Sunday 7 August 2011

The end of the world as we know it? Middle East feels fine, ish | beyondbrics – FT.com

Middle East stock markets didn’t exactly shrug off Friday’s historic downgrade of the United States as they re-opened for business over the weekend but nor – in spite of a palpable climate of fear at Dubai’s Financial Market on Sunday – did they fall as much as many investors had feared.


“Ohhhhh, boom, boom, boom,” gasped Kishore Kumar, a private investor, pointing out names turning red at the open of Dubai’s stock exchange. Within fifteen minutes the market had slumped 5.5 per cent.


Luckily for Kumar and others like him the downward trend eased and the market closed 3.7 per cent down. That was its biggest fall since February. In other words, the historic US downgrade had less of an impact than the region’s own seismic events earlier this year.



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