From worst to first

Global markets have staged a dramatic recovery in recent weeks, easing the sense of desperation that had engulfed them, if not quite replacing it with something altogether cheerful. The prevailing mood is one of caution and uncertainty, but investors may be content with that, considering that not long ago they were certain that conditions were as grim as they could possibly be.

Another significant change is that the UAE market has been one of the strongest in the Middle East after trailing the region – and nearly every bourse in the world – last year. An MSCI Barra index of UAE stocks is up 32 per cent so far in 2009.

Performances for MSCI country indexes elsewhere in the Middle East vary widely, from a roughly 10 per cent gain for Saudi Arabia to a loss exceeding 20 per cent for Qatar. The UAE has also handily surpassed the returns of key mature markets around the world. The United States and Britain were recently down about 5 per cent so far this year, while Japan and markets across Continental Europe showed losses of about 10 per cent.