Covid-19: Selloff on GCC markets continues, oil plunges over 11%

Dubai - Many shares in the UAE and other GCC bourses have hit 52-week lows over the last few sessions.

Selloff at the GCC stock markets continued on Tuesday as oil prices also plunged 11 per cent.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi indexes were down 6.3 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively. While Boursa Kuwait was down around two per cent while Bahrain lost 1.5 per cent in the morning trade on Tuesday. Saudi Arabia's Tadawul was up nearly one per cent.
Many shares in the UAE and other GCC bourses have hit 52-week lows over the last few sessions.
The regional bourses were hit by the massive decline recorded by the US stock markets on Monday.
Wall Street suffered its biggest drop since the crash of 1987 on Monday after unprecedented steps taken by the Federal Reserve, lawmakers and the White House to slow the spread and blunt the economic hit of the coronavirus failed to restore order to markets.
The S&P 500 tumbled 12 per cent, closing at its lowest level since December 2018, despite the Fed's surprise move late Sunday to cut interest rates to near zero, its second emergency rate cut in less than two weeks and ahead of a scheduled policy meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday.
It was the third-largest daily percentage drop on record, beaten only by the 1987 'Black Monday' rout and the crash of October 1929.
The selloff on the US equity markets also sent oil prices tumbling on Tuesday. Brent was trading at $31.41 a barrel, down by $4 a barrel or 11.3 per cent. WTI was also down by nine per cent or $2.9 a barrel to $28.86.