Friday 27 / September / 2024
Muscat: GCC equity markets declined for the second consecutive month in September-2023 taking cues from the decline in global equity markets, according to a new report.
“The global decline was led by investor fears that rates would remain higher for longer as inflation and the economy remain too strong for the central banks to cut rates,” the Kuwait-based Kamco Invest said in its GCC Markets Monthly Report September 2023.
“The MSCI GCC index witnessed a 2.7 percent decline this month, that wiped off gains since the start of the year. The year-to-date (YTD) decline now stands at 3.0 percent,” the report further added. The decline in the GCC was broad-based with only Dubai and Qatari markets seeing gains last month while the rest of the markets declined. “Saudi Arabia’s TASI was the biggest monthly decliner with a fall of 3.8 percent followed by Oman and Kuwait with declines of 2.5 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively,” the Kamco Invest report said.
However, in terms of YTD-2023 performance, Dubai continues to boast healthy gains of 24.8 percent followed by Saudi Arabia and Bahrain with gains of 5.5 percent and 2.3 percent , respectively. The rest of the markets in the GCC were in the red.
In terms of sector performance, most of the GCC indices were in the red during September-2023, including banks that dropped by 3.8 percent. On the other hand, gainers were few but included real estate and energy with gains of 2.4 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively.
The Kamco Invest report further said that all key indices i.e. the MSCI World Index, the S&P 500 and the MSCI GCC index were down during the month and during Q3-2023.
Regional performance also showed declines in almost all key global markets during September-2023 barring the UK which clocked a gain of 2.3 percent. The MSCI World index witnessed the biggest decline in 12 months while the US gauge witnessed the biggest decline this year led by a sharp fall in Technology stocks mainly due to higher interest rates.
Meanwhile, crude oil witnessed a gain of almost 10 percent during the month mainly backed by production cuts.
Saudi Arabia (Tadawul)
Saudi Arabia’s headline equity index TASI reported monthly decline during September-2023. The index peaked at a closing high of 11,491.20 points during the first week of the month but mostly trended downward during the rest of the month to close with a decline of 3.8 percent at 11,056.0 points. Despite the decline, Saudi Arabia ranks second in the GCC in terms of YTD-2023 performance with a gain of 5.5 percent.
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange
The FTSE ADX index dipped 0.3 percent during September-2023, closing the month at 9,785.32 points and recording its first monthly decline after three consecutive months of gains. In terms of sectoral indices, six out of ten sectors recorded growth during the month while the remaining four recorded declines. On the gainers’ side, the Real Estate index witnessed the biggest monthly gain registering 7.1 percent growth to close the month at 8,766.7 points mainly due to Sharjah Group Company’s 67.8 percent share jump.
The Healthcare index followed with a 5 percent index gain to close the month at 3,790.0 after two out of the three companies in the sector recorded monthly gains that included Gulf Medical Projects (7.34 percent) and Burjeel Holdings (6.4 percent).
Dubai Financial Market
The DFM General Index witnessed a monthly gain of 2.0 percent during September-2023 to close at 4,163.58 points registering its sixth consecutive monthly gain. Monthly index performance was skewed to the gainers during the month after five out of eight indices witnessed gains during September-2023 while the remaining three indices saw declines that partially offset the overall growth during the month.
The Real Estate Index recorded the biggest monthly gain registering 8.6 percent growth to close the month at 7,457.1 points mainly driven by Emaar Properties' nearly 13.9 percent price gain during September-2023. The Financial index followed as the second largest gainer during the month with 2.4 percent growth after several of the sector’s biggest weighted companies witnessed significant gains during the month.
Qatar Exchange
After reporting losses during the previous month, the Qatar Stock Exchange recorded a marginal gain during September -2023. The QE 20 index closed the month at 10,252.0 points witnessing a gain of 0.6 percent, in-line with gains in the Qatar All Share Index that reported at 0.6 percent. In terms of YTD performance, the QE 20 index was down 4.0 percent, the second biggest decline in the GCC while the All Share index clocked a gain of 0.2 percent.
The sector performance chart remained mixed during the month. The Insurance sector recorded the biggest monthly gain of 9.9 percent during September-2023 followed by Industrials and Transportation with gains of 6.2 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.
Bahrain Bourse
The Bahrain Bourse All Share Index recorded the second consecutive month of decline during September-2023 with a marginal fall of 0.7 percent to close the month at 1,939.13 points. In terms of sectoral performance, six out of the seven sector indices witnessed declines during the month. The Materials index together with the Consumer Discretionary index recorded the biggest monthly decline in September-2023 at 2.2 percent each to close the month at 5,030.6 and 3,387.9 points, respectively.
