Billions of dirhams were wiped from the value of stocks across the region yesterday as Israeli bombardment of Gaza continued for a fifth day.
The Cairo bourse led the declines, losing as much as 3 billion pounds (Dh1.8bn) of value, or more than 3 per cent, as fund managers shunned risky asset classes after a marked shift in Egyptian foreign policy towards Israel.
The Egyptian exchange is the only stock market in the region classified as an "emerging" market by the international index provider MSCI, and as such is considered a regional bellwether by international investors.
"Egypt is owned by a lot of emerging-markets funds, and with trouble happening right next door to them, the fund managers are thinking we probably want to take risk off the table," said Saleem Khokhar, the head of equities at National Bank of Abu Dhabi.
The benchmark EGX 30 Index tumbled 3.2 per cent yesterday to 5,478.38 points.
"Egypt has been quite vocal in terms of what they think about the Israeli aggression," Mr Khokhar added. The Egyptians "are definitely showing a different side to whatever they had before under the [former president Hosni] Mubarak regime".
Mohammed Morsi, the Egyptian president, withdrew his ambassador to Israel on Wednesday following the attacks and called for an emergency meeting to be convened with foreign ministers of the Arab League.
On Friday, Mr Morsi sent his prime minister, Hisham Qandil, to Gaza in a show of support.
Egypt's stocks were hit indiscriminately across the country's major sectors and blue-chip firms.
Palm Hills Development, a luxury property developer, tumbled 6.2 per cent to 2.42 pounds. Orascom Telecom, North Africa's biggest mobile phone company, dropped 3.4 per cent to 3.59 pounds.
EFG Hermes, the region's biggest investment bank, fell 2.3 per cent to 10.91 pounds. Ezz Steel, the country's largest publicly traded steel manufacturer, lost 4.6 per cent to 9.15 pounds.
Egypt strongly relies on western aid, which has been in place ever since a peace treaty was signed with Israel in 1979. Mr Morsi has been in discussions with the IMF over a US$4.8 billion (Dh17.63bn) loan to kick-start the country's economy, which was hard hit after the revolution that toppled Mr Mubarak last year.
"After such sweeping headlines, people fear it could potentially lead to a wild card, such as Egypt revisiting and amending certain parts of the [1978] Camp David agreement," said Wafik Dawood, head of institutional sales at Mega Investments Securities in Cairo.
"This is despite the fact that Morsi, ever since he was sworn into office, has offered reassurance over his commitment to maintain the treaty with Israel. On the ground, the majority of people know that nothing can materialise in terms of intervention, it's all headlines and newspapers," Mr Dawood added.
Elsewhere in the region, Qatar's market declined to its lowest level since August 7 after its foreign minister said Arab League meetings were "wasteful" and that it was time for "a clear and honest review" to resolve the Palestinian situation.
Qatar's EGX 30 Index fell 0.8 per cent to 8,377.32.
Last night, Mr Morsi met with the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said there were signs that a truce might be reached between Hamas and Israel.
Israel's TA-25 Index, on the other hand, advanced 0.6 per cent to 1,188.97.
"Investors see the military action coming to an end and are coming back to the market," Richard Gussow, a senior analyst at DS Securities & Investments in Tel Aviv told Bloomberg.
In the UAE, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index lost 0.3 per cent to 2,681.33, while the Dubai Financial Market General Index fell 0.9 per cent to 1,601.14.
Kuwait's index declined 0.5 per cent to 5,769.24.
Bahrain's measure lost 0.3 per cent to 1,054.01.
Oman's MSM 30 Index fell 0.3 per cent to 5,617.55.
The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index fell 0.4 per cent to 6,765.29.
"There is a risk-off trade right now," said Haissam Arabi, the chief executive at Gulfmena Investments, an asset manager in Dubai.
"Investors are pricing in the consequences of a possible escalation of regional tensions, but it's too early to determine what the real implications will be."
halsayegh@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company%20Profile
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Disclaimer
Director: Alfonso Cuaron
Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAlmouneer%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202017%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dr%20Noha%20Khater%20and%20Rania%20Kadry%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEgypt%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20staff%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E120%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EBootstrapped%2C%20with%20support%20from%20Insead%20and%20Egyptian%20government%2C%20seed%20round%20of%20%3Cbr%3E%243.6%20million%20led%20by%20Global%20Ventures%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
RESULT
Al Hilal 4 Persepolis 0
Khribin (31', 54', 89'), Al Shahrani 40'
Red card: Otayf (Al Hilal, 49')
MATCH INFO
Burnley 0
Man City 3
Raheem Sterling 35', 49'
Ferran Torres 65'
Singham Again
Director: Rohit Shetty
Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone
Rating: 3/5
How to wear a kandura
Dos
- Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
- Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
- Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
- Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester
Don’ts
- Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
- Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
The specs
Engine: 4 liquid-cooled permanent magnet synchronous electric motors placed at each wheel
Battery: Rimac 120kWh Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (LiNiMnCoO2) chemistry
Power: 1877bhp
Torque: 2300Nm
Price: Dh7,500,00
On sale: Now
The National in Davos
We are bringing you the inside story from the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, a gathering of hundreds of world leaders, top executives and billionaires.
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
Company%20Profile
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ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Top tips to avoid cyber fraud
Microsoft’s ‘hacker-in-chief’ David Weston, creator of the tech company’s Windows Red Team, advises simple steps to help people avoid falling victim to cyber fraud:
1. Always get the latest operating system on your smartphone or desktop, as it will have the latest innovations. An outdated OS can erode away all investments made in securing your device or system.
2. After installing the latest OS version, keep it patched; this means repairing system vulnerabilities which are discovered after the infrastructure components are released in the market. The vast majority of attacks are based on out of date components – there are missing patches.
3. Multi-factor authentication is required. Move away from passwords as fast as possible, particularly for anything financial. Cybercriminals are targeting money through compromising the users’ identity – his username and password. So, get on the next level of security using fingertips or facial recognition.
4. Move your personal as well as professional data to the cloud, which has advanced threat detection mechanisms and analytics to spot any attempt. Even if you are hit by some ransomware, the chances of restoring the stolen data are higher because everything is backed up.
5. Make the right hardware selection and always refresh it. We are in a time where a number of security improvement processes are reliant on new processors and chip sets that come with embedded security features. Buy a new personal computer with a trusted computing module that has fingerprint or biometric cameras as additional measures of protection.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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