The red color dominated the performance of 5 Gulf and Arab stock exchanges at the end of trading today, Wednesday, the last trading of the month of Ramadan and before the start of the blessed Eid Al-Fitr holiday, after some of them were affected by the drop in oil, in addition to the return of concerns about continuing to raise interest rates by the Federal Reserve.
The declines were led by the Dubai Financial Market index at the end of the day's trading, after it fell by 1.15%, with Emaar Properties' share declining by 1.5%, despite the emergence of good quarterly business results for some listed banks.
The drop came after investor sentiment was affected by comments from Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Rafael Bostick, who said on Tuesday that the Fed is likely to raise interest rates again, continuing to fight inflation.
The economist, Taher Morsi, stated that the declines came due to the tendency of investors to secure the gains that were obtained during the previous hikes in conjunction with the Eid Al-Fitr holiday and the desire to liquidate some profitable positions.
He added that these declines also came with the drop in oil futures prices affected by expectations of raising interest on the dollar at a time when oil represents the locomotive of economic development and financial markets in the region, expecting to witness some rises with the resumption of work after the blessed Eid Al-Fitr holiday with the return of investment appetite to its previous levels. .
In turn, Mahmoud Atta, a financial market expert, confirmed that investors have become concerned once again, especially in the Gulf countries, about global economic developments and strong levels of inflation, which could push for further tightening of monetary policies. Most of the GCC countries peg their currencies to the dollar and follow the Fed's monetary policy moves step by step.
The biggest impact on the Gulf stock exchanges today was the fall in oil prices, which deepened their losses and fell by about 2%, with increasing fears that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates at its next meeting, despite the strong economic data of China.
It was followed by the Egyptian Stock Exchange Index, which declined by 0.13%. Hossam Eid, head of the investment sector at Cairo National Securities Company, expected that the main index of the Egyptian Stock Exchange would go up further after the Eid al-Fitr holiday, especially with the expected movement of the local currency exchange rate and the resumption of the government offerings program, which will motivate investors to invest in the stock market to preserve their money. .
The list of declines today also included the Muscat Securities Market index, which decreased by 0.12%, the first market index of the Kuwaiti Stock Exchange decreased by 0.07%, the Qatari Stock Exchange index decreased by 0.05%, and the Abu Dhabi Securities Market decreased by 0.045%.
Contrary to the declines of those Arab stock exchanges today, the Bahrain Stock Exchange, whose general index rose at the end of pre-Eid al-Fitr trading by 1.4%.
It is noteworthy that most of the Arab stock markets were the last session on Wednesday before the start of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, with the exception of the financial markets of Kuwait and Qatar.
