Dubai shares surged by almost 10 percent on Sunday to lead a strong recovery by stock markets in the energy-rich Gulf states, which dropped sharply last week over the global financial crisis.
Sunday is the first day of trading in the Muslim Gulf, except in Saudi Arabia where it begins on Saturday. The Dubai Financial Market Index was up 9.9 percent, the largest single day gain in several months, to close above the 4,000-points mark on 4,309.90 points. Real estate giant and market leader Email jumped by the maximum 15 percent, while all sectors in the market gained, topped by real estate with a 14 percent spurt. The Dubai index, however, is still down 27.3 percent on last year's close of 5,931.95 points.
The other United Arab Emirates (UAE) bourse of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange climbed 5.6 percent to 3,949.22 points, also helped by the real estate sector which gained 9.6 percent. A sharp drop in the prices of real estate stocks was responsible for a slide in the two UAE stock markets even before the latest turmoil in the US financial system.
Doha Securities Market was up 7.9 percent to 8.555.72 points. All sectors increased. Kuwait Stock Exchange Index, the second capitalised bourse in the Arab world, gained 3.9 percent to sail above 13,000 points and close on 13,148.40 points.
KSE began to increase late last week when Kuwait Investment Authority, the emirate's investment arm, began injecting fresh funds into the market that had been suffering from a shortage of liquidity. The tiny bourses of Oman and Bahrain rose 4.35 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
Only the Saudi market lost ground on Sunday. The Twaddle All-Shares Index (TASI) was down 0.5 percent at midday in the wake of a 2.7 percent rise on Saturday.