Gulf stocks crumble, credit tightens as fears mount

Blue chip shares in banks and builders tanked, especially in Dubai, with engineering group Arabtec ARTC.DU tumbling 7 percent, bank Emirates NBD ENBD.DU down 5 percent and Union Properties UPRO.DU down 7.7 percent.

'The main issue is that investors are a little bit worried about contractors collecting the money from developers,' says Alfred Fayek, director of the GCC institutional desk team at EFG-Hermes.

'If the real estate sector is struggling, contractors will be amongst the biggest losers.'

In the Gulf's biggest stock market, Saudi Arabia, the leading index .TASI fell over 9 percent, while shares in big energy exporter Qatar .QSI fell 4.2 percent.

'Foreign institutions are heavily selling in the market. Some of them are exiting completely,' says Amro Motasim, chief trader at Ahli Bank.

'One of the reasons for the sell-off is the turmoil in the United States and possibly now Europe,' he said.

As markets slumped, credit tensions intensified and interbank lending rates in key Gulf states climbed, hitting levels not seen since late 2007 or early 2008. United Arab Emirates one-month rates AEIBOR rose to 4.51875 percent while Saudi Arabia one-month rates SAIBOR hit 4.11750 percent.

Central banks in Europe and the United States have pumped record amounts of liquidity into the interbank markets as fear grips lenders.

In September, the UAE central bank said it would offer banks short-term funds through a 50 billion UAE dirham ($13.61 billion) facility in an emergency move to ease tensions in the money markets.

A global credit crunch is weighing heavily on parts of the UAE real estate market and has chased away many speculators and casting doubts over the sustainability of current growth levels.

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Readers' Comments

Let's hope ESCA starts cracking down on banks, hedge funds and brokerages that are ILLEGALLY shorting shares borrowed from long-term investors. In many instances High Net Worth Individuals receive compensation from the banks and investment funds in exchange for the ability to sell their shares. Unfortunately, local investors who are willing to hold on to their shares are getting sucked into the false sense of doom and gloom that is being perpetuated as a result of short-sellers getting the 'ball rolling'. A couple of weeks ago DFM circulated an advisory recommending that brokerages and investment funds stop short-selling. Since then I have personally communicated with at least 4 banks and/or investment houses who admit they are still shorting shares. When I pointed out that DFM had strongly advised against short-selling, I was told 'Oh they just say that. We are generating commissions for them. They are happy.' Oh well. - Prashant Makhija, Dubai UAE