The Muscat Stock Exchange (MSX) has emerged as the second best performing stock market in the GCC in 2022 with a 17.6 per cent overall growth compared to 12.9 per cent growth in 2021. MSX is next to Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange, which recorded a 20.3 per cent gain in 2022, followed by Bahrain Bourse with 5.5 per cent growth, Dubai Financial Market with 4.4 per cent growth and Boursa Kuwait with 3.5 per cent growth. Meanwhile, Qatar Stock Exchange and Saudi Exchange posted a negative growth of 8.1 per cent and 7.1 per cent, respectively. Overall, the GCC posted a negative growth of 6.4 per cent for 2022, compared to positive 34.9 per cent in 2021.
The MSX also emerged as the 2nd in the GCC with 36.8 per cent growth, amounting to $2 billion in stocks market value traded in 2022. Qatar recorded the highest percentage growth of 43.4 per cent growth with $44 billion value traded last year. Next is Dubai with 26.3 per cent growth, Abu Dhabi with 16.2 per cent growth and Kuwait with 9.8 per cent growth. Meanwhile, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia posted a negative growth of 33.8 per cent and 23.8 per cent, respectively in terms of the stock markets value traded, Kamco Invest said in a report.
The GCC recorded a massive increase in the value of Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) for 2022 with 49 amounting to $23.3 billion, compared to just 20 IPOs in 2021, amounting to $7.52 billion. Meanwhile, the GCC recorded a decline in fixed income issuances for 2022 amounting to $85.8 billion compared to $145.5 billion in 2021. All the GCC corporation and government bonds and sukuk fell in 2022.
The GCC countries benefited from the increase in the crude oil price resulting to the growth of their economies. The average crude oil (Brent futures) for 2022 is $85.91 per barrel compared to $77.78 per barrel in 2021. The report also noted the fiscal breakeven oil prices for the GCC countries in 2022. Notable of which is Bahrain with $127.6 dollars per barrel, Saudi Arabia with $73.3/barrel, Oman $70.9/barrel, UAE $63.9/barrel, Kuwait $56.7/barrel and Qatar with $48.1 per barrel.
For the banking assets, with data as of September 2022, the GCC’s total banking assets reach $2.993 trillion, compared to $2.832 trillion in 2021 with Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia leading the group with $976 billion and $949 billion, respectively.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia posted the biggest value of projects planned or under execution in 2022 with $1.376 trillion, followed by UAE with $539.37 billion, Qatar with $203.39 billion, Kuwait with $201.77 billion, Oman with $177.28 billion and Bahrain with $65.45 billion.
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