By: Mahmoud Gamal

Mubasher: The GCC stock markets are likely to be gripped by five factors this week, analysts told Mubasher.

By the end of Thursday’s trading session, some of the GCC markets have seen a bearish trend, particularly the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) which fell 2.1%, while the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) rose by more than 1%.

Geopolitical tensions

The recent geopolitical tensions embodied in the continued US-China trade war have impacted the GCC bourses last week, analysts said.

The inclusion of many Gulf indexes in the MSCI emerging markets index, such as Tadawul, has trimmed the losses in some of the bourses in the region, they stressed.

MSCI Inc. announced the inclusion of Tadawul-listed firms in the MSCI emerging markets index as of 28 May.

Selling pressures

Most of the GCC stocks have witnessed sell-offs last week after facing selling pressures, mainly First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), which MSCI kept its foreign inclusion factor unchanged at 25%, Fadi ElGhattis, founder of Mindcraft Consultants, said.

The recently announced quarterly financial results of GCC-listed firms failed to pare the markets’ losses as most of the results were below-expectations for shareholders, ElGhattis pointed out.

He expected the GCC bourses to start the week affected by the negative performance of the global stock markets.

Translated by: Mai Ezz El-Din