Market Wrap MENA-Asia 13 August: Kospi Adds Another 3.6 Percent as Gulf Slips and Egypt Advances

By The Edge Research Team

South Korea’s Kospi surged for a fourth consecutive session on Thursday, adding 3.56 percent, while North Asia broadly advanced, mainland China fell and most Gulf bourses closed lower. Egypt extended its run and oil dropped about 2 percent.

The Kospi closed at 6,813.34, up 3.56 percent and again the largest move among the 20 benchmarks in the table below, per CNBC. Taken with Wednesday’s 3.68 percent gain, that is a two-day advance of 7.37 percent, our calculation. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.16 percent to 68,308.59, clearing 68,000, and the Topix added 0.89 percent to 4,176.04. Taiwan’s weighted index gained 1.11 percent to 46,021.48, clearing 46,000. Against that, mainland China fell on both boards, with the Shenzhen Component down 0.87 percent at 14,289.44 and the Shanghai Composite down 0.50 percent at 3,926.96. Australia’s ASX 200 eased 0.23 percent to 9,188.50, the Hang Seng slipped 0.17 percent to 25,396.51, India’s Nifty 50 lost 0.16 percent to 24,395.85 and Singapore’s Straits Times was virtually flat at 5,720.05, down 0.01 percent.

Oil fell hard. Brent crude traded at US$87.28 a barrel, down 1.91 percent, and West Texas Intermediate at US$81.45, down 2.19 percent, the largest decline of any instrument tracked here, per CNBC. The gap between the two benchmarks was US$5.83, our calculation. The move follows a substantial build in American inventories: the US Energy Information Administration reported that commercial crude stocks excluding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve rose 17.4 million barrels in the week to 7 August, to 424.4 million barrels, which it puts about 2 percent below the five-year average for the time of year. Gold for December delivery on the COMEX exchange was quoted at US$4,442.80 an ounce, down 0.55 percent, while the CBOE volatility index edged up 0.21 percent to 14.58. These are intraday quotes rather than settlement prices.

Gulf markets were mostly lower. Oman’s MSX 30 led the gainers, up 0.36 percent at 7,508.77, followed by Abu Dhabi’s FTSE ADX General Index at 10,044.83, up 0.32 percent, and Bahrain’s All Share index at 1,954.11, up 0.13 percent, per the exchanges. On the other side, Kuwait’s Premier Market closed at 9,297.86, down 0.17 percent, with the All-Share at 8,838.95, down 0.24 percent, per Boursa Kuwait. Saudi Arabia’s TASI fell 0.19 percent to 10,823.60 and Dubai’s DFM General Index lost 0.21 percent to 5,907.88, per the exchanges. Jordan was the region’s strongest performer, with the ASE index up 0.51 percent at 3,991.97, per the exchange and our calculation.

Egypt advanced again while Qatar fell. The EGX30 closed at 55,251.59, up 0.38 percent, having opened at 55,039.76 and touched a high of 55,474.94, and is now up 32.09 percent for the year, per the Egyptian Exchange. Qatar’s QE Index declined 34.76 points, or 0.35 percent, to 10,020.84, per Qatar News Agency.

The dollar was little changed. The euro firmed 0.07 percent to US$1.1532 while sterling eased 0.02 percent to US$1.3489. The dollar slipped 0.05 percent against the yen to 159.33. The Kuwaiti dinar was unchanged, with the dollar at 0.3072 dinars. The National Bank of Egypt published the dollar at 50.23 pounds to buy and 50.33 to sell. Bitcoin rose 0.26 percent to US$63,474.71. The US 10-year Treasury yield fell 1.8 basis points to 4.674 percent, per CNBC.

Wednesday’s closes from our previous wrap remain the last full prints for the United States and Europe. Wall Street ended higher after the inflation reading, with the Nasdaq Composite up 0.54 percent at 26,588.49, the S&P 500 up 0.26 percent at 7,748.50 and the Dow Jones down 0.04 percent at 53,770.27. In Europe the FTSE 100 fell 0.10 percent, the DAX 0.23 percent, the Euro Stoxx 50 0.26 percent and the CAC 40 0.46 percent. In the European session under way as this was written the Euro Stoxx 50 was up 0.45 percent, the DAX up 0.40 percent and the CAC 40 up 0.12 percent, while the FTSE 100 was down 0.33 percent. US futures were mixed, with Dow futures up 0.21 percent, S&P 500 futures up 0.12 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.07 percent, per CNBC.

Table – MENA equities, 13 August close, ranked by change:

Table – Asia equities, 13 August close, ranked by change:

Table – US equities, Wednesday 12 August closes, for reference, ranked by change:

Table – Europe equities, Wednesday 12 August closes, for reference, ranked by change:

Table – Commodities, intraday 13 August, ranked by change:

Table – Currencies, intraday 13 August:

Table – US Treasury yields, intraday 13 August:

Table – Volatility and crypto, intraday 13 August, ranked by change:

Why it matters: The session divided along a clean line. The four North Asian benchmarks all rose, three of them by more than 0.85 percent, while the two mainland Chinese boards were the day’s weakest performers and Hong Kong also fell. That is not a regional risk signal, because a single sentiment shift does not lift Seoul 3.56 percent and push Shenzhen down 0.87 percent on the same day. The median absolute move across the 20 benchmarks was 0.34 percent, our calculation, so the Kospi’s move was roughly ten times the typical one and the dispersion around it is the point. The Kospi has now gained 7.37 percent in two sessions, our calculation, which is the kind of move that invites profit taking as readily as it invites continuation. Separately, both crude benchmarks fell about 2 percent while gold also declined 0.55 percent and the VIX barely moved. Oil and gold falling together with volatility flat is a move in the oil market rather than a move in risk appetite, and the oil market had a specific reason: a 17.4 million barrel build in US commercial crude stocks in a single week. That figure lands in a week when OPEC and the International Energy Agency published forecasts for 2026 demand that differ by 2.2 million barrels a day, so the supply side has produced a hard number while the demand side has produced two incompatible ones.

Outlook: The immediate question is whether the Kospi can hold a 7.37 percent two-day gain into next week, since the scale of the move now matters more than its direction. Across the Gulf five of the eight regional lines finished lower. Thursday was the final session of the week for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Egypt and Jordan, which reopen on Sunday and will have two full sessions of Western trading to price alongside a roughly 2 percent fall in crude. Dubai and Abu Dhabi trade Friday and will take the first of it. That crude move is the one to watch, because it lands on Gulf budgets rather than on Gulf equity sentiment alone, and the American inventory build gives it a supply-side explanation that does not depend on which demand forecast turns out to be right. Egypt’s EGX30 extended its advance while the National Bank of Egypt published the dollar at 50.23 pounds to buy, and those two lines continue to be worth watching together. In the European session under way at the time of writing the Euro Stoxx 50 and DAX were both higher while the FTSE 100 lagged, and US futures were mixed.

Sources: Saudi Exchange; Boursa Kuwait; Egyptian Exchange; Bahrain Bourse; Dubai Financial Market; Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange; Muscat Stock Exchange; Amman Stock Exchange; Qatar News Agency; US Energy Information Administration; National Bank of Egypt; CNBC.

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