Saturday, June 21, 2014

Has the Middle East Stock Market Bubble been Popped?

Has the escalating violence in Iraq popped the Middle East stock market bubble? Have investors been cashing in to seek safehaven from  further deterioration in region's social conditions?  Or has the current abrupt declines been about raising funds to finance parties engaged in the sectarian war? Or has the Iraq war served as an aggravating factor to a bubble naturally set to bust? 

The following charts are from Bloomberg and referenced from a 3 year perspective

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The Bloomberg GCC  200 Index or BGC200 or the “capitalization weighted index of the top 200 equities in the GCC region”. GCC stands for Gulf Cooperation Council or the “regional intergovernmental political and economic union consisting of all Arab states of the Persian Gulf, except for Iraq. Its member states are the Islamic monarchies of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates” (Wikipedia)

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The Bahrain Bourse all Share index (BHSEASI). Despite the recent decline, the BHSEASI remains up 14.89% year to date.

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The Kuwaiti Stock Exchange Index (KWSEIDX) –8.07% y-t-d

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Oman’s Muscat Securities (MSM30) +1.5% y-t-d

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Qatar Exchange Index (DSMID) +19.98 y-t-d

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Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share (SASEIDX) +13.04% y-t-d

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Finally the United Arab Emirates Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) +36.31% y-t-d

Are these writing on the wall for global stock markets? 

We will see how these will play out.

Stay tuned.

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