The stock markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are characterized by the domination of individual investors, therefore, we investigate how this characteristic may influence markets’ behavior. We examine the market reaction to the announcements conveyed by the major international credit rating agencies’ (CRAs). We assume the English language used by the CRAs to publish their news may fail to reduce the asymmetric information in GCCs, due to the low level of English knowledge amongst the individuals. We apply a questionnaire and an event-study and we find evidence for an influence of the English language on the individuals’ reaction.