considering Gulf countries as emerging markets. They are not. They will never be. For a simple reason; there is no home grown industry, the majority of the so called Q-companies here are joint ventures with international interests; which are listed on stock markets elsewhere in the world. There are 2 other reasons:
1. You would invest in a company because it has first and foremost a very good Management, then you will go down the list of examining financial statements for debt, cash flow, EPS, P/Es etc. I don't think you can clearly identify here who's managing what in a joint venture. There are no analysts or serious technical analyses to follow-up stocks fundamentals. On-line trading is at its infancy.
2. The currencies in the Gulf: are all tied to the USD and/or the price of oil, there is talk about a common currency by 2010 or may be later, or may be never, which creates uncertainty, and certainly no desire to invest in anything you're not sure what's gonna happen next with the initial value of your investment.
Real Estate as some suggested; if you have money to burn, go for it for the very short term only, before the sh*tt hits the fan with the crumbling quality of construction.
considering Gulf countries as emerging markets. They are not. They will never be. For a simple reason; there is no home grown industry, the majority of the so called Q-companies here are joint ventures with international interests; which are listed on stock markets elsewhere in the world. There are 2 other reasons:
1. You would invest in a company because it has first and foremost a very good Management, then you will go down the list of examining financial statements for debt, cash flow, EPS, P/Es etc. I don't think you can clearly identify here who's managing what in a joint venture. There are no analysts or serious technical analyses to follow-up stocks fundamentals. On-line trading is at its infancy.
2. The currencies in the Gulf: are all tied to the USD and/or the price of oil, there is talk about a common currency by 2010 or may be later, or may be never, which creates uncertainty, and certainly no desire to invest in anything you're not sure what's gonna happen next with the initial value of your investment.
Real Estate as some suggested; if you have money to burn, go for it for the very short term only, before the sh*tt hits the fan with the crumbling quality of construction.