Foreigners return to pump money into Mena equity markets in November

Markets saw outflows of $1.5 billion in October, EFG-Hermes said

The rosier economic outlook is accompanied by stock market reforms that include the easing of listing rules, delisting companies deemed unsuitable for public investment and segmentation of the market Show more

Foreigners returned to pump more money into equity markets in the Middle East and North Africa region in November following steep outflows a month earlier, according to a report from EFG-Hermes.

Net foreign flows into Mena reached $411 million in November compared with $1.5 billion in outflows in October, the Cairo-based investment bank said in a report on Monday.

Qatar, UAE and Kuwait attracted most foreign inflows in November, while Saudi Arabia saw only outflows of $83m compared with $1.7bn in October. GCC investors were net sellers of $131m, but were net buyers in Kuwait ($39m), UAE ($8m) and Oman ($7m).

The top 10 most net sold stocks by foreigners included six Saudi names with Sabic, Samba and Savola among them. GCC investors favoured UAE banks DIB and ADIB in November, while they were net sellers of Dubai developer Emaar, and First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Kuwait is expected to attract $473m of passive inflows after its weighting in the FTSE Emerging Markets All Cap index is increased on December 20, EFG-Hermes said.

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Boursa Kuwait was the only GCC market to outperform the Mena region, up 1.6 per cent, while Mena stock markets lost 1.9 per cent overall in November, according to EFG-Hermes.

Kuwaiti stocks entered FTSE in September with 50 per cent of their weightings, with the remaining 50 per cent to be added this month, FTSE Russell said in September. Kuwait will have a 0.51 per cent weighting in the index. A total of 12 companies joined the benchmark in September, including National Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait Finance House and Agility, among others.

Kuwait is one of the best performing stock markets in the region and is up 15.4 per cent year to date.