GCC Index Performance: February

Given the political situation in the MENA region at the moment it's not surprising that February was a bad month for GCC stock markets.

The Muscat 30 Index was the worst performer, dropping by 10.18% with the Qatar market not far behind with a 9.29% fall.  Dubai, Saudi and Kuwait all fell by over 5%.

Despite Bahrain's problems the country's stock index dropped by just 1.25% in February.  However, but for the complete lack of liquidity in the Bahrain market at the moment (many stocks did not trade at all during February) I think the index falls would be a lot, lot worse.

Abu Dhabi was the best performer, managing to eek out a small gain (0.08%) on the month.

On a year-to-date basis the picture doesn't get any better.  All stock indexes are down for the year with the Dubai market having already lost over 13% in 2011.

Enjoy.

GCC Index Performance: January

Everything went a bit wrong in the final few days of January, brought about by the Egypt situation, of course. 

The Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets are once again the worst performers with the DFM General Index losing 5.90% in January and the ADX losing 4.89%.  Muscat, Bahrain, and Qatar all managed to stay positive for the month, despite suffering late Egypt related falls.

Enjoy.

November GCC Index Review

Historically, November has been a poor month for GCC equity markets and this year was no different.  Five of the seven GCC indices fell during November with Dubai and Abu Dhabi posting the biggest losses.  The Muscat 30 Index managed to eek out a small gain for the month but the only significant gainer was the QE Index, rising 4.44%.

The Qatar market has been the stand out performer in 2010 with the QE Index now up 17% for the year.  With Thursday's announcement that Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup it will be interesting to see how that market finishes 2010.  Will it rally into the year end on the back of this news? Or is it a a case of "buy the rumour, sell the news" for the Qatar market?

Volume across the GCC markets in November was generally lower than in October.  However, the low volume can be attributed to the Eid holiday which kept markets closed for a week during the middle of November.

Enjoy.

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October GCC Index Review

Following on from September's strong performance, October was another good month for GCC equity markets.  Apart from the Saudi Tadawul Index which lost -0.60% over the month, all other markets ended higher in October.

The Abu Dhabi and Dubai markets led the way again with the ADX Index rising 5.35% and the DFM General Index rising 4.80%. 

Volume was also strong in October with all markets except Bahrain seeing increased activity compared with the previous month.

Enjoy.

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September GCC Index Review

All GCC indices rose in value during September. However, the DFM General Index was the stand out performer, rising 13.48% over the month.

This was probably a case of the DFM General Index playing catch up with the other GCC indices.  Going into September the Index was down 18% for the year, almost twice as much as the next worst performing index.  Dubai is still the worst performing Index so far this year but is now down only 6.65%.

On the volume front the Dubai market was also the leader in September with a +175% increase in shares traded compared to the previous month.  However, in absolute terms the volume in Dubai during September was not significant.  In fact, the monthly volume was only the fifth highest month so far this year.

Enjoy.

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August GCC Index Review

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Enjoy.