Abstract

We tested the effect of the month of the year on the average monthly returns of the Gulf Cooperation Council stock marketsover the period 2004-2019 using the Kruskal-Wallis and Chi-Square tests.Our results on the level of the GCC markets as a whole indicated a significant impact for the month of the year, as the rate of return increased to the highest level in April and the rate of return decreased to the lowest level in November.As for each country in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the impact of the month of the year was significant only in the markets of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where the rate of return of the Dubai market reached its highest level in the month of February. Regarding the return of the Abu Dhabi market, it reached its highest level in the month of April, while the return of the two markets together reached its lowest level in November.

Key words: Stock market anomalies, emerging stock markets, monthly effect in stock returns, GCC stock markets