Gulf markets open positive

DUBAI: Stock markets in the oil-rich Gulf region opened up on Sunday after a volatile week trailing the behaviour of global markets hit by uncertainty over European and US economic woes.

The Dubai Financial Market index continued its rise on Sunday after returning to the green in the latter part of last week.

DFM index rose 1.00 percent up to 1,478.62 points at 11:20 am (0720 GMT) after closing 0.21 percent up on Thursday.

The leading shares of Emaar Properties jumped 2.17 percent.

In neighbouring Abu Dhabi, the general index was also up 0.35 percent at 2,597.61 points, with real estate shares up 2.21 percent and banks 0.28 percent.

The market of the capital of the United Arab Emirates had ended last week's tradings in the red, slipping 0.57 percent down on Thursday.

Qatar Exchange also climbed to the green on Sunday, edging 0.64 percent up compared to a drop of 0.25 percent on Thursday.

Muscat Securities Exchange of Oman also recovered on Sunday, rising 34.24 percent to 5,460.800 points after being in the red for all of last week.

The Saudi market, which is the largest Arab bourse, opened its trading week on Saturday with a surge of 1.93 percent to 6,155.88 points. The market opens later Sunday.

The Kuwait exchange opened 0.05 percent up at 5,853.6 points.

Global markets had recovered on Friday ending a turbulent week as panic and profit-taking sales kept markets on a rollercoaster.

New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday closed up 125.71 points (1.13 percent) to 11,269.02.

The broader S&P 500 was up 6.17 points (0.53 percent) at 1,178.81, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 15.30 points (0.61 percent) to 2,507.98.

European markets also rallied on Friday with London's FTSE 100 index climbing 3.04 percent to 5,320.03 points, Frankfurt's DAX climbing 3.45 percent to 5,997.74 points and the CAC 40 in Paris rising 4.02 percent to 3,213.88 points.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011