Arab market cap up $59bn in 2012

A surge in Saudi Arabia’s stock market, the largest and busiest in the Middle East, lifted the Arab bourses by nearly $59 billion in the two and half months of 2012 although many individual exchanges remained stifled.

An increase in the market capitalization of Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses allied with recovery in Egypt to contribute to the high growth in the region’s capitalization, the largest increase in such a period for more than a year.

From $901 billion at the start of January, the combined market capitalization of 13 official Arab stock exchanges soared to about $960.2 billion on March 18, according to the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AMF).

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul, which traditionally accounts for nearly a third of the total Arab market capitalization, shot up from around $347 billion to nearly $397 billion in the same period, an increase of around $50 billion. The increase accounted for almost 85 per cent of the total Arab market growth during that period.

Dubai grew by around $three billion from $51.3 billion to $54.2 billion while Abu Dhabi gained $four billion to rise from $66.6 billion to $70.8 billion.

Egypt’s market, which had been hit by domestic unrest, rebounded by about $four billion to reach $61.2 billion compared with $57.2 billion.

Qatar’s Doha bourse tumbled by around $seven billion to $117 billion from $124.4 billion despite occasional increases during that period.

Kuwait’s market edged up slightly to around $102.7 billion from $101.2 billion while there were also slight increases in Bahrain and Oman.

Morocco’s bourse, the largest outside the Gulf, edged down to $61.5 billion from $61.7 billion while the bourses of Tunisia, Lebanon and Palestine gained slightly.

Jordan’s Amman market grew to nearly $27 billion from $25.7 billion while Syria’s bourse remained stagnant at $1.4 billion because of the current turmoil.

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