In the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, stock markets experienced declines on Wednesday at the beginning of May. This was mainly due to the fall in oil prices and investors’ anticipation of the Federal Reserve’s decision on interest rates. The Abu Dhabi and Dubai market indexes fell by 0.39% and 0.54%, respectively, while the Saudi TASI index decreased by 0.4%.
Saudi Arabia’s real gross domestic product also declined by 1.8% in the first quarter, primarily because of ongoing impacts from decreasing oil activities. In Kuwait, the general index of the Kuwait Stock Exchange fell by 0.36%, with trading activity recording 198.7 million shares traded through 12,139 cash transactions worth 37.9 million dinars.
On Labor Day, the Bahrain Stock Exchange and Bahrain Clear were closed but will resume operations on Thursday. Meanwhile, outside of the Gulf region, Egypt’s leading stock index rose by 3.4%, with jumps seen across all listed stocks including a rise in Talaat Mostafa shares by 7.9% and Commercial International Bank shares by 1.5%.