GulfBase Live Support
31/01/2011 00:00 AST
Credit default spreads (CDS) of debt issuers in the Gulf Cooperation Council took a hit over the weekend as political tensions in Egypt escalated and angry mobs took to the street in the country, violently protesting against rising unemployment and inflation in Egypt.
The cost of insuring five-year Saudi debt against default – hitherto one of the world’s safest 10 debt issuing sovereigns – rocketed more than 46 per cent on Friday, the latest trading day, and ended at around 110 basis points, up from around 75bp the day before, according to data from CMA Vision.
Qatar too saw its CDS rates shoot up by close to 15 per cent the same day, ending at 102.4bp, up from 89bp the day before.
Dubai CDS too inched up to 452.75bp on Friday, a leap from around 400bp in the weeks before the region flared up, with problems in Tunisia, Algeria and Yemen all adding up to political tensions in an already disturbed region.
CDS are benchmarks for protecting debt against default and traders use them to speculate on credit quality. An increase suggests deteriorating perceptions of creditworthiness and a drop shows improvement.
The swap contracts pay the buyer face value in exchange for the underlying securities if a borrower fails to meet its debt agreements. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
Business 24|7
Ticker | Price | Volume |
---|---|---|
SABIC | 114.77 | 5,915,941 |
05/04/2018
Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) has signed an agreement with Six Flags to develop and design an amusement park in Riyadh. Six Flags, the world’s leading international amusement park compa
Arab News
05/04/2018
In an exclusive interview with Arab News, Turki Mohammed Al-Shehri explains how an expanding renewables industry will boost employment as well as pave the way for a greener future.
A massiv
Arab News
05/04/2018
Dubai’s residential property market continued to soften in the first three months of this year, in line with analysts’ forecasts, with rental values recording a more pronounced fall than sales prices
The National
05/04/2018
Buoyed by a strong oil price of $70 per barrel, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul shot up by over 6 per cent in March 2018, according to Kuwait Financial Centre’s (Markaz’s) recently released Monthly Markets Re
Times of Oman
05/04/2018
Qatar banks’ combined credit facilities to real estate sector rose by QR17bn to QR147.7bn in 2017. The banks’ credit to various sectors stood at QR911bn at the end of 2017, up from QR839bn recorded i
The Peninsula