RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange has claimed the top spot among peers in the Gulf Cooperation Council, with the highest year-to-date gain of 21.7 percent, a recent report by Kamco Invest revealed.
Backed by a rally in the oil market, the Kingdom saw its major players, especially banks, posting higher first-quarter earnings which led to stock market wins.
Abu Dhabi and Kuwait came next, rising 18.8 and 18.75 percent, respectively, according to the latest monthly report.
It revealed that the MSCI GCC Index, which captures the performance of indexes across the region, went up by 3.3 percent in April, thanks to strong quarterly earnings.
Dubai was the region's highest gainer, registering a monthly gain of 5.5 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, all up between 0.4 and 4.9 percent.
The Omani and Bahraini bourses recorded declines of 1.1 and 0.8 percent, respectively.
