Regional bourses fell Sunday over continued worries over the soundness of the global economy. Markets are trading lower on the "back of Saudi Arabia yesterday and global markets worsening over the weekend," said Haissam Arabi, chief executive officer at Gulfmena Alternative Investments in Dubai. "We're seeing 100 percent correlation with global macro themes. The correlation will continue for some time, although at some point that should change as our fundamentals are entirely different." The Saudi stock benchmark Tadawul All Share Index lost 0.25 percent to close Saturday at 5,916.31 points. Abdullah A.M. Al-Khodari Sons Co. gained the most in more than a week, rising 1.6 percent to SR63.75. The Saudi Arabian company signed a contract valued at SR24 million ($6.4 million) with the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs to develop a cleaning project in Skaka city. Sanad Cooperative Insurance & Reinsurance Co. rallied the most in more than two months, jumping 6 percent to SR15. Elsewhere, Dubai index dropped 1.1 percent to 1,453 points. Abu Dhabi index fell 1.1 percent to 2,556 points. Qatar benchmark fell 1.2 percent to 8,096 points. Kuwait measure retreated 1.1 percent to 5,764 points. Oman index slipped 0.6 percent to 5,492 points. Bahrain measure declined 0.1 to 1,260 points. Egypt measure dropped 3.2 percent to 4,593 points, being the most marked spooked by tensions with Israel over the killing of five Egyptian security personnel during an Israeli operation. "Concerns over economic indicators and fears of the economy going back into a recession -that kind of concern will have an effect on commodity prices, petrochems and our markets," Arabi further said. "What we're seeing is natural. … we're starting to shift from aggressive names to domestic names because fundamentals remain strong in the GCC. This might create opportunity for banks to pick up. They're doing well and are cheap right now," Arabi added. In Kuwait, Global Investment House plunged 10.4 percent, weighing on the index which slumped to a seven-year low. "I personally think that Kuwait faces two challenges - the troubled investment companies and wages that devour the majority of the oil revenues," said Safaa Zbib, head of research at Kuwait and Middle East Financial Investment Co. Investment firms took a nose-dive earlier this year after the Capital Market Authority said investment funds are not allowed to invest more than 10 percent of total assets in a single security and investment firms require separate licenses to operate their lending and investment businesses. Global recession fears led jittery investors across the region to dump stocks, taking their cue from a tumble in world equities Friday and in Saudi shares which slumped to a 23-week low Saturday. Wall Street marked a fourth week of losses, and gold hit a fresh record high as investors rushed to the safe haven. Investors are now awaiting United States' Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's speech on Aug. 26 for hints on how policymakers plan to address the weakness in the economy. Property stocks led the decline in Dubai, with bellwether Emaar Properties falling 1.8 percent and builder Arabtec down 0.7 percent. The benchmark is off 4.2 on the month.Abu Dhabi's Dana Gas declined 1.8 percent after reports the energy firm picked banks to arrange its planned listing on the London Stocks Exchange.
