Dubai, UAE – GCC equity markets underperformed a sustained rally in global markets during March 2024 with most markets in the region seeing low single-digit declines. As a result, the MSCI GCC index dropped by 3.0% during the month.
According to a recent report by Kamco Invest, the decline was mainly led by seasonal selling pressure during Ramadan as investors booked profits after last month’s healthy gains. Bahrain was the best performing market during the month with a gain of 1.9% closely followed by Oman that was up by 1.8%. On the decliner’s side, Qatar fell by 6.0%. Saudi Arabia was next with a slide of 1.8% while Kuwait and Dubai indices fell by 1.5%. All these top decliners were the best performing markets in the previous month.
In terms of YTD-2024 performance, the MSCI GCC index was up marginally by 0.2% during Q1-2024 after gains during February-2024 were almost fully offset by declines during the remaining two months.
Kuwait continued to lead in the GCC with a Q1-2024 gain of 7.5% followed by Dubai and Saudi Arabia with gains of 4.6% and 3.6%, respectively. On the decliner’s side, Qatar’s DSM index topped with a steep fall of 9.1% followed by Abu Dhabi General Index that dived by 3.7% during Q1-2024.
The decline also reflected a fall in large-cap sectors during the month. This included Telecom, Banks and Energy with low single-digit declines.
The sectoral decliner’s chart was topped by the Pharma & Biotech sector with a fall of 9.6% followed by Hotels & Leisure that slid 8.1%. Telecom and Banks showed declines of 3.5% and 3.3%, respectively. On the gainer’s side, Utilities topped with a healthy gain of 7.1% closely followed by Insurance and Diversified Financials with gains of 6.8% and 6.3%, respectively.
Saudi Arabia (Tadawul)
Saudi Arabia’s headline equity index TASI reported monthly decline during March-2024. The benchmark hit a 21-month high closing level on 21-March-2024 at 12,835.65 points but consistent declines towards the end of the month pulled the index down below the 12,500 mark to close at 12,401.6 points, witnessing a monthly decline of 1.8%. Despite the decline, Saudi Arabia YTD-2024 performance recorded a gain of 3.6%.
In terms of primary market activity, the month saw the third listing during this year with the Modern Mills for Food Products Co. listed in the Food & Beverages sector.
Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange
The FTSE ADX index recorded a marginal 0.3% decline during March-2024 continuing its declining trend in 2024 to close the month at 9,228.09 points. The decline also steepened the fall in terms of YTD-2024 performance that reached -3.7%, the second-biggest in the GCC and the only other declining market along with Qatar.
The performance of the ten sector indices on the ADX was evenly balanced as five indices recorded declines during the month while the remaining five witnessed gains.
The Consumer Discretionary index posted the largest fall among the indices during March-2024 with a decline of 3.0% to close the month at 6,645.6 points.
The decline was led by the fall in prices of Abu Dhabi National Hotels Company, which witnessed a 3.3% fall in its share prices during the month. The Industrials index recorded the second-largest monthly fall during March-2024 with a 1.9% drop to close the month at 2,911.7 points.
On the other hand, the Consumer Staples index witnessed a 10.8% gain during the month, the largest gain among the indices in the exchange, followed by the Basic Materials Index which recorded a 6.5% increase during the similar period.
Dubai Financial Market
The DFM General Index recorded a 1.5% fall during March-2024, its first decline after four straight months of gains, closing the month at 4,246.3 points. The monthly sector performance chart was evenly balanced with four out of eight sectors recording declines while the remaining four saw gains during the period.
However, the drop in the Financial Sector (-5.2%), the largest weighted sector in the exchange, dragged the general index to the red. The underperformance of the index was mainly due to the double-digit share price declines of several of its constituent companies such as Mashreq Bank (-14.6%).
The Consumer Staples Sector recorded the second largest decline among the sector indices (-1.4%) followed by the Communications Services Index (-1.2%).
On the other hand, the Real Estate Index registered a 4.0% gain during March-2024, the biggest gain among the indices to close the month at 8,034.1 points. The indices’ remarkable monthly growth was mainly driven by the double-digit growth of two of its key constituent companies, i.e., Deyaar Development (+11.5%) and Union Properties (+20.3%).
Boursa Kuwait
Kuwaiti benchmarks receded during March-2024 following a broad-based decline that affected most sectors on the exchange.
In terms of market segments, the Main Market Index witnessed the biggest monthly decline of 1.7% as the performance of constituent stocks in the index were skewed downwards. The Premier Market Index and the All-Share Market Index reported a monthly decline of 1.5%, respectively, while the Main 50 Index receded 1.4% during the month.
The performance in Q1-2024 also reflected the relatively better performance of Premier market stocks with a gain of 7.5% while the Main Market and Main 50 index showed smaller gains of 7.5% and 7.1%, respectively. The broader All Share index witnessed a gain of 7.5% during Q1- 2024, the biggest in the GCC.
Qatar Exchange
The Qatar Stock Exchange reported the biggest m-o-m decline in the GCC during March-2024. The index closed the month at 9,847.1 points, registering a drop of 6.0%. The Qatar All Share Index registered a decline of 3.6%, indicating decline mainly in large-cap stocks in the market. With the decline during March-2024, the YTD-2024 decline for the QE 20 index steepened to 9.1%, while the QE All Share index showed a decline of 5.7%.