Therefore, it seems more reasonable to use bootstrap critical values (which are valid if there is some
dependence among individuals). In this case, the conclusions of the tests are now much more
straightforward, and retaining any conventional level of significance, we conclude that there is a longrun
relationship between oil prices and stock markets for our panel four GCC countries. These results are
in accordance with those obtained with the panel cointegration tests of Westerlund (2005). This implies in
particular that over the long-term oil prices and stock prices move together in GCC markets.12 The forces
that move markets in GCC countries are basically the forces that move oil prices, mainly OPEC
intervention policy, global economic growth, changes in oil inventories and other global, regional and
domestic political and economic events.