The peaceful end to Demonstrations marking the first anniversary of the Egyptian uprising encouraged the country's bourse to increase to its biggest level since March on Thursday, and Gulf markets extended gains. Cairo's benchmark index rose 7.2 percent to its highest close since trading was resumed in March following the 18-day uprising that unseated President Hosni Mubarak.
"Lots of people were fearing something was going to happen. It gave a lot of confidence," said Teymour el-Derini of Naeem Brokerage. "The whole market is overbought, climbing too high." The market was also boosted by Orascom Telecom which rose 9.8 percent, extending its gains since Sunday, when it resumed trade after an eight-week suspension. The stock had been suspended while the company spun off the assets of businessman Naguib Sawiris.
"OT has been driving the market since Sunday, sending positive sentiments," Derini said. Many stocks including Ezz Steel and Commercial International Bank jumped the maximum allowed 10 percent. Gulf markets ended the day in positive territory. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank climbed 5.7 percent after posting a 38.5-percent rise in fourth-quarter profit, driving the emirate's index to complete a seven-day rally with a 0.6 percent gain.
"Despite falling short of our expectations, we remain satisfied with the overall performance of the bank," Naveed Ahmed, senior financial analyst at Global Investment House, said in a note. In Dubai, the index gained 0.7 percent, helped by real estate-linked shares, completing five-straight sessions of advances. Drake & Scull and Arabtec ended up 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent respectively. Emaar Properties was an exception, dropping 0.7 percent.
In Kuwait, National Bank of Kuwait climbed 1.8 percent despite reporting flat full-year growth and missing analysts' expectations for fourth-quarter profits. "The bank's top-line matched our expectations, however non-interest income was slightly higher than our forecast on account of investment gains and income from associates," Global's Ahmed said.
The index ended up 0.2 percent. In Qatar, the index inched up 0.2 percent, its second successive gain after six-straight days of declines. United Development Company was the day's biggest gainer, jumping 6.6 percent after posting a 2011 net profit of 3.7 billion riyals ($1.02 billion) versus 597 million in 2010. Oman's index climbed 0.2 percent, with six of the eight largest stocks by market capitalisation ending flat. Omantel eased 0.2 percent while Bank Dhofar, which posted a 5.1 percent gain in fourth-quarter profit, climbed 0.2 percent.
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