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Italian election shockwave felt at Gulf Arab stock markets
[February 26, 2013]

Italian election shockwave felt at Gulf Arab stock markets


DUBAI, Feb 26, 2013 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- Nearly all indices in the Gulf Arab followed the global downtrend Tuesday after a feared power stalemate following Italian parliamentary elections triggered fears of new hurdles in tackling the Euro zone debt crisis.



Both the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi bourse ADX lost one percent, closing at 1,925.20 points and 3,004.79 points, respectively. Shares of Abu Dhabi Aviation lost 3.40 percent, ending at 2.85 Dirham (0.77 U.S. dollars). Earlier in the day, Abu Dhabi Aviation said that in 2012 it achieved a net profit of 263.9 million Dirham (71.96 million dollars), representing a 6.10 percent decrease year on year.

The uncertainty of Italy's political future after head-to-head results in the parliamentary elections from Monday left investors nervous. The probability that the conservative media magnate Silvio Berlusconi, who opposed Germany's austerity move in the Euro zone, will become prime minister again fueled the fickle sentiment.


At Dubai's international bourse, the FTSE NASDAQ Dubai UAE 20 Index closed at 2171.69, down 1.21 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, the Qatar Exchange QE 20 Index declined 0.93 percent to 8,572.37 points. Qatar Telecom, known as Qtel, declined 0.86 percent to 115.80 Qatari riyal (30.11 dollars).

In Riyadh, the Saudi Arabian Tadawul All-Share Index dived 0.77 percent to 6,988.19 points, also as oil prices lost 0.86 dollars to close at 108.86 dollars per barrel (DME Oman crude), which is a reaction to the Italian news.

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