Funds inflow at record level

The MENA region has this year registered its highest inflows over the past five years On an aggregate basis, its markets posted around $2bn of net inflows since the start of this year – also a record level – versus an outflow of  $192m during the same period in 2012.

Of the $655m for May, Saudi Arabia led the rally with $308m of inflows followed by Qatar and Dubai with $131m and $129m respectively. For Qatar, this is a hat-trick of inflows, which is a major reversal of the trend seen throughout 2011-12, when some $1.3bn of foreign funds exited the country.

Aleksandar Stojanovski, research analyst at Deutsche Bank, said, “MENA markets continue to impress with their solid performance. Dubai has advanced by more than 47 per cent year to date, followed by Abu Dhabi at 39 per cent and Kuwait 35 per cent. The recent upgrade in the Emerging Market Index of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar reflects the confidence of international investors and will further leverage the region’s visibility to represent a potential $400-450m of incremental funds inflows for each country.”

On a year-to-date basis except for Egypt, which is down 14 per cent, all the other markets were up as follows: Oman by 16 per cent, Qatar 14 per cent, Bahrain 13 per cent, Saudi Arabia 11 per cent and Jordan three per cent.

Deutsche Bank’s MENA portfolio is up by 22.3 per cent since its last revision in January 2013.