RIYADH: After a steep decline in May, Gulf Cooperation Council countries saw an optimistic bounce back in equity market index performances in June with the UAE and Saudi Arabia as top performers. According to a Kamco Invest report, the UAE’s Dubai Financial Market was the best-performing market in the GCC in terms of index closings with a monthly increase of 6 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index with a rise of 4 percent. Kuwait’s market came in third with a 3.4 percent month-on-month increase, followed by Oman’s, with a 3.1 percent incline. Equity markets in Qatar and Bahrain reported declines of 0.8 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively. DFM closed June with 650.2 billion dirhams ($177 billion) in market cap at 3,792 index points, a result of increases in six out of the eight indices, including the financial, real estate, and industrial sectors. “The benchmark TASI peaked at a closing high of 11,466.0 points on 21 June 2023 but trended downward by the end of the month to close with a gain of 4.0 percent at 11,459.0 points,” the report stated about Saudi Arabia’s TASI performance. However, TASI trading activity witnessed a month-on-month decline due to the Eid holidays, according to the report. The monthly volume of shares traded on TASI dropped 12.9 percent in June to reach 4.1 billion. The value of shares traded on TASI also dropped in June to reach SR100.1 billion from SR136 billion in May. Regarding the monthly performance of Qatar’s market, the report said: “The declining streak in Qatar Stock Exchange continued during June 2023 with the QE General Index registering a decline for the fifth consecutive month, albeit marginally by 0.8 percent during the month.” Moreover, Bahrain’s bourse saw a decline for the first time after three months of positive performance, closing June with 1,957.87 points. The report indicated that Bahrain’s decline was primarily driven by a drop in two of its seven sectors, namely the materials index, which recorded a 2.2 percent decrease, and the Industrials index, which dropped by 0.9 percent.