Monday 28 February 2011

Dubai Stocks Slump to Seven-Year Low as Protests Spread to Oman - Bloomberg

Middle East shares tumbled, sending Dubai’s stock index to the lowest in almost seven years, as political unrest in the region spread to the Sultanate of Oman, prompting investors to trim riskier assets.

Emaar Properties PJSC, builder of the world’s tallest skyscraper, slumped to the lowest since 2009 and Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC retreated 3.2 percent. The DFM General Index slid 3.8 percent to 1,410.7, the lowest since June 2004, at the 2 p.m. close in Dubai, bringing its drop for the month to 8.1 percent. Oman’s MSM30 Index plunged 4.9 percent, making it the world’s worst performing benchmark index. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index fell 1 percent at 2:41 p.m. in Dubai. It has lost 11 percent since Tunisia’s president fled amid protests that spurred protests in Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Yemen and Bahrain.

Two demonstrators were killed in Oman and several wounded in clashes with police yesterday, according to hospital and government officials. Hundreds of protesters, many unemployed, gathered for a sit-in for a second day in Sohar, north of the capital city Muscat. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said, the country’s ruler since 1970, ordered the government to hire 50,000 Omanis and to pay 150 rials ($390) a month to registered job seekers.

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