Petrochemical shares supported Saudi Arabia's stock index on Thursday, benefiting from a bounce-back in crude oil prices, while Qatar underperformed as investors sold shares which had risen over the past month. Trade in some markets was thinned by the fact that Middle Eastern bourses will close for Eidul-Azha holidays during all or much of next week, raising risks for investors maintaining large positions.
Riyadh's index gained 0.6 percent in the lowest daily volume recorded this year with gainers outnumbering losers 114 to 33. The biggest stock, Saudi Basic Industries, rose 0.6 percent and peer Yanbu National Petrochemicals (Yansab) added 1.3 percent. "Investors are taking note of the slight improvement in oil prices and the fact that Chinese trade data is improving, since many petrochemical firms sell their products there," said Jassim al-Jubran, equity analyst at Saudi Arabia's Aljazira Capital.
But some domestically focused shares also gained with Saudi Telecom (STC) advancing 0.4 percent to 57.75 riyals. Analysts at Riyadh-based NCB Capital said they remained overweight on STC with a price target of 68.90 riyals, citing the defensive nature of the telecommunications sector, STC's strong balance sheet and sustainable dividends.
Meanwhile Dubai's index rebounded from an early drop to close up 0.04 percent in this week's lowest volume. Shuaa Capital jumped 5.7 percent, taking its gains over the last week to 25.8 percent. A week ago it began offering market-making facilities for the newly launched single-stock futures contracts on Nasdaq Dubai.
Emaar Properties, the largest listed real estate developer, rose 0.6 percent. Abu Dhabi's index also recovered from morning weakness to add 0.2 percent. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank gained 1.1 percent and Etisalat rose 0.8 percent. Doha's main index dropped 1.0 percent as some shares continued to lag after outperforming last month in anticipation of their inclusion in index compiler FTSE's secondary emerging market index on September 20.
Belwether Qatar National Bank lost 1.2 percent to 155.10 riyals after hitting a high of 169.80 riyals last month. In Cairo, the main index rose 0.5 percent with a little over half of traded shares gaining. Property developer Amer Holding Group climbed 3.5 percent.
The finance minister said in comments published by the Al Borsa newspaper that Cairo was in advanced talks with Saudi Arabia to secure a new deposit worth $2-3 billion, as part of about $6 billion in bilateral financing required to obtain a $12 billion International Monetary Fund loan. Many foreign investors are not willing to take long positions in the market until there is more concrete evidence that the government is fully able and committed to deliver on the IMF's loan conditions.
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