Gains were led, for the second consecutive month, by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a study carried out by the Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz).
The Tadawul was up 9.75 per cent for the month while Dubai surged 20.5 per cent due to strength in its services, real estate and construction sectors. Bahrain and Kuwait’s Weighted Index were laggards with gains of about one per cent each.
Debt markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council have risen exponentially, with January 2012 seeing six bonds where a combined $7.2 billion was raised versus $858 million in the same month of the previous year.
According to Moody’s, the implementation of the regulation requiring the lowering of roaming rates for voice calls across the GCC will have a negative impact on all telecom operators, citing incumbent telecoms as being particularly vulnerable. The Tadawul broke the 7,000 level for the first time since the global financial crisis began in late-2008 on optimism concerning economic growth in addition to recent regulations concerning opening the exchange to foreign investors.
New regulations
The UAE Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA) is expected to finalise new regulations concerning investment funds, including issues pertaining to short-selling, by mid-2012.
The Kuwait CMA de-listed nine companies, most of which were investment firms, from the bourse due to financial problems and has ordered nine other firms to begin making concrete efforts to amend financial woes by a March 2012 deadline.
Volume was up 80 per cent in the GCC while traded value expanded 40 per cent to $62 billion; liquidity was led by the UAE where monthly value traded tripled to $937 million. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait saw liquidity up 35 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively.
