MANAMA: With the plummet in oil prices, Middle East equities have suffered, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
The S&P Pan Arab Composite Large Mid Cap fell by over 6%, giving back over a third of its year-to-date gains.
Energy dominated the headlines into month end as OPEC failed to agree a cut in production and WTI Crude Oil prices responded with a drop below $70 per barrel. Crude oil has now fallen by over a third in price since the summer.
The Saudi Arabia BMI, unsurprisingly, was the lagging country index with a fall of over 10%. A few countries managed none-the-less to finish the month in the black; Turkey’s credible performance – a gain of 7% in November – was enough to see it top of the regional charts.
Markets elsewhere across the world were somewhat mixed, but the promise of cheap oil encouraged the S&P Developed BMI to a 2% a gain for the month. Major equity benchmarks in Japan, Europe, the U.S. and China each gained in local terms; a strengthening U.S. dollar dampened the returns in USD-equivalents.
Every sector in the Pan Arab Large Mid BMI fell, Financial and Materials contributing most to the month’s losses.
The S&P GSCI index fell by 5%, led down by the energy sector. At the time of writing, WTI crude is down a further 8% today. Gold, however, was up by 2% on the month.
In another generally positive, if relatively uneventful, month for fixed income investors – all of our regional bond indices gained. U.S. Treasury yields fell by around 0.1%; sovereign yields in Europe fell by a similar amount.