Gulf stock markets plunged on Sunday as another sharp sell-off in the volatile Saudi Arabian bourse battered sentiment across the region.
The Saudi stock market ended morning trade down 4.33 percent at 11,028.23 points after having been down more than 9 percent earlier in the session. The decline followed a 9.6 percent drop on Saturday, the sharpest daily fall on record.
Dubai shares ended down 5.06 percent at 490.14 points, crashing below the 500-point level and hitting their lowest levels since February last year. Abu Dhabi stocks sank 5.69 percent, also to 15-month lows and Qatar shares fell 1.89 percent to 8,749.77 points.
The Kuwait stock index fell 2.61 percent, dropping below 10,000 points to close at 9,792.80. "The Saudi situation has created a domino effect," said financial analyst Mohammed Fakhroo in Doha.
"Investors must stop using the Saudi market as a point of reference. There is no reason for the Qatari market to be dropping like this; it doesn't make any sense. Markets need to concentrate on their own situations and leave the Saudi market out of it."
The Saudi bourse has halved in value since February, ruining some of the millions of retail investors who play the market.
"There is selective but limited buying but it's dwarfed by the size of selling," a senior trader in Riyadh said. Another senior trader said the market could find support at 10,000 points.
"The majority of investors are interested only in selling yet everybody is hoping the index will find a support level that will get a solid rebound starting," he said.
"The market will get the chance to solidly jump-start (itself) once the index breaks below 10,000 points." But Abdlemounaim Addas from Zad Investment said a break below 10,000 points could lead to even sharper losses.
"We must not close at the 10,000-point level. If we do we'll go down to 8,700 points," he said.
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