MANAMA: The GCC stock market winning streak continues with April 2018 marking another positive month. The S&P GCC Index was up by nearly 3% for the month and is now up by nearly 10% for the year, making it as one of the best performing regions in the world, according to Marmore Research.
Both the MSCI world index and MSCI Emerging market index are flat for the year. The GCC performance is largely attributed to the strong Saudi rally that saw its Tadawul index climb 14% for the year. The expectation of Saudi being included in the MSCI and FTSE index along with the much awaited (should we say long awaited) Aramco IPO is fuelling this rally. Qatar reversed its long streak of poor performance by rallying strongly in April 2018. The Qatar index was up by 6% for the month and 7% for the year.
This is also clearly an oil price led rally. Oil price is now hovering around $75/barrel on the back of strong OPEC compliance and very strong demand from all over the world. While experts (read GS) don’t feel that the oil price is high enough to dent the demand, others (read Trump) are crying foul about OPEC’s arm twisting the oil price. Enough to say, that the party continues for GCC.
