A late summer swelter

Arab markets trended up or flat with positive bias at a rate of three to one in the 35th week of the year. Indices were intonating pretty much the same melody of small to moderate gains as in the previous week, but with a swelling in some turnovers in the last trading sessions of August. Tadawul’s ascent The top index performer of week 35 and of the entire month of August was Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul. The TASI got its boost from prospects of being able to attract more foreign cash starting the first half of 2015, based on the July 21 cabinet decision to open the doors for direct Tadawul participation by qualifying foreign institutions, and possibly ascend to being covered by the MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index in 2017, or some time thereafter. Including its 2.9 percent gain last week, the TASI rallied by 14 percent between the July