Gulf bourses ignore oil slump; Egypt breaks winning streak

Egypt's stock market fell on Tuesday, ending a six-day winning streak that took the blue-chip index to an all-time high, while Gulf bourses traded narrowly but a couple of petrochemical shares boosted Saudi Arabia. The Egyptian index dropped 0.5 percent to 13,931 points. A purchasing managers' survey published on Tuesday showed non-oil private sector activity fell at its sharpest pace for three months in September, but analysts attributed the index's pull-back mostly to natural profit-taking.
"After hitting 14,100 points on Monday, it is normal to see such an adjustment on Tuesday - the market remains on a positive trend," said Ibrahim Nimr, head of technical analysis at Naeem brokerage in Cairo. Investment bank EFG Hermes fell 5.0 percent, losing 7.3 percent in the past two days. Alexandria Flour Mills jumped 10 percent as the company announced changes to its board. Gulf stock markets ignored a further pull-back of oil prices overnight and the Riyadh index rose 0.3 percent.
Advanced Petrochemical Co gained 1.4 percent after posting a 10 percent year-on-year rise in third-quarter net profit to 208 million riyals ($55.5 million). Another petrochemical maker, PetroRabigh, gained 2.2 percent. Sharia-compliant insurer SABB Takaful dropped 3.6 percent after the financial regulator temporarily stopped the company from issuing or renewing insurance or savings products, citing unspecified weaknesses in its internal controls.
Banking shares dragged Qatar's index 0.2 percent lower; Qatar First Bank, Qatar National Bank and Masraf Al Rayan were all weak with the latter down 1.3 percent. A number of banks in the United Arab Emirates are in talks with international counterparts to sell down their Qatari bank loan exposure as the Gulf's diplomatic crisis drags on without resolution, banking sources told Reuters.
In Kuwait, the main index finished 0.2 lower but the blue chip index rose 0.4 percent as blue chips continued to see buying after last week's news that index compiler FTSE was upgrading Kuwait to secondary emerging market status.
The Dubai index rose 0.3 percent as Emaar Properties gained 0.5 percent. Reuters quoted sources as saying its local real estate development business, which is preparing for an initial public offer of shares, was expected to be valued at 24 billion dirhams ($6.5 billion).
In Abu Dhabi, the index added 0.3 percent as shares of most of the biggest companies rose; First Abu Dhabi Bank gained 0.5 percent while Aldar Properties climbed 0.9 percent.