Dr. Gil Feiler, a prominent expert on the Arab financial markets, claims in a new research paper that the combine market cap of the largest 10 listed companies in the GCC amounts to US$255 billion. Saudi Arabia boasts 5 companies in the top 10 list, including the top three. Kuwait has 3 companies and the UAE and Qatar have 1 company each.

Saudi Arabia\'s SABIC is the largest company with a market cap of US$70 billion after falling 47 percent YTD. Closing this list is the Saudi Kingdom Holdings with a market cap of US$10.2 billion. This company lost 52 percent YTD.

The other companies in the list are STC (KSA), STC (KSA), Al Rajhi (KSA), Etisalat (UAE), Samba (KSA), Qatar Industries (Qatar), ZAIN (Kuwait), KFH (Kuwait), and NBK (Kuwait). All the companies in the top ten list are paying dividends. The highest return of equity of more than 40 percent was achieved by Qatar Industries. The lowest PE was reported by the Kingdom Holdings with less than 1 and the highest PE of more than 17 in the top 10 list was of Al Rajhi.