Souk Al-Manakh was the unregulated stock market at the center of Kuwait's 1982 stock-market crash.
The market traded shares in companies that were not listed on Kuwait's official exchange. Speculation grew rapidly, and traders commonly used postdated checks and informal credit to buy shares. Prices rose far beyond realistic business values, creating a highly leveraged bubble.
When confidence broke, participants could not settle their obligations. The resulting chain of unpaid checks produced a major financial crisis in Kuwait. The collapse exposed both the risks of unregulated trading and the dangers of credit arrangements that made the market appear more liquid than it really was.
Souk Al-Manakh is often confused with Kuwait's official stock exchange, which was a separate institution. The word souk means market, and the episode is remembered as one of the largest speculative collapses in the Gulf region. Kuwait's government later took extensive measures to manage the debts and stabilize the financial system.