Fallen angels

ENAR

The final trading week in June demonstrated that markets in the Middle East and North Africa are neither highly resilient nor diversified, despite having greatly advanced since the region’s 2008 immersion into the Great Recession. The best gainer of all MENA stock markets in the 26th week of the year was Kuwait’s KSE Index, which advanced all of 0.6 percent, followed by a 0.4 upward nudge in Oman’s MSM 30. Across the region, the last trading week before the start of Ramadan was a reminder that equity plays are absolutely no guarantors of rewards in life. From Doha to Casablanca, market investors had to contend with a second consecutive week of index impairments, but for participants in the Dubai Financial Market this remainder struck home in form of a big bad bang as the DFM General Index not only dropped 8.1 percent on the week but also closed the second