GCC market capitalisation drops

Market capitalisation of the GCC markets fell $30.7 billion to $675.7bn during August, Kuwait-based Global Investment House said on Tuesday.

In the GCC, all bourses ended the month of August 2011 on a lower note, led by the Saudi market, which shed 6.46 per cent of its value by the end of the month. Kuwait Stock Exchange followed, down by 3.97 per cent as measured by KSE Price index, while market cap weighted, Global General index (GGI), retreated by 3.12 per cent by the end of the month.

Global said in its monthly report that several economic downturns pressured Mena stock markets during the month of August 2011, sending the majority of them tumbling by the end of the month.

The breadth of GCC stock markets tilted towards decliners in last month, as 369 stocks registered monthly loss, compared to 124 advancers, out of 527 traded stocks.

UAE

UAE markets ended the month of August on a lower note. US debt, political unrest in the region in addition to moderate 2Q financial results for the top UAE companies negatively impacted UAE markets. Looking at Abu Dhabi Securities Market (ADX), Abu Dhabi General Index reported monthly drop of 0.14 per cent to reach 2,616.02 points. Large cap, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank was a noticeable decliner during the month, shedding 2.30 per cent to close at Dh2.980. Also, heavyweight energy and real estate stocks dragged Abu Dhabi decliner, losing 4 per cent from its value to close at Dh1.2, while Aldar Properties could not end the month in green as the scrip plunged by 0.80 per cent to close at Dh1.240.

Dubai Financial Market (DFM) was aggressively hit, losing 1.66 per cent from its value, as measured by Dubai General Index, to close at 1,492.44 points. Dubai General Index extended its YTD losses to 8.47 per cent by the end of August 2011. All the market sectoral indices were in red zone led by Services sector, which massively lost 16.90 per cent from its index value. Heavyweight, National General Cooling Company (Tabreed) reported huge losses amounted to 18.88 per cent. The scrip ended its monthly trading at Dh0.795.

Despite that usual lower trading activity during the month of Ramadan, UAE markets experienced higher trading activity with total trading volume reaching 2.53m shares exchanged (+3.16 per cent compared to the previous month) at a total traded value of Dh3.91mn (+16.24 per cent).

Qatar

Global concerns on a possible double-dip recession brought about by the US rating downgrade weighed on Qatari stocks this month, as Global Qatari General Index dipped by 2.02 per cent, closing at 619.10 points.

Moreover, faster selling by foreign institutions outweighed domestic institutions’ strong buying interest causing QE Index to dip by 0.61 per cent, finishing below the 8,400 level at 8,351.77 points. The market reached its lowest level since March 2011, during the month on August 9, 2011, as world stocks pulled back from a 10-day rout after a day of dizzying tailspin sparked by a panic sell-off in Asian and US markets over fears of a double-dip global downturn. The sectors performance was mixed this month as two of the four Global sectoral indices fell against two others edging higher. Global Industrial Index was the major loser as it shed 9.67 per cent of its value, on lower oil prices.

Saudi Arabia

Global economic woes continued to dominate the trading floors worldwide, as well as in the Saudi market, pushing it to fall below the important psychological level of 6,000 points. By the end of the month of August 2011, Tadawul All Share index lost 6.46 per cent of its value as it closed at 5,979.30 points. Sectoral performance was mostly negative, with 13 out of the 15 sectors of the market ending the month of August 2011 on a lower note. Heavyweight Petrochemical Industries index posted the steepest decline, down by 10.97 per cent by the end of the month.

As for the YTD performance, the Kuwaiti market posted the steepest decline since the beginning of the year 2011, down by 20.44 per cent, as measured by GGI, while KSE Price index suffered a 16.74 per cent loss YTD.

Aggregate volume and value traded on the GCC bourse during the month of August 2011, declined by 4.64 per cent and 14.48 per cent respectively, due to shorter trading hours in some exchanges during the month of Ramadan, and as a result of Eid Al Fitr holiday.

Bahrain

Bahrain Bourse carried on its negative performance during the month of August 2011, as US and Europe’s debt concerns weighed negatively on all regional markets. Global Bahraini General Index retreated by 2.47 per cent, ending the month at 102.42 points. Meanwhile Bahrain All Share Index ended the month down by 2.59 per cent, as it closed at 1,258.25 points.

August’s retreat was broad based, with only 3 stocks ending on a higher note, versus 16 decliners, out of 23 traded companies. All traded sectoral indices ended the month of August 2011 at lower levels, led by the Services index, which shed 3.49 per cent of its value. Heavyweight Bahrain Telecommunications Company (Batelco) posted 4.76 per cent in monthly loss, as it ended at BHD0.400.

Elsewhere in the Mena region, Egypt's bourse carried on its negative performance due to the absence of political and economic stability. EGX30 index retreated by 7.86 per cent during the month of August 2011, widening its YTD losses to 35.04 per cent.

The Jordanian market, as measured by Amman Free Float Index was also a notable loser during the month, shedding 2.23 per cent from its value. On August 16, the index had descended to 2,013.71 points, its lowest reading in seven years.

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