Insurance, petchems dampen Saudi index, Qatar rises as it completes FTSE upgrade

Stock markets in the Middle East were mixed on Monday with petrochemicals and the insurance sector weighing on Saudi Arabia while Qatar rose as it completed its upgrade by index compiler FTSE Russell to secondary emerging market status. The Saudi index fell 0.5 percent with the main drag coming from the petrochemical sector as Brent oil futures fell further towards $51 a barrel. Saudi Kayan Petrochemical lost 1.9 percent.
Most insurance shares, which had risen strongly on Sunday, retreated. Solidarity Saudi Takaful slumped 5.6 percent after the company said the regulator had suspended its right to issue health insurance policies because of regulatory violations; the firm did not describe those violations.
Solidarity said it would meet with regulators soon to resolve the issue, without specifying a date. On Sunday it had jumped 3.8 percent after it reduced its accumulated losses to below 50 percent of its capital.
Chubb Arabia Cooperative Insurance fell 0.8 percent after it said it would not distribute a cash dividend for 2016 in order to improve its solvency.
Egypt's index retreated 0.5 percent in the highest volume in a month as investors took profits; the index has closed higher in seven of the last 10 sessions as the Egyptian pound weakened against the US dollar.
Arabian Cement dropped 3.0 percent and was the worst performer in the index despite reporting a near tripling in its fourth-quarter net profit to 87 million Egyptian pounds ($4.8 million). Revenue was also strong, up 30 percent.
Other construction and materials-related shares also fell, with Ezz Steel closing 2.7 percent lower.
Dubai's index lost 0.5 percent in very thin trade with declining shares outnumbering advancing ones 18 to three. Builder Drake & Scull fell 2.2 percent.
Abu Dhabi's, however, added 0.9 percent on the back of gains in blue chips, which had been the main drag on the index in the prior session. Real estate developer Aldar Properties rebounded 3.0 percent and telecommunications firm Etisalat gained 1.1 percent.
Some investors are rotating into shares which are due to make dividend payouts in coming weeks; Aldar will go ex-dividend on March 29 and Etisalat on April 18.
In Qatar, the second and final phase of the FTSE upgrade took effect from the opening, with 20 of 22 companies selected in September 2016 seeing their investibility weights doubled.
Those stocks saw selling pressure in recent days as investors who had tried to front-run the entry of passive funds into the stocks bailed out. But that selling appeared to ease on Monday with most of stocks in the group closing higher. Commercial Bank added 1.9 percent.