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Kuwait: Gulf Equity Funds Show Quick Recovery

Global Arab Network - - Mohamed Tamer

Tuesday, 01 March 2011 23:00

KUWAIT - The performance of Gulf equity funds in 2010 was positive throughout the year; showing a quick recovery from the global financil crisis, an economic report said here Tuesday.

The report, released by Kuwait Financial Center (Markaz), said that Standard and Poor's Index (S P) of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states achieved two successive quaters of gains as it made earnings by 4 percent during the last quarter of 2010 compared to profits by 10 percent in the third quarter, and so the total annual earnings grew up by 16 percent.

As for the funds which achieved best performance on a quarterly basis, the report said it was the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) of the Qatari Stock Exchange which edged up by 13 percent in what pushed it up for the year as a whole by 26 percent, and it became the second index in relation to performance in 2010 from among the indexes of Morgan Stanley.

Regarding indexes which posted the worst performance, it was "Morgan Stanley" of the Bahrain Stock Exchange that shed 3 percent to post a total annual decline of 21 percent, while the value of traded assets hit by the end of 2010 some USD 12.5 billion, namely an annual growth by 4 percent after adding 8 funds to the group to make the total number of funds hit 147.

Concerning the assets traded by the Saudi funds, it remained unchanged all over the year, while the Kuwaiti funds saw an annual increase by 10 percent, and a quarterly growth by 6 percent.

It made clear that the revenues of Saudi funds surpassed their assets according to the Standard and Poor's Index, and made annual gains of about 14 percent compared to 9 percent made by the index itself, while the Emirati funds shed 4 percent.

The report said that GCC markets shared the post-crisis recovery, and often posted a positive performance in 2010, but most GCC stock markets posted a big decline in the second half of 2010 as world markets faltered in May 2010 after European sovereign debts crisis reached its climax in Greece, a thing which spread panic and aroused fears among several world markets.

Standard and Poor's for Arab Gulf stock markets in 2010 closed on an annual rise by 16 percent to further consolidate gains achieved in the fourth quarter of the same year that amounted to 5 percent, while Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) index soared by 6.75 percent in the third quarter of 2010, though the trend was reversed and the KSE posted a loss by 0.45 percent in what made KSE closes unchanged on a loss by nearly 1 percent.

As for the level of market segments, the banking sector soared by 42.5 percent against a loss by investment and real estate sectors by 15.6 percent, and 13.3 percent respectively.

The funds' managers responded to KSE state of affairs and increased their trade in shares, while the distribution of these shares reached its climax by 90 percent by the end of 2010 and hit rock bottom by June 2010 when it reached 82 percent, and Kuwaiti equity funds soared by 16.7 percent for the whole year on the basis of heavy-weighted assets.
(KUNA)

Global Arab Network

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