Four Gulf stock exchanges came under selling pressure at the end of their weekly trading on Thursday, after oil prices fell from their highest levels since 2014, coinciding with the cautious calm of Russian military operations in Ukraine, while the Saudi stock market consolidated and continued to reap gains.
And the expert in trading in the financial markets, Mahmoud Atta, said that what happened in the Gulf markets does not exceed strong profit-taking operations due, as it was normal after reaching record levels and technically oversold and achieving the goals, and therefore the sale should have been done by portfolios and funds.
He pointed out that since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, the behavior of traders has shifted to quick speculation and raising liquidity retention rates, pointing out that the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise interest rates did not affect the course of trading in the region’s markets.
He said: “Since the statements of US Central Bank President Jerome Powell, which confirmed the move forward in raising interest rates for the first time since 2018, we found by following up on the movement of influential investment portfolios, some bank stocks, and therefore in the midst of that mixed performance, they rose and achieved good gains, especially in the Saudi markets. and Kuwait.”
He explained that the decline in Brent crude affected the performance of the petrochemical and energy sector in general, and then dealers turned to profit after the week before last, in which the shares of that sector led the strong rises in the region’s stock exchanges.
He explained that the Saudi General Market Index (TASI) technically faces strong and important resistance levels at 12830-12930 points, pointing out that exceeding it paves the way for levels of 13000 points and then 13500 points.
He stressed that the superiority at the mentioned technical levels reflects the optimism of investors about the path of the Saudi Stock Exchange and the companies’ results for the first quarter in the medium term.
Strong concentration For her part, the managing director of Al-Safa Securities Brokerage Company, Howaida Salam, said that the compass of the markets did not differ from the global markets, especially last week, which witnessed the US Central Bank’s decision, which came in accordance with expectations, and therefore the Arab and international markets dealt with the rise, especially with Cautious calm of the Ukrainian crisis.
Market nervousness The advisor for trading in financial markets, Mohamed Mahdi, pointed out that investors in the region’s markets may focus more during the next week on the events of the Ukrainian crisis and the return of Corona to the outbreak in China.
He said that the weekly decline is due to the approval by many companies of cash dividends, which prompted many dealers to sell shares after the dividends, to reach low price levels that attract dealers to reinvest in them.
He pointed out that the optimistic view in the medium term still exists for the markets of the Saudi and Qatari stock exchanges, with the implementation of the FTSE Emerging Markets Index revision, which supported liquidity, with the implementation of purchases on the leading stocks such as the industrial sector.
He pointed out that the market determinants also during the next week are oil prices, which were subjected to pressure and fell by more than 4% last week, in addition to plans to approve cash dividends for major companies and anticipation for the announcement of the results of the first quarter of the new year.
Saudi Arabia
At the end of the week’s trading, the general index of the Saudi market “TASI” rose 0.67% to reach 12,769.21 points, with the share of Saudi Room rising 26.3% in addition to the rise of Etihad Etisalat 17.95%, Alinma Bank 8.13%, Savola Group 5.9%, Al Jazira Bank 4.76%, National Steel 3.8% and Bank Al-Rajhi 3.11%, Zain Saudi Arabia 3.03% and Saudi Aramco 1.82%. While the Saudi Al-Ahly share declined by 1.88%, ACWA Power by 3.87% and YANSAB by 4.7%.
Diameter
The Doha Securities Market index fell 1.73% to 13,397.57 points, due to the decline in Barwa Real Estate share 11.68%, Mesaieed Petrochemical 8.93%, Qamco 7.9%, Qatar Electricity and Water 6.6%, United Development 6.56%, Doha Insurance 6.5% and Commercial Bank 4.5%.
Muscat The Muscat market index fell 0.29% to reach 4,315.79 points, with the share of International Financial Investment declining 10.13%, Dhofar International Development and Investment 8.33%, and the Vision Insurance share 8.26%. National Gas share 7.7%.
Kuwait
The first index of the stock exchange fell 0.71% to reach 8,694.12 points, with the Kuwaiti Maidan share falling 48.83%, the paper share 22.3%, the share of the First Takaful Company 17.74%, the share of KIFK 17.01%, the Kuwaiti hotels 10.24% and the Kuwaiti palm 10.24%, in addition to the decline of the commercial share by 7.8% and the cement share Fujairah 6.05%, KAMCO shares fell 5%, Educational 4.7% and Cables 4.26%.
the two seas
The Bahrain Stock Exchange index fell 4.3%, with the aluminum Bahrain «Alba» share down 14.1%, the Ithmaar Holding share 4.8%, the Ahli United Bank-Bahrain share by 4.23%, the Al Baraka Banking Group share falling by 4.11%, the GFH 3.6%, the Gulf Hotels Group by 1.4%, and Batelco 0.9% And Zain Bahrain 0.66%.