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28 March 2024

UAE investors richer by $4.1bn in 9 months

Dubai’s bourse grew to about $57.2 billion from around $54.9 billion (FILE)

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By Staff

The UAE investors emerged richer by $4.1 billion in the first nine months of 2010, official data showed on Monday.

Dubai’s bourse grew to about $57.2 billion from around $54.9 billion while Abu Dhabi rose to nearly $71.9 billion from $70.1 billion, the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) said.

Arab equity investors emerged richer by more than $52 billion in the first nine months of 2010 despite persistent fluctuations in most regional bourses due to speculation and economic uncertainty.

All but the stock markets of Jordan and Lebanon ended the third quarter with bigger capitalization and those of Kuwait and Qatar emerged as the star performers in the region.

From around $894.8 billion at the end of 2009, the combined market capitalization of 13 official Arab bourses swelled to about $947.4 billion, an increase of nearly $52.6 billion in nine months.

The bulk of the increase was in the bourses of Kuwait and Qatar, which surged by nearly $27 billion and $12 billion respectively, according to the AMF, a key financial establishment of the Cairo-based Arab League.
Saudi Arabia, by far the largest and most speculative market in the Middle East, edged up slightly to around $332.4 billion at the end of September from $331.2 billion at the end of 2009, the figures showed.

The Omani and Bahrain bourses, the smallest in the Gulf, swelled to around $19.5 billion from $18.9 billion and to $16.9 billion from $16.3 billion.

Outside the Gulf, Egypt was the best performer, with its market capitalization surging to around $81.3 billion at the end of September from nearly $74.4 billion at the end of 2009, the AMF report showed.

Morocco, the second largest non-Gulf Arab stock exchange, edged up to around $65 billion from $63.4 billion in the same period.

There were also increases in the capitalization of the markets in Tunisia and Palestine. The bourses of Jordan and Lebanon were the only losers during that period, with the capitalization of Amman’s bourse slipping to $29.8 billion from $31.5 billion and that of Beirut going down to $17.5 billion from $18.1 billion.

The report showed the combined Arab market capitalization climbed to one of its highest levels of $980.4 billion at the end of April before tumbling to $893.6 billion at the end of May. It dropped to $893.7 billion at the end of June then rebounded to about $905.7 billion at the end of July and $910 billion at the end of August.

It also showed the total companies trading their shares in the Arab bourses declined by three to 1,414 at the end of September from 1,417 at the end 2009.

A breakdown showed there was a decline was mainly in Egypt, where they dipped to 215 from 219 companies. Trading firms in Oman and Morocco shrank by two each while those in Abu Dhabi fall by one.

Some bourses remained unchanged while they rose in other markets, mainly Saudi Arabia, which recorded an increase by four companies to 143 from 139.

Releasing its semi-annual report last month, the AMF said regional bourses were generally affected by the Greek debt crisis in the second quarter of 2010. It said the decline followed good performance in the previous four quarters.

“Most Arab markets recorded a marked decline during the second quarter of this year to reverse a gradual recovery and improvement they had witnessed since the second quarter of 2009,” it said but gave no assessment for the third quarter.

“The decline was mainly a result of the state of instability that hit global markets due to fears from the Greek debt crisis, which has created a state of uncertainty among regional investors and their market outlook….the Arab markets have also been affected by the fall in the profits and dividends by some companies.”

The report said Arab markets suffered from a decline despite projections about a better outlook for the economic performance of regional countries.

“This shows how close the Arab markets have become to global markets although this varies from one market to another, depending on the ability of each market to attract foreign capital…there is no doubt the Arab markets which have more foreign investment are naturally more influenced by global crises.”