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28 March 2024

Arab bourses dip to lowest level

Published
By Staff

The global economic uncertainty along with ongoing political unrest in the region continued to take their toll on the Arab bourses as they dived this week to their lowest level so far this year, official data showed on Wednesday.

At the end of Monday’s dealings, the combined market capitalization of 13 official Arab stock exchanges stood at $870.2 billion, its lowest level since the start of 2011, the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AFM) said.

The level is nearly $seven billion below the capitalization of round $877.8 billion at the end of September and $85 billion below the level at the end of April, when capitalization reached its highest point of $955.7 billion in 2011.

The market capitalization of the Arab bourses, except those in Sudan and Algeria, stood at $053 billion at the beginning of 2011 before it started to decline in the following months. It then rebounded in April before it began its steady retreat in the following months because of the western debt crisis and current political turmoil in the Middle East and North Africa.

A breakdown showed all but Tunisia’s stock market were losers this year. The Tunisian bourse gained around $one billion while the Palestinian stock market in the occupied territories remained unchanged despite persistent tension.

Kuwait, one of the largest and busiest bourses in the Middle East, emerged as the main loser this year, tumbling by nearly $26 billion to close at $98.3 billion on Monday, according to the AMF, a key Arab League establishment which regularly tracks share dealing in the Arab markets through its stocks data base.

By percentage, turmoil-hit Syria emerged as the main victim, with its Damascus bourse plunging by nearly 50 per cent to $1.8 billion on Monday.

Saudi Arabia, by far the largest and busiest Arab market, slumped by about $17 billion to $323 billion while there was a decline of around $16 billion in Egypt.

Qatar slipped by only $900 million to $119.5 billion while Dubai and Abu Dhabi shrank by nearly $2.3 billion and $one billion to close on Monday at about $50.7 billion and $66.9 billion respectively, the report showed.

Oman’s exchange receded by nearly $three billion to $18.6 billion while there was a drop of around $four billion in Bahrain to $16.7 billion, $five billion in Morocco to $63 billion and $4.9 billion in Jordan to $25.9 billion.