Bahrain Bourse is keen on spreading investment awareness among students, said its director Fouad A Rahman Rashid.

"During the coming years, Bahrain Bourse will be keen to widen the areas of co-operation with all the parties and institutions in the kingdom to support the education in the country and increase investment awareness among students who we see as potential brokers and investors," Rashid said.

Rashid's remarks came as he, along with Bahrain Bourse deputy director Shaikh Khalifa bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, received Bahrain School Team, the first place winner in the 2010-2011 TradeQuest Challenge, at bourse's premises at Bahrain Financial Harbour.

The students were accompanied by United Gulf Bank (UGB) acting chief executive officer Mohammed Haroon, TradeQuest programme co-ordinator Anne Khoshabi and investment adviser of the team Deepa Chandrasekhar.

Rashid congratulated the members of Bahrain School Team for winning first place in the programme, praising the technical support of the team's financial adviser, UGB, during the whole programme.

"The real success is measured by the information, investment and economic knowledge gained in the different phases of the programme, in addition to the experience students acquire by trading and dealing directly at Bahrain Bourse and New York Stock Exchange," he said.

Rashid encouraged all participating teams in this year's programme and the teams who will be participating in next year's TradeQuest to put more efforts in order to benefit from the programme and seek a winning position.

Rashid emphasised that the success of TradeQuest during the past 14 years will encourage Bahrain Bourse to put more efforts in developing the contents of the programme in various areas, and to sponsor as well as provide more educational and awareness programmes as part of the bourse's social responsibility towards the country and its community.

Haroon thanked Bahrain Bourse for sponsoring TradeQuest and providing the technical support for all the schools participating in the programme which really contributed to the outstanding performance of all the teams and maximised their benefits through this programme.

Over the last six months, 64 high school business and economics students from both private and public schools in Bahrain took part in a simulated stock trading programme on the New York Stock Exchange and Bahrain Bourse.

They pitted their wits and newly acquired financial skills against prevailing financial, economic and political market conditions in order to maximise their financial return on their investment portfolios of $4 million and BD500,000 respectively.-TradeArabia News Service