Gulf Cooperation Council Markets Report

Reaffirming again that it has a delayed reaction, the UAE markets followed the other GCC market's trend, shedding 1.6 per cent in the week that ended on Thursday. Although it may seem a delayed reaction to regional tensions, UAE shares should not slump drastically as other regional markets have, given the fact that incremental gains witnessed since the start of the year have been smooth and sustainable. The SC UAE Index lost 1.61 % to 1,123.56 points on a decreased volume of 6.7 million shares. Emaar Properties, the usual volume leader, had the largest share of trading activity after accounting for about 30 percent of the total. Emaar usually serves as a market indicator for both the local and foreign investors' sentiment as it is among the few stocks open for foreign investors. Its price shed 4.5 percent to 23.25 on heavy selling. Another indicator of investors turning defensive could be seen through the move towards illiquid stocks like National Marine Dredging that climbed 16 percent to 771 dirhams with a traded value of 22 million dirhams. Among other declining blue chips was National Bank of Abu Dhabi that lost 2 dirhams to 86 dirhams, while Emirates Bank International ended the week flat at 19 dirhams.

The Kuwaiti market plunged 2.4 percent in the week that ended on Wednesday. It has been among the worst weeks witnessed by the market since the beginning of the year. Unlike the Jordanian situation the Kuwaiti economy is not likely to be affected substantially from any attack on Iraq, however, long boarders with the targeted state, together with the Kuwait's experience with the Iraq issue kept people away from the market. Trading value kept its downward trend shedding 10 million dinars to 40 million dinars. In the banking sector, Al-Ahli Bank shed 8.5 percent to 270 fils, while the blue-chip, National Bank of Kuwait, closed the week unchanged at 940 fils. Mobile Telecom was another decliner after losing 20 fils to close at 1.86 dinars, while the second telecom operator, National Mobile Telecom, dropped 60 fils to 1.22 dinars.

Qatar got hit after a long week of heavy selling; the SC Qatar Index plunged 4 percent to close at 1,812.36 points. Volumes increased by 6.4 percent to 1.49 million shares, up from 1.4 million shares. On the other hand, traded value climbed to 66.15 million riyals, compared with 50.34 million riyals recorded in a week earlier. Qatar Telecom was among the major decliners, dropping 4.5 percent to 110 riyals after sharing 13 percent of the total turnover. Blue-chip Qatar National bank followed suit, shedding 0.57 percent to 86 riyals.