Kuwait Finance House KSC : KFHR Equity Research

GCC stock markets succeeded to reverse their down-trend for the week except for Bahrain Bourse (BB), which was the only loser among GCC peers after shedding 0.74% of its weekly value. Several issues had supported the positive performance for the GCC markets, although, oil prices hit four-year lows on Thursday.

United Arab Emirates (UAE) took the lead in the positive side after DFM index and ADX index added 5.70% and 3.40% to their values, respectively. The two markets were supported by the positive 3Q14 earnings and expectations for more to come, in addition to the decision of index-compiler MSCI to increase those markets' weights in its emerging markets index in a move promising fresh foreign fund inflows.

By the end of this week, on 13 November, and with the new gains recorded by DFM index, it managed spearhead its gaining GCC peer indices in 2014, after it left its rank last week for the first time since 15 January to QE index. This happened after DFM index increased its annual heavy gains to 38.21% at the end of the week. On Monday, DFM index succeeded to record its largest daily gain in three weeks after adding 2.83% to its daily value.

The Qatari market Ignored news that an investigation by FIFA's ethics committee had found no grounds for reopening the controversial bidding process for the 2022 soccer World Cup, so removing any risk that Qatar may lose the right to host the tournament. However, QE index came in fourth rank this week, ending higher by 1.02%.

The Saudi stock market index receive a great support from heavyweight sectors such as Banks & Financial Services on the back of Saudi Arabia's central bank announced this week that rules covering real estate mortgage financing and other finance company activities were formally taking effect, potentially clearing the way for the industry to develop. On Wednesday, Trading resumed on shares of National Commercial Bank (NCB), Saudi Arabia's largest lender, after an USD6bln IPO. The inclusion of NCB was the fifth this year in the Saudi market, which will raise the number of banks listed on the market to 12 banks and the number of listed companies to 168.

In Kuwait, KSE neutralized during the week after last weeks' steep drop on the back of the oil price slide to a four-year low. The local market was seen fluctuating on investor's reaction to the corporate results announcements, which were heavily showing during the week as the cut-off time nears. Some positive results gave good support to the market, while a rebound in GCC and global markets during the middle of the week gave extra lift to the Kuwaiti market and prevented a new bearish trend. Meanwhile, trading activity remained moderately low as portfolio managers continued to watch the results before they re-assess their investments and take new decisions to re-allocate their funds in the market ahead of the full year results.

Combined Market Capitalization of the seven GCC stock markets rose by 3.61% as on 13 November, to USD1,148.93bln in comparison to USD1,108.88bln recorded on 06 November 2014.