Iraq markets

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The bell rings and they're off. Old men in tattered pinstripes bark orders to buy and sell, peering through an iron fence with opera glasses to make out the numbers. Traders in baby blue vests sprint across the floor, haggling over dinars and scribbling triumphantly on an erasable white board.

The Baghdad Stock Exchange doesn't have hostile takeovers, e-trading or even an air conditioner, but it's one of the hottest markets in the world.

Since the beginning of August, when the prospect of war with Iraq began to solidify, the Dow Jones industrial average has fallen by 7 percent, the London FTSE 100 index of British blue chips has slid 10.6 percent and the Xetra DAX index of leading German shares has tumbled 25.8 percent.

Meanwhile, the benchmark Baghdad Stock Index has quietly gone from 1,317 to 1,933 -- a 47 percent rise. Even since Secretary of State Colin Powell outlined the U.S. evidence against Iraq on Feb. 5, the BSI has risen 2 percent.

'We aren't afraid'

"All the stock markets in the world fell after the U.S. threats. Only on the Baghdad Stock Exchange is the price going up," said the exchange's amiable general director, Subhi al-Azawi. "We aren't afraid of Mr. Bush's threats. The proof is that our people are putting their money here for investment."

The exchange is by all accounts a humble institution. Founded in 1991, it is housed in a run-down concrete building sandwiched between military installations on a capital sidestreet. Instead of posh watering holes outside, there are a few tarp-covered stalls selling falafel, bean soup and tea.

Open three mornings

The trading floor bears more resemblance to an off-track betting parlor than a financial hub, and opens only three mornings a week -- on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Volume averages about 300 million dinars ($130,000) a day, an infinitesimal fraction of the $42.3 billion daily average on the New York Stock Exchange.

But what matters in the markets are profits, and there have been plenty of those here lately.

Khadum Muttar began playing the markets at age 61, when he retired from his job as a merchant with a nest egg of 3 million dinars, worth $1,000. Seven years later, he has doubled his dinars, and his fortune is now worth $2,600.

"We are old now and we'll do anything to pass the time, but it's exciting to be here," he said, fingering a string of blue prayer beads. "The market goes up and down, but you can always make up for your losses by buying and selling."

Most investors shrug off the bear market in the rest of the world, saying other markets pay too much attention to politics.

"We are different from the rest of the world because our economy is strong," said Khelikhali Rassoul, 70. "We have many resources, and we have total freedom in our dealing here."

Rassoul, a portly, balding man missing several teeth, showed up in a stained beige suit and a black pinstriped vest pulled over a ratty blue sweater.

A market veteran, he told of capital won and lost -- "some people who had 100 dinars now have only 10." But the retired director of the Khelikhali Trading Office declined to give details of his own market fortunes.

With a vague wave of his arm, he said his investments totaled "millions," adding: "I am a very rich man.

"Of course the market has been good to me," he said. "If I was not making a profit, I wouldn't be here."

Al-Azawi, the exchange's general director, is also thinking big.

He is in contact with other Arab stock markets to develop an electronic trading system, and says maybe someday people will be able to buy and sell over the Internet. He also wants to move the exchange to a better building.

Al-Azawi, who has traveled only to Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, even speaks of more personal hopes for the future.

"I would like to visit the New York Stock Exchange," he said with a broad smile. "Maybe when this trouble is finished."