By Querubin J. Minas Saudi Gazette JEDDAH - After registering 10 consecutive months of negative returns, the GCC markets posted a 7.94 percent return in March 2009, the Kuwait Financial Center said in its monthly report sent to the Saudi Gazette on Thursday. It said March “has been a month of strong turnaround for the GCC markets.” All the GCC markets posted positive returns in the month of March 2009, except Oman's Muscat Stock Market, which lost 4.64 percent. The Kuwait markets led the GCC markets by posting a 15 percent return. This trend was not isolated only to the GCC markets, the global markets (MSCI World index) and the Emerging markets (MSCI EM) also witnessed a turn around and posted 8.29 percent and 10.44 percent return respectively. In March, volume traded in GCC markets was up 12.6 percent to 25.4 billion shares whereas value traded decreased by 4.3 percent to $34.9 billion. The UAE market topped the charts in terms of contribution to overall volume traded in the GCC, with 46 percent of the total while Saudi Arabia contributed the most to value traded, with 67 percent of total value traded in the GCC in March. The two GCC markets Kuwait and Bahrain continue to witness low volatility levels as compared to the emerging markets and even the S&P 500. Saudi Arabia's Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) gained 7.28 percent MoM in March, after losing 8.82 percent in February. The Tadawul's gain was led by SABIC and STC, which gained 14 percent and 12 percent, respectively, for the month. For March, the total volume and value traded stood at approximately 4.9 billion and $23.34 billion, respectively, an MOM decrease of 9 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Concentration of the top five stocks in terms of volume and value traded to total market capitalization stood at 19 percent. TASI closed 0.27 percent at 5,039.03 points on Thursday. The Kuwait Index gained 10.37 percent in March, after losing 8.24 percent in February. The index' increase was pushed by the food and banking sectors, which increased by 20.10 percent and 11.23 percent, respectively, for the month. The only sector index to see a loss was insurance and real estate, which lost by 19.21 percent and 1.51 percent, respectively during the month. The total volume traded in Kuwait increased by 45 percent in February, while total value traded gained 35 percent to $5 billion in the same month. Concentration of the top five stocks in terms of volume and value traded to total market capitalization stood at 1 percent and 34 percent, respectively. The UAE markets ended the month on a positive note; the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) gained 0.61 percent while the Abu Dhabi Exchange (ADX) gained 4.69 percent. On a market cap weighted basis, the markets gained 3 percent. Dubai's gain was constricted by declines in the materials and banking sectors, which fell by 5 percent and 4.40 percent, respectively. Abu Dhabi's gain was due to gains in the energy and telecommunications sectors, 20.53 percent and 13.73 percent, respectively. The total volume traded in UAE increased 6 percent to 11.6 billion, whereas the total value traded decreased by 4 percent to $3.9 billion in March. Concentration of the top five stocks in terms of volume and value traded to market capitalization was 12 percent and 29 percent, respectively. The Doha Stock Market (DSM) went up 10.12 percent in March following a 15.52 percent loss in February. Gains on the DSM were led by the industrial and banking sectors, which gained 17 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in March. In March, total value traded on the DSM surged 86 percent to equal $2.1 billion while total volume traded increased by 59 percent to equal 319 million. Concentration of the top five stocks in terms of volume and value traded to market capitalization was 18 percent and 39 percent, respectively, in March. The Muscat Securities Market lost a 4.64 percent in March after a marginal gain of 0.83 percent in February. All sector indices saw declines in March, except the industrial sector, which gained 6.92 percent. The largest decline was in services and insurance which lost 7.04 percent. During March, total volume traded increased 30 percent to 402 million while total value traded doubled to $478 million from $237 million. The index gained 1.16 percent in March after 10 consecutive months of losses. March's gain was constricted by losses in the services, industrial, and hotel & tourism sectors, of 7.61 percent, 6.98 percent, and 3.02 percent, respectively. In March, total value traded increased 0.51 percent to $54 million while total volume increased 72.31 percent to 89 million. Concentration of the top five stocks in terms of volume and value to the market capitalization was 7 percent and 11 percent, respectively. __
