Wall Street surge buoys Gulf, Saudi banks strong

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf stock markets gained on Thursday as the sharp rebound on Wall Street overnight and Brent oil's recovery from below $50 a barrel lifted investor sentiment. Saudi Arabia's index rose 0.5 percent with Al Rajhi Bank adding 1.1 percent. Riyad Bank climbed for a fourth straight day, adding 1.3 percent. The stock has been buoyed by news of merger discussions with National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's biggest lender by assets, which edged down 0.3 percent.
Saudi British Bank increased 1.4 percent after its board proposed a higher dividend of 1.0 riyal per share for the second half of the year, after 0.96 riyal for the first half. Samba Financial Group gained 1.7 percent after proposing a dividend of 1.0 riyal for the same period. Saudi Cable Co, which jumped its 10 percent daily limit in the last session, added a further 3.4 percent in its heaviest trade for a month; on Wednesday, it said it reached a final settlement with creditors on 313.6 million riyals ($83.60 million) of loans.
Qatar's index rose 0.6 percent with six of seven banks gaining. Qatar Islamic Bank increased 1.6 percent and Doha Bank climbed 1.8 percent; it said on Wednesday it had raised a $525 million syndicated loan. United Development gained 3.0 percent in its heaviest trade since March 2017. On Wednesday, the firm said it finalised a sale agreement with an unnamed strategic Qatari investor for a plot at The Pearl Qatar project, for which it is master developer.
Rami Jamal, portfolio manager at Amwal in Doha, said the deal appeared to solidify investor confidence that the firm would keep an attractive dividend policy. Its dividend yield is 8.7 percent and price/book ratio under 0.5, Refinitiv data shows. The Dubai index was flat but some real estate shares gained, with Emaar Properties rising 2.1 percent and Emaar Development up 0.8 percent. Egypt's blue-chip index, which had snapped a three-day losing streak on Wednesday, rose 1.2 percent. El Sewedy Electric was the top gainer, jumping 5.6 percent, while tobacco firm Eastern Co increased 2.6 percent.