Qatar Leads Mideast Stock Retreat After Oil Sinks to 2008 Low
- Qatar's DMI shows rout's momentum has never been higher
- Gulf stocks retreat to the lowest level since May 2013
Qatari stocks led a retreat in Middle Eastern markets as oil’s decline to a seven-year low, scant evidence of a pick-up in Chinese growth and the prospect of a U.S. interest-rate increase next week unsettled investors across the region.
The QE Index sank 3.7 percent to close below 10,000, a key support level, for the first time since November 2013 and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index slumped to the lowest since 2012. The DFM General Index chalked up the longest losing streak in a year on investor concern that companies in Dubai, the Middle East’s commercial hub, may suffer if Gulf Arab governments reduce spending next year. The ADX General Index in Abu Dhabi, home to about 6 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves, lost 2.1 percent.