitalisation at $4.2 trillion for 2024, accompanied by a 0.7 percent rise in the composite index. The 2025 trading value increase occurred against this backdrop of sustained efforts to strengthen capital market infrastructure and liquidity. Separate analysis from PwC Middle East noted that IPO activity across the GCC had reached record levels in 2024 with 53 listings raising $13.2 billion, setting a foundation for subsequent market development.
