The transition from April to May saw Arab markets step back from their previous momentum. The indices for eight of the twelve security exchanges in the Middle East and North Africa recorded lower performance when compared with the previous week. In terms of net weekly changes, two markets — Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul and Bahrain Bourse — were up; four markets were flat; and six dropped. Jordan’s ASE index, down by nearly 2 percent, and Abu Dhabi’s ADX, down by 2.2 percent, were the weakest performers. The Dubai Financial Market cooled visibly to a performance of minus 0.2 percent after its 6.9 percent gain last week. The Qatar Exchange switched from being the previous week’s second-best gainer to falling 1.7 percent and the Egyptian Exchange also stumbled from substantial gains to a weekly loss. The Moroccan and Lebanese bourses showed small positive changes in their index movements. The MASI’s drop rate narrowed by 0.1 percentage point while the BLOM
