The irrational hand of the market

ENAR

The third trading week in Ramadan was the third week of near universal index gains in the securities markets of the Middle East and North Africa. Volumes were mixed, with the anticipated summer slowdown happening in some markets but certainly not all around the region. The indices of the ASE and BSE in the Mashreq and of Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul receded by small margins — but Dubai produced yet another crazy show. Kuwait broke out of summer lull with comparatively high volumes and an intraweek spike driven by small caps but settled on a low gain in its weekly balance after profit taking on Thursday. Bahrain, albeit on low volumes, advanced to its highest index reading in four years before closing week 29 a tad below this peak. Oman’s MSM 30 set a new six-year record, narrowly topping the previous high reached in January 2014. The Oman Daily Observer reported that