UAE markets rallied on Thursday with Dubai's index on an 11-week high as investors buy into the country's political safe haven status and bullish first-quarter results. Dubai's benchmark gained 1.4 percent, its highest close since January 26. Gain were seen across the index with heavyweights Emaar Properties and Emirates NBD climbing 1.2 and 1.4 percent respectively.
Drake & Scull International added 0.9 percent after saying it has acquired a Riyadh-based civil construction firm for 128 million riyals ($34.1 million), in a bid to expand operations in Saudi Arabia. "The UAE market stands out within the broader MENA region as having the cheapest valuations," said Shehzad Janab, head of asset management at Dubai-based Daman. "The banking sector is set to show amongst the strongest earnings trends throughout 2011."
Abu Dhabi's index ended 0.7 percent up, hitting its highest close since February 2. Emirates Telecommunications Corp and National Bank of Abu Dhabi rose 0.5 and 2.3 percent respectively. "There is a positive sentiment in the market, CDS (credit default swaps) are going down in Dubai and now there is less correlation between local and global markets," said Samer al-Jaouni, General Manager of Middle East Financial Brokerage in UAE.
Even when global markets drop, Gulf markets are holding their ground, he said. Qatar's index slipped on lower than expected results from Qatar Islamic Bank. The country's largest Islamic lender, fell 2.9 percent after posting a 7 percent jump in first-quarter net profit on Wednesday but missing analysts' forecasts.
"We would expect most results to be good and expect it (index) to be up again," said Robert Pramberger, acting head of asset management at Doha-based investment company The First Investor. The benchmark slid 0.4 percent, edging away from Monday's eight-week high but rose 3.8 percent for April. Egypt's benchmark share index closes flat reversing earlier gains with a fall in developer Egyptian Resorts countered by a rise in Orascom Telecom, traders say.
Real estate firm Egyptian Resorts is the index's worst decliner tumbling 9.6 percent following news that a land sale to the firm has been scrapped prompting foreigners to dump shares in the stock, traders say. Egyptian Resorts said the tourism development authority had retracted its approval for selling a land plot allocated to the company's Sahl Hasheesh resort on the Red Sea. The firm said it would challenge the decision.
Oman's index hit a three-week high as Bank Muscat rallied after posting first-quarter earnings on Thursday that fell largely in line with expectations. Bank Muscat gained 0.4 percent, accounting for a quarter of total traded volumes. The bank's net profit jumped 13.5 percent to 27.8 million rials. Analysts polled by Reuters expected an average of 27.6 million. Kuwait's bourse climbed 0.3 percent to a four-week high as heavyweights gained. Zain and National Bank of Kuwait rose 1.7 percent each.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.