Dubai, July 12: Telecom operator Zain surged to lift the Kuwait index yesterday and Oman’s benchmark rallied as new index weightings were introduced, but trading was lackluster across the Gulf Arab region.
Dubai’s index rose 1.4 percent, Bahrain made its largest gains for two weeks with a 0.5 percent rise and Kuwait edged 0.2 percent higher after a late rally. Egypt’s benchmark climbed 2.8 percent on the final day of the Egyptian fiscal year.
But Abu Dhabi fell for the first session in three, Qatar extended its losses to 13 percent since June 14 and the Saudi bourse added 0.1 percent, with most analysts predicting markets would move sideways until second-quarter results are released from mid-July.
The Dubai index closed at 1,810 points, its second rise in three sessions. In Saudi Arabia, the Tadawul All-Share index (TASI) edged up 0.1 percent to 5,599 points.
However, the sector activity for the day was negative with only 7 gaining sectors as against 8 sectors closing with losses. The top gaining sector was Real Estate Development, up 2.53 percent, whereas the top decliner was the Building & Construction sector, down 1.17 percent. Overall market breadth was negative, with 44 advancers and 78 decliners producing an AD ratio of 0.56., the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said yesterday in its market commentary.
The Abu Dhabi index closed at 2,629 points, its first decline for three sessions.
The Qatari index fell 1.3 percent to 6,407 points, its third decline in four sessions.
The Omani index ended higher for a second day, rising 1 percent to 5,670 points.
The Kuwaiti index closed at 8,099 points, its second straight advance.
Zain climbed 5.1 percent to 1.24 dinar ($4.31) after the telecoms operator said it was working with Swiss investment bank UBS and other consultants to review its strategy.
Oman’s index rose for a second session as new free-float weightings made their debut. This has slashed the weightings of Bank Muscat and Omantel to 10 percent from more than 16 percent each, while boosting the representation of smaller cap stocks. Bank Dhofar, included on the index for the first time, surged 7.2 percent, and Bank Sohar, which saw its weighting increase by a third, rose 1.3 percent. “The market responded very well to the new index,” said Adel Nasr, United Securities brokerage manager.
Saudi volumes were the lowest since April 1, Qatar trading fell to a fourth-month low and Abu Dhabi’s trading was its lowest for five weeks. Other Gulf markets did not plumb to similar milestones, but all had trading volumes that were at least a third below their three-month moving daily averages.
—Agencies