Arab stocks lose billions in August

Stock markets across the Arab world continued to tumble in the first three weeks of August over global fiscal uncertainty and regional upheaval. A whopping $32 billion has been wiped off the markets since August 1. Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul, the largest and busiest bourse in the Middle East, was the most severly hit. It went down $16 billion to $321 billion from $337 billion, accounting for almost half the total Arab market fall. Kuwait, Qatar and Egypt also reported huge losses. Qatar's market capitalization fell to $118, while Kuwait's bourse went down to $98.5 billion from $101.7 billion. Dubai stock market fell to $52.3 billion from $53.5 billion while Abu Dhabi, dropped to $69.1 billion from $70 billion respectively in August. The combined market cap of the Arab world’s 15 official stock exchanges declined by an average $2.1 billion per working day. From around $913.3 billion at the end of July it dropped to about $881 billion. Financial analysts attribute the volatility to investors' fears over world economic recovery and the continuing fallout of a weak US economy.