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On Sunday, a basket of major Gulf bourses had wrapped up the session sharply lower with Saudi’s benchmark index snapping a ten-session-long winning streak, as a global-scale retreat in equity indices alongside a fall in crude oil prices on Friday, a critical indicator to Gulf investors’ morale, had taken a greater than anticipated toll on market participants’ optimism. In point of fact, in the day’s steep downswing in Gulf bourses had been almost entirely catalysed by a wide-spread risk-aversion with investors ditching out riskier assets from their portfolios, largely mimicking a global-scale sell-off on Friday as investors’ remained fretted that the US Federal Reserve may have voiced an utterly hawkish tone on January 25-26 policy meet.
On a longer-term perspective, Gulf bourses’ outlooks seem riant as large Wall Street lenders began to raise price targets for UK crude up to $100 per barrel, suggests analysts.
Gulf stocks sour amid inflation surge
Citing statistics, in the day’s Gulf market closing bell, Saudi’s benchmark index shed 1.2 per cent, retreating from a nearly 15-year peak, as Al Rajhi Bank shed 0.7 per cent and oil mammoth Aramco dropped 1.0 per cent.
Besides, Qatari index edged 0.2 per cent lower with Qatar Islamic Bank and Commercial Bank losing 1.0 per cent and 1.2 per cent respectively. Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index soured 0.6 per cent with almost all of its 29 stocks winding down the session in a negative territory.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, Bahrain rose 0.1 per cennt, while Oman and Kuwait lost 0.3 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.