GCC market slide continues amid global sell-off

GCC market slide continues amid global sell-off

Muscat: The GCC aggregate index declined for the second consecutive month during June-2022 tracking weak global trends as inflation and recession fears kept investors on the edge, according to a new report.

“The MSCI GCC index witnessed a steeper monthly drop than last month at 9.0 per cent in June-2022, witnessing a bigger drop than most other global equity markets,” the Kuwait-based Kamco Invest, and Investment Strategy & Research firm said in its latest GCC Markets Monthly Report.

Performance within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was mostly negative with Saudi Arabia witnessing the biggest and double-digit drop of 10.8 per cent followed by Abu Dhabi and Qatari benchmarks with declines of 6.8 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively, the report added.

Oman, on the other hand, was the only market that closed in the green with a marginal gain of 0.2 per cent.

Nevertheless, despite the two consecutive months of decline, the GCC aggregate index remained in the green in terms of the first half of 2022 performance at +2.8 per cent with all headline GCC benchmarks in the green barring Oman that reported a decline of 0.2 per cent.

Abu Dhabi bourse continued to boast double-digit returns of 10.4 per cent during the