Second half of 2011 outlook for GCC largely ‘neutral’, says Markaz | Oman Observer

Kuwait Financial Centre (Markaz) has issued the semi-annual review of its “What to expect in 2011” report in which the authors have discussed the myriad triggers that negatively impacted the GCC markets in the first half of 2011 and how they altered Markaz’s outlook on the markets for the remainder of 2011.

In Markaz’s previous note, the authors had upgraded their outlook to a mostly Positive view on the region. This was due to many factors including; healthy economic growth, expected recovery in key sectors like Banking and Real Estate in addition to healthy valuations

The report had a Neutral stance on Dubai (due to persisting debt overhang and a struggling Real Estate sector), Bahrain (due to lesser corporate recovery), and Saudi Arabia (due to muted banking performance and investor sentiment).

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