EU drags on Kuwait shares

Kuwait shares declined to the lowest since 2004 as the European debt crisis shook investor confidence.

On Sunday, a lower court in Kuwait declared Zain's annual shareholders meeting, which was held in April, was invalid and that its board was illegitimate. Bloomberg

Hadeel Al Sayegh

Kuwait's shares dropped to their lowest in seven years as Europe's worsening debt crisis dampened investor confidence.

Zain, a Kuwaiti mobile operator, was down 1 per cent to 950 fils a share. Agility, the logistics operator, was down 1.9 per cent to 255 fils and Gulf Bank was down 2 per cent to 950 fils

The Kuwait Stock Exchange Unweighted Index dropped 0.8 per cent to 5,850.60, the lowest level since August 2004.

In the UAE, the Dubai Financial Market General Index gained 0.2 per cent to 1,464.00 after losing as much as 1.4 per cent earlier.

Deyaar Development, which was up 4.1 per cent to 28 fils, lifted the index after the developer said it was back in the black as sales of completed projects fed through to its financial results.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index was down 0.5 per cent to 2,588.64.

"There is panic across the markets and volatility will continue," said Mohammed Ali Yasin, the chief investment officer at CAPM Investments in Abu Dhabi.

"Today sentiment is moving markets rather than fundamentals, yet Dubai shares are up because panic attacks usually don't last very long, or move in just one direction."

Elsewhere in the region Bahrain's measure lost 0.4 per cent to 1,266.37 and Qatar's benchmark lost 0.2 per cent to 8,107.47. The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index was closed for the day.