The market cap of Arab stock exchanges exceeded $4.174 trillion during the first half of 2024, according to the latest Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) data.
The fund’s monthly bulletin data revealed that the market value of the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange reached $761.54 billion while that of the Dubai Financial Market hit $184.8 billion. The Saudi Exchange ‘Tadawul’ reached a market value of $2.68 trillion by the end of H1 of 2024.
The market value of the Qatar Stock Exchange reached $157.9 billion, the Boursa Kuwait was about $134.06 billion and the Casablanca Stock Exchange hit $69.4 billion. In addition, the report reveals that the Muscat Stock Exchange’s value reached $63 billion while the Egyptian Exchange amounted to $39.07 billion.
Besides, the market value of the Amman Stock Exchange was $23.3 billion, the Bahrain Bourse was $21.2 billion, and the Beirut Stock Exchange was $16.54 billion. Meanwhile, the Tunis Bourse’s value reached $8.3 billion, the Damascus Securities Exchange was $5.66 billion, and the Palestine Exchange was $4.2 billion.
Global markets dip
Arab stock exchanges saw some volatility during the second quarter of 2024, losing the upward momentum that they had maintained in the previous three quarters despite the slight recovery they recorded in June 2024.
This performance, however, falls in line with the decline in global financial markets including U.S. and European markets, and a number of emerging markets. Therefore, the Arab Monetary Fund’s composite index, which measures the performance of Arab financial markets, declined by 0.70 percent quarter-on-quarter and 0.78 percent year-on-year by the end of Q2 of 2024.
Fed’s tight policy impacts markets
The divergence in the performance of global financial markets and Arab stock exchanges was impacted by the Federal Reserve’s decisions to hold interest rates for the seventh time since the start of the monetary policy tightening cycle at the beginning of March 2022. The report states that the market now expects the Fed to reduce rates by the end of 2024 following the European Central Bank’s rate cut in June or the first time since 2019.
Notably, the European Central Bank started its monetary tightening cycle in 2022 in an effort to control inflation, which rose during the Russian-Ukrainian war amid global supply-chain and trade challenges.
Read | Billion-dollar losses: What’s behind the unprecedented stock market collapse?
Arab stock exchanges
During Q2 of 2024, six Arab stock exchanges recorded an increase in their performance indicators as a result of better performance in the energy, banking, healthcare and food sectors. The majority of companies listed on Arab stock exchanges reported mostly positive profits during Q2. In addition, foreign investment activity at the individual and institutional levels supported the growth of some Arab stock exchanges.
Meanwhile, nine Arab stock exchanges reported declines in their performance indicators during Q2.
Notably, the Tunis Bourse recorded the largest increase of 9.02 percent during Q2 followed by the Egyptian Exchange, which rose by about 3.28 percent. The Muscat, Qatar and Casablanca stock exchanges also witnessed an increase of 1.11, 1.19, and 2.25 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the Algerian Stock Exchange recorded an improvement of less than one percent.
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