Publications
Partners
Kuwait City - Stock markets in most Gulf Arab states shed most of the gains they made at the start of trading on Monday to close lower or flat following days of heavy losses.
The biggest loser was the Saudi Tadawul All-Shares Index, the largest Arab bourse, which dropped below the 8 ,000-point mark for the first time since September 2013.
Starting the day in positive territory, TASI plunged in the last hour of trading to end down 2.64% on 7 904.91 points. All 15 sectors in the market ended lower.
End almost flat
The latest drop comes after days of heavy losses by the Saudi and other Gulf bourses triggered by the plunge in the price of oil, mainstay of the region's finances.
Dubai Financial Market, the Gulf's most volatile bourse which has plunged more than 25% in the past two weeks, opened on Monday up more than five percent, but shed all its gains to end almost flat on 3 325.49 points below last year's close.
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange also opened 3.2% up but finished trading down 0.7% on 4 180.76 points, way below last year's close of 4 290.0 points.
Markets have remained volatile, fluctuating sharply during the day following weeks of plunging oil prices that impacted Gulf markets which lost almost all gains posted in 2014.
"Markets have been volatile because of one of the steepest and fastest decline in oil prices. That has caused and spread panic among investors," said M R Raghu, head of research at the Kuwait Financial Centre.
Maintained its gains
"As a result, investors have been very nervous," leading to market volatility, he said.
The small markets of Oman and Bahrain dropped 0.9% and 0.3%.
However, Qatar and Kuwait bucked the trend.
Qatar Exchange, the Gulf's second largest, maintained its gains to close a healthy 3.1% up on 11 460.02 points.
Kuwait Stock Exchange gained 0.44% to close on 6 302.12 points.
World oil prices rebounded slightly on Monday from fresh five-year lows amid stubborn worries over weak global crude demand, boosting European stock markets.
