GCC stock markets dived on Monday trading amid increased geopolitical tension after Saudi and UAE oil tankers suffered “sabotage operations” near the Emirati territorial waters. They were also affected by the pressure of the US-China trade war.
The Saudi stock index dropped 3.55 percent, Abu Dhabi index 3.32 percent, Dubai Financial Market 3.97 percent and Kuwait Stock Exchange index 1.37 percent.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index closed at 308.02 points lower at 8366.64 points on Monday, with trades worth more than SAR5.3 billion riyals ($1.4 billion).
More than 180 million shares were traded among more than 120,000 deals, with eight companies posting gains, while shares of 174 companies closed with decline.
The index of Saudi Nomu-Parallel Market closed Monday at 3424.31 points down 68.99 points and with tradings worth more than SAR2.5 million ($667 million).
The number of shares traded exceeded 140,000 among 134 deals.
In UAE, however, Dubai Financial Market index dropped by 3.97 percent, losing 104.29 points, to close at 2525.61 points.
Trading volume amounted to 231.1 million shares at a total value of AED300.1 million (about $82 million) after closing 4,599 deals for 36 shares.
In addition, eight sectors witnessed decline, headed by the goods sector by 7.49 percent, followed by real estate sector by 5.64 percent, investment sectors by 5.23 percent, insurance sector by 3.83 percent, banking sector by 3.49 percent, transport sector by 3.01 percent, services sector by 1.80 percent and communications sector by 0.98 percent.
The General index in Bahrain closed Monday at 1.416.15 points, down 11.56 points from the previous close, due to the decline in the indexes of commercial banks and investment, services and industrial sectors.
Bahrain Islamic Bank’s index closed at 758.79, down 19.52 points from its previous close.
Kuwait Stock Exchange ended its trading Monday with a decline in its general index by 59.5 points to reach the level of 5632.4 points, a 1.05 percent drop.
The total number of transactions of the index amounted to 125.9 million shares, through 5,826 transactions worth KD33.2 million (about $110 million).
