Capital Markets

What Moved GCC Equity Markets?

S&P GCC composite index rose by 1.5%, with Qatar and Saudi Arabia leading the gainers. Qatar’s main index rose 3.5% for the month, while Abu Dhabi ended the month mildly positive. Dubai markets gave up some of the sharp gains witnessed in the month of August, closing 2.0% down for the current month. Abu Dhabi continues to be the top performer for the year, supported by the rise in oil prices, strong earnings and favourable valuations. Despite the run-up in...

Fresh listings could reinvigorate Islamic equity capital markets

This article was originally published in Islamic Finance news (IFN) GCC regional equity markets continue to scale new peaks buoyed by global rally and increasing oil prices. S&P GCC Composite Index, an index, has gained over 20% for the year. Liquidity glut sloshing around global markets has fuelled the rally. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, central banks worldwide eased money supply and increased the availability of credit at near zero interest rates to stem economic fallout. However, the capital has found...

Kuwait and GCC Blue Chip Earnings

Kuwait Earnings November saw a number of blue chip companies in Kuwait and GCC declare their financial results for the third quarter (Q3) of 2020. The earnings of Kuwaiti blue chip companies saw a decrease in Q3-2020 compared to that of the same period in 2019 as seen from the exhibit below. Exhibit 1: Q3 earnings of top 5 Kuwaiti companies by Market Capitalisation Source: Boursa Kuwait; Reuters; Data as of November 29, 2020 Commentary: National Bank of Kuwait: Net...

Estimating future returns for Saudi Arabia Stock Market

Need an equity market framework It is a classic mistake that all of us can be guilty of at some point in time. Mistaking historical stock market returns as a good proxy for future returns. While optimism breeds optimism, pessimism breeds pessimism. If we have a great decade (like how S&P 500 is), it will be nearly impossible to be utterly pessimistic and vice versa. Time and again it has been proved that history never repeats but rhymes. However, intuitively...

Impact of Covid-19 on GCC REITs

The GCC has seen a number of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) listed in stock exchanges in the past few years. This accelerated after Saudi Arabia’s Capital Markets Authority (CMA) approved the listing of REITs in 2016 as a part of the National Transformation Program (NTP) and Saudi Vision 2030. Due to the economic crisis in the wake of the covid-19 pandemic, many of the listed REITs have seen a steep decline in their share prices and market capitalisations. Saudi...

GCC Equities Fall Flat in September Despite Oil Rebound

According to our recently released Monthly Market Review for the month of September, GCC equity markets remained flat despite the surge in crude oil prices witnessed during the month. Kuwait stock market, however, hogged the limelight as the first part of its integration into the FTSE EM index was effected on September 24th. Consequently, a spike in liquidity was witnessed on September 20th, as the rebalancing was done using the closing prices of 20th September. Kuwait stock market was flat...

Kuwait and GCC Markets Give up some of the gains in August

According to our recently released Monthly Market Review for the month of August, the positive momentum that prevailed in the recent months among GCC indices has halted during the month as the investors booked their profits. Turmoil in Turkey and pull out of much and long awaited IPO of Saudi Aramco contributed to the negative sentiment. Kuwait all share index lost 0.7% for the month. Despite the losses registered in this month, Saudi Arabian and Kuwait indices’ returns for the...

Banking stocks propel the GCC markets

According to our recently released Monthly Market Review for the month of July, the second half of the year started on a good note for the stock markets of Kuwait and its regional peers, as they continue to yield positive results. Kuwait markets registered a positive performance for the month of July, as its All Share index gained 5.7%, propelling its YTD gains to 9.6%. Among Kuwait’s blue chip companies, Zain, Kuwait Financial House (KFH) and National Bank of Kuwait...

Saudi and Kuwait markets ride the MSCI inclusion wave

According to our recently released Monthly Market Review for the month of June, GCC Stock Markets continued to post positive results, marking another positive month. The S&P GCC index was up 1.1% for the month and is now up 9.9% for the year, making it as one of the best performing regions in the world. Both MSCI EM and MSCI World were negative for the month. MSCI EM shed 4.6%, while, MSCI World lost 0.2%. The performance of S&P GCC index was...

Is GCC a good place to hunt for yield?

Sizable issuances The emergence of GCC bond markets have been a fallout of the low oil prices and decline in foreign reserves, which has forced the regional governments to look for alternative routes to fund their diversification plans. Recently, debt issuances has been an important avenue for fund raising activities of the government. Out of the USD 38.5Bn that has been raised in the Middle East region since the beginning of 2017, 61% has come from the GCC countries. Saudi...