Thursday, 17 March 2011 at 11:31, Bloomberg
Bahrain’s bourse will resume operations on Thursday after a one-day suspension as demonstrations prompted the government to declare a state of emergency.
The bourse made the trading resumption announcement on its website on Thursday, without providing further details.
Bahrain security forces drove protesters from their rallying point at Pearl Roundabout in the capital Manama on Wednesday, leaving two demonstrators and two policemen dead. The military imposed a curfew on parts of the island-kingdom from 4pm until 4am and banned protests and public gatherings until further notice, an army spokesman said on state television on Wednesday.
Clashes between mainly Shiite-Muslim protesters and the forces of their Sunni government prompted the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council to send a Saudi Arabian-led military force to help restore security. The turmoil sent Bahrain credit default swaps to the highest level since July 2009, while yield on its dollar bond rose to a record. Fitch Ratings lowered the country’s foreign debt by two levels on March 15 and said another downgrade is possible.
Bahrain’s benchmark BB ALL Share Index has lost 1.3 per cent this year. Unrest in the Middle East has sent the Bloomberg GCC 200 Index of Gulf stocks down 7.5 per cent in 2011.
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