By: Mahmoud Gamal

Dubai – Mubasher: The diplomatic spat between Turkey and the US has stolen the limelight from the disclosures in the UAE markets.

This tension began when Turkey refused to release an American evangelical pastor accused of being involved in a coup d’état scheme against the government.

The troubled relations between both countries, which followed by sanctions against Ankara that dragged down the Lira, had a negative impact on the UAE stock markets too, senior financial analyst at Mena Corp Issam Kassabieh said.

Many UAE-based companies and banks could be harmed by this crisis, including Emirates NBD, which was on the verge of closing a deal to acquire Turkey’s Denizbank, along with other companies such as Emaar Malls and Agthia, he added.

The situation in Turkey will have its repercussions in the GCC economies, which injected $19 billion in investments in Ankara during 2017, making up 9.4% of total foreign investments in the country, the analyst told Mubasher.

Translated by: Muhammad Khalid