By Mohamed Farouk

Kuwait – Mubasher: GCC stock markets, in addition to Egypt, were mostly in red, while UAE’s twin markets shut in the green zone.

The Saudi Stock Exchange led declining markets for the second successive day, with a fall of 2.51%. It was followed by the Egyptian Exchange (-2.1%), the Muscat Securities Market (-0.63%), Kuwait Stock Exchange (-0.43%), Qatar Stock Exchange (-0.3%) and Bahrain Bourse (-0.22%).

The combined traded volume recorded by these markets today amounted to $1731.26 million, with Saudi Tadawul accounting for the most part with $1434.55 million, then Dubai Financial Market ($89.3 million) and Qatar market ($65.52 million). Bahrain bourse tailed the list with around $447,000.

The market capitalisation of the seven GCC bourses, in addition to Egypt, amounted to $1068.18 billion at the close of Wednesday’s session, down $15.1 billion from $1083.27 billion yesterday. Saudi Tadawul accounted for around $10.1 billion from these losses, while Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange was the only market to raise capitalisation by $594 million.

Jarrah Al Dayhani, technical analyst, said the continued downside movement is due to worries about developments at regional and global arenas.

He also indicated that the current correction seen by most of the region’s markets is justified amid weak traded volumes and values, which signals continuing correction.

Translated by Sayed Abdel Rahman