Stock calm turns to collective decline across GCC markets

By Abdul Rahman Ismail

But despite the decline today - and there are concerns it will continue next week - the DSM still ended its week as the biggest winner among the Gulf markets rising, 2.7%.

The Kuwait Stock Exchange was the second best performer, rising 0.62% over the trading week, followed by the Tadawul in Saudi Arabia, up by 0.28%.

The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) declined sharply by 1.1%, to end the week down 2.8%, making it the biggest loser. It was followed by Muscat - down 1% today and 0.67% for the week.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) also fell today, by 0.60% and declining 0.51% over the week. Despite rising today by 0.04%, Bahrain ended the week down by 0.55%.

Doha dip expected

What was expected in yesterday's report finally happened today, after the DSM was hit by profit gaining. In a call with AME Info, brokers said they fear the market might go into a painful correction, after the index fell below 12,500 points.

Only two leading shares, Al Barwa Real Estate and Qatar National Bank, escaped the decline today, while 29 others fell. Al Barwa Real Estate rose by 2.3% to reach QR91 (it was QR76 in May), while Qatar National Bank slightly rose by 0.32%.

The index came under pressure from the banking sector. Al Masrif fell by 3.2%, Qatar Commercial Bank by 2.2% and Al Rayan by 0.42%, despite topping the most traded shares list with 3.5 million shares traded out of total of 17.3 million, valued at QR1.8bn.

UAE weekly losses hit Dhs14bn

UAE shares lost Dhs14bn of their market value by the end of the week, according to the UAE Securities and Commodities Authority, as the indexes fell by 1.6%. Market value fell to Dhs869.5m from Dhs883.4m last week. Trading value also fell by 26.8% to Dhs12.8bn compared to Dhs17.5bn last week.

For third consecutive week the ADX topped UAE market trading in terms of value - Dhs7.1bn, representing 55.5%, compared to Dhs5.7bn on the DFM.

Dubai Investments' share topped the list of the most traded shares, with a weekly value of Dhs1.9bn. It ended the week up 4.1%. Bank of Umm Al Quwain topped the list of biggest risers, up 32.7%, while Agility topped most declining list, falling 14.8%.

Today's decline was attributed by analysts to continuous sales by foreign investors, especially investment portfolios, following the losses posted by US markets.

Total sales by non Arab foreign investors reached Dhs316.6m, compared to Dhs117.6m of purchasing orders. The decline of Emaar also contributed to the general decline, as it fell by 1.3% to Dhs11.20 - and at one point hitting Dhs11.10 during trading.

Other shares witnessed a decline except, Aramex and Al Salam Bank. The ADX reported a lower decline, as Abaar's shares went against the trend and rose by 1.5%.

Kuwait sticks to 15,300 mark

The Kuwait Stock Exchange clung to its 15,300 points, despite declining by 0.27% after coming under pressure from Agility, which lost 7.2% of its price after rises over the p\st few days on the back of its $200m deal with the US army.

It was noted that shares which registered a strong jump over the last two weeks declined sharply, including Bayan, which fell by 5.8%, Wataniya down 7.2% and Sultan Centre down 5.2%.

Mena Holding continued its upward trend for the fifth session, posting a 2.5% rise following news of profits achieved by the company's subsidiaries.

Muscat gives up the 12,000 points mark

The Muscat index gave up the 12,000 mark, after a sharp decline today of 1%, led by Muscat Bank. Its share fell 3%, to below OR2, despite trading OR4.3m shares. Total trading was OR26.5m.

Other bank shares also declined, including National Bank by 2.1% and Dhofar Bank by 2%. Omantel fell by 0.37%, trading 1.9 million shares.

Bahrain: record trading on Al Khaleej bank on first day

Bahrain's market, the only winner today, rose by 0.04% and witnessed a rise in the value and volume of trading that was supported by Khaleeji Commercial Bank on its first day of trading.

Trading rose to BD26m on 49 million shares, including 25.1 million for Khaleeji bank, of which Gulf Finance House owns 40% of its capital, which increased to $100m. The share registered a decline in its first day of trading in the IPO market, before moving to the official market.