And Egypt and the Emirates are retreating
Mubasher – Mahmoud Jamal: The Arab financial markets witnessed varying ups and downs at the end of the weekly trading, which coincided with the assertion of US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, before Congress, that the Central Bank will likely have to increase interest rates more than expected as it seeks to rein in inflation.
After the US Central Bank president threatened to raise interest, the performance of the stock exchanges in the Arab region varied, as 4 Gulf stock exchanges rose, led by Saudi Arabia, whose index “TASI” rose by 1.8%.
During that period, the Qatar Stock Exchange index rose by 1.08%, and the financial market indices in Kuwait and Muscat rose by 0.2% each.
While the Egyptian, Dubai and Abu Dhabi markets deepened their losses, as the 30-year-old Egyptian Stock Exchange index fell 2.3%, and the Dubai and Abu Dhabi market indices fell by nearly 1% per week.
Ibrahim Al-Failakawi, a financial market expert, expected that most of the region’s stock exchanges would move positively, but cautiously, with investors anticipating more signs of raising interest rates, especially with the Federal Reserve meeting on the fifth.
tenth of this month, indicating that some investors have begun to think of obtaining high interest rates instead of the current fluctuations witnessed by stocks in light of the turmoil in the conditions of the global economy.
Mahmoud Atta, director of investment at Universal Securities Brokerage Company, pointed out that the presence of oil above the level of $75 per barrel is one of the factors that qualify the Gulf markets for more gains, noting that the Egyptian Stock Exchange has begun to witness changes to direct liquidity to the shares of small and medium companies that carry imminent substantial news. Announcing it in conjunction with the expected further devaluation of the local currency against the dollar, which in turn revalues assets.
For his part, the economist and head of market research at Pilon Egypt, Taher Morsi, believes that energy and oil prices should determine the compass of the region’s markets, explaining that the markets of Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jordan and Egypt, for example, move away from the impact of energy prices, due to the diversity of the tributaries of the economy in them. He pointed out that the markets of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait and Bahrain are directly affected by energy price trends.
He stressed that if energy prices decline, some financial markets will face a further decline, unless there is a change in the policy of OPEC Plus, or the course of the Chinese economy, which restores optimism to the crude markets in the region, as it contributes to facing the increasing pressure from US monetary policy, which pushes for further interest rate hikes.
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