Spare a thought for the fund managers trying to make their business work in the Middle East and North Africa this year. Those investing in home markets have faced the uncertainty and drama of the Arab Spring and the wear and tear on affected markets.
The Egyptian Stock Exchange was closed for several months while in the GCC countries, all markets ended the first half in the red (even if the Abu Dhabi index and the Saudi Tadawul All Shares resisted well, down 0.57% and 0.67% respectively.) Moreover, the fund industry in the region faces some deep structural flaws. Taking the GCC alone, there are 101 fund management companies in the region managing $28.5bn of assets between them, according to Lipper data………………………………………..Full Article: Source