Dozens of traders walked off the trading floor at the Kuwait Stock Exchange on Thursday and staged a demonstration to urge more government support for the financial sector amid fears of global recession. The protest, the first of its kind since 2006, came as markets in the Gulf region mostly headed lower amid continuing anxiety about the world financial crisis and as crude oil prices remained at less than half their 2008 peak.
The main index on the Kuwait exchange, the second largest stock market in the Arab world, shed almost 400 points or 3.7 percent to 10,420 points, leaving several companies trading even below their nominal value. All eight sectors in the market dropped, with the investment and banking sectors each diving by 3.7 percent each.
Nasser al-Khorafi, chairman of Al-Khorafi Group, the largest in Kuwait, called on the government to rescue the market. "The government should swiftly intervene to rescue the bourse otherwise there will be a catastrophe," Khorafi told reporters.
"The government should pump funds in the bourse because its fall will affect other sectors like industry, real estate and others and will have serious social implications," he said. Market leader Zain Telecom shed 8.2 percent after issuing nine-month profits which showed a meagre increase of just 0.04 percent to 877.5 million dollars.
Thursday's decline in Kuwait followed a 2.15 percent drop on Wednesday which took the index to an 18-month low of 10,804.40 points, the lowest since May 1, 2007. The traders' walkout came the day before the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries meets to discuss calls for a production cut to shore up crude prices following their plunge from record highs of almost 150 dollars a barrel just three months ago. Other markets in the oil-rich Gulf showed renewed falls on Thursday, though some partly recovered their opening losses.
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