Middle East markets: Palm Hills lifts Egypt index

Palm Hills helped lift Egypt's market on optimism over a possible settlement of the developer's state land purchases, and UAE bourses gained on Tuesday as small investors bought property stocks in Dubai. Egypt's main index rose 1.1 percent on investor hopes that the government is trying to settle legal challenges to purchases of state land by Palm Hills, the country's second-biggest listed developer.
"The idea of some sort of reconciliation with the government on the land bank is still affecting the shares," said Omar Ascar, head of trading at Cairo Capital Securities. Palm Hills shares gained 2 percent. Dubai's index climbed 0.7 percent, up in four of six sessions, but is down 3.8 percent in 2011.
"There will be more of the same - investors buying into weakness," said Matthew Wakeman, EFG-Hermes managing director for cash and equity-linked trading. "Volume remains light and a lot of institutional cash is still on the sidelines." Arabtec gained 1.5 percent. Emaar Properties and Dubai Financial Market advanced 0.7 and 0.8 percent respectively.
Abu Dhabi's benchmark added 0.07 percent, hitting a fresh seven-week high. Blue chips Dana Gas and Aldar Properties gained 1.6 and 0.8 percent respectively. In Qatar, bargain hunters lifted the index to a two-week high while foreign institutional investors reduced positions. "Foreigners have pulled out on selected stocks - local retailers are dominating," said a Doha-based trader who asked not to be identified.
Foreign institutional investors came back into the Qatar market in late May, an indication that hopes were still high on its index gaining an emerging market status upgrade from MSCI. The index rose 0.3 percent to its highest close since June 1. Industries Qatar gained 1.5 percent and Masraf Al Rayan added 0.3 percent. Barwa Real Estate rose 0.5 percent, accounting for a quarter of total shares traded. The above three stocks were top picks along with Qatar National Bank, that ended flat, the trader said.
Saudi Arabia's index bucked the regional upward trend and fell 0.2 percent. Large-cap stocks fell, ending a two-day winning streak. "There is pressure from global recovery on petrochemicals and banks are not really recovering," said a Riyadh-based fund manager on condition of anonymity. Saudi Basic Industries Corp slipped 0.2 percent, and Al-Rajhi Bank fell 0.7 percent. Kuwait's index climbed 0.2 percent to its highest close since June 2 but remained in a tight trading range. National Bank of Kuwait rose 1.7 percent and National Mobile Telecommunications Co gained 2.1 percent.