LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s stock market fell over 1.5 per cent on Monday as a purge by its Crown Prince on fellow royals, ministers and businessmen appeared to be widening, though it was offset by gains elsewhere including a record high for South Africa.

The heaviest Saudi falls saw a near 5pc slump in detained billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal’s Kingdom Holding after it had fallen almost 8pc on Sunday.

Al Tayyar Travel plunged 10pc too, after the company quoted media reports saying Nasser bin Aqeel al-Tayyar, still one of its board members, had also been held by authorities.

Saudi’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had moved to consolidate his power and crack down on corruption with a cabinet reshuffle and a string of detentions of prominent figures.

Prince Alwaleed, a nephew of the king invests in lots of big international firms too such as Citigroup and Twitter. He was among 11 princes, four ministers and tens of former ministers detained, officials told Reuters.

Marcus Chenevix, MENA analyst at TS Lombard called Alwaleed bin Talal’s arrest “hugely concerning”. “What it tells investors is that Saudi politics can’t be ignored. And thats worrying because Saudi politics is a black box,” he said Shares in National Industrialization Co (Tasnee), in which Alwaleed’s Kingdom Holdings holds a 6.2pc stake, fell another 2pc while Banque Saudi Fransi, in which Kingdom bought a 16.2pc stake in September, dipped 0.5pc.

The jitters were felt elsewhere in the Gulf too. Qatar’s main bourse dropped almost as much as Saudi’s — 1.2pc — as concerns simmered their about its ongoing spat with the Saudi elite.

Lebanon’s eurobonds fell widely too after its Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri resigned on Saturday, saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accusing Iran and its Lebanese ally Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world.

His resignation, which came as a surprise to Beirut’s political establishment, brought down the country’s fragile coalition government and plunged the country into a new political crisis.

Other major emerging markets looked far calmer in comparison, even some of those that have been the most volatile recently.

South Africa’s stock market hit a record high though the rand was on the back foot again having tumbled more than 2pc on Friday amid ongoing worries about its remaining investment grade credit rating.

Turkey’s lira, another EM currency that has been slammed recently regained 0.6pc against the dollar meanwhile.

OIL HITS TWO-YEAR HIGH: Oil prices reached their highest in two years.

Brent futures were up 32 cents at $62.39 a barrel, the highest since July 2015. US crude added 20 cents to 55.91, both up half a per cent.

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2017