Dubai’s stock index plunged the most in the world as the Obama administration vowed to hold Syria’s government liable for chemical weapons attacks.
The DFM General Index slid 5.2 percent, the most August 2011 and the steepest slump among more than 90 global benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg, to 2,600.81 at 12:27 p.m. in Dubai. Emaar Properties , the United Arab Emirates’ biggest publicly traded developer, retreated to the lowest this month, and Gulf Navigation Holding, whose tanker fleet ship oil and gas, slid 6.9 percent.
Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share index fell 2.6 percent and Kuwait’s benchmark lost 2.4 percent after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the evidence is “undeniable” that chemical weapons were used against residents of a Damascus suburb last week. President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has the toxic weapons and the capability to deploy them, he said.
The decline is “linked to the Syria events,” Montasser Khelifi, a senior manager at Quantum Investment Bank Ltd., said by e-mail today. “Kerry said yesterday that the Syrian regime will be held responsible for the chemical attacks and there are talks between U.S. and its allies to mount punitive strikes.”
Oil Gains
Oil rose 0.2 percent to $106.09 a barrel on concern the unrest may disrupt supplies from the Middle East, which according to the International Energy Agency accounted for 35 percent of global crude output in the first quarter.
President Barack Obama is under growing pressure from allies and Congress to go beyond denunciations and take military action against Assad in the wake of the Aug. 21 attack that Syrian opposition groups say killed more than 1,300 people.
VIDEO: Kerry on Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
Emaar dropped 4.5 percent to 5.94 dirhams, poised for the lowest close this month. Gulf Navigation retreated to 29.7 fils. There are 100 fils to the dirham.
Abu Dhabi’s benchmark index lost 1.8 percent, Oman’s measure and Qatar’s fell 0.8 percent, while Bahrain’s dropped 0.3 percent.-Bloomberg
