Amid Emerging Markets Gulf Stocks Provide Shelter

For years, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar along with some of their Gulf neighbors have coveted an emerging market tag – a moniker that would in a lot of ways symbolize their arrival on the global stage as potential economic powerhouses.  And last year they were bestowed that recognition when index compiler MSCI promoted the U.A.E. and Qatar to emerging status from frontier.  The party was on as investors pushed the stock markets there higher – in anticipation of more gains on the back of the hundreds of millions of dollars in investments that will likely accompany the upgrade when it becomes effective in May. After all, billions of dollars are benchmarked to emerging markets globally.

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Investors Cling to Frontier Markets

As emerging markets tumbled this year, the riskiest country groupings on the fringes have been a haven. Small markets, local stories and in some cases pegged currencies backed by strong central bank reserves have shielded frontier markets from the worst of the emerging market rout.  Lebanon, Tunisia, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Qatar and Kuwait are among the world's lesser developed markets and are outperforming more mainstream emerging markets in the most recent storm.

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