On confidence about China’s recovery, the Saudi stock market climbed in early trade on Wednesday. However, the Qatari index was on track to continue its downward trend for a sixth session.
Oil prices, a major driver of the Gulf’s financial markets, increased by almost 1%, extending early gains on hopes that China’s COVID-19 tight regulations would trigger a rebound in fuel consumption in the world’s largest oil importer.
The benchmark index for Saudi Arabia (.TASI) increased 0.2% thanks to a 1.2% increase in Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (1211.SE).
China’s economy grew by only 3% in 2022, which was the second-worst result since 1976 and fell short of the official objective of roughly 5.5%. However, even after China started to relax its zero-COVID policy in early December, the data still above experts’ expectations. According to Reuters’ survey of analysts, growth will increase to 4.9% in 2023.
According to OPEC, China’s COVID-19 restrictions would be relaxed this year, which will boost global growth. The organisation also sounded upbeat about the prospects for the global economy in 2023.
The 3.3% drop in Commercial Bank contributed to a 0.1% decline in the Qatari index (.QSI) (COMB.QA).
Dubai Islamic Bank (DISB.DU), a lender that complies with sharia law, suffered a loss of more than 1% as the main share index in Dubai (.DFMGI) fell by 0.2%, putting an end to a four-session winning streak.
Blue-chip developer Emaar Properties (EMAR.DU) was among the losers, down 0.3%.
According to one of the largest real estate consultants in the city, residential property prices in Dubai are predicted to expand more slowly in 2023 following a record year that witnessed a more than 60% increase in the total number of units sold.