Qatar's bourse led gains in the Gulf on Monday as it recovered from a sell-off sparked by the arrests and investigations at world soccer body FIFA last week, while most other markets edged up in low-volume trade. The Qatari benchmark rose 1.1 percent. Fears that Doha might potentially lose the rights to host the 2022 World Cup have abated this week after the country defended its winning bid and FIFA head Sepp Blatter secured re-election.
Most stocks in Doha rose although Qatar Insurance and Ezdan Holding fell 2.9 and 0.1 percent respectively, having surged last month on their inclusion in MSCI's benchmark. Other Gulf markets mostly consolidated with a positive bias. Brent oil fell as much as $1 to $64.56 per barrel during the day but pared some losses and climbed back above $65 shortly before Saudi Arabia's bourse closed, allowing Riyadh to eke out a 0.05 percent gain.
Oil shipper Bahri was one of the main supports, jumping 3.6 percent as the kingdom's Capital Market Authority approved its plans to issue sukuk, the value of which has yet to be decided. Bahri is expanding its fleet and is set to benefit from record high volumes of oil exports from the Gulf. Among other stocks, petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries edged up 0.5 percent and Al Rajhi Bank climbed 0.6 percent. Yamamah Cement Co fell 1.8 percent as its shares went ex-dividend.
Dubai's index edged up 0.5 percent as most shares climbed on low volumes. Heavyweight Emaar Properties was the most traded stock and inched up 0.1 percent after its Egyptian unit announced the details of its upcoming initial public offer. Engineering and construction firm Drake and Scull International rose 0.7 percent after its unit won contracts worth 350 million dirhams ($95.3 million) in Oman.
Abu Dhabi's bourse rose 0.7 percent as First Gulf Bank jumped 2.0 percent, recovering from last week's decline caused by funds shifting into stocks such as Emaar Malls that were newly included in MSCI's emerging markets index. Egypt's index failed to hold to early gains and edged down 0.4 percent as most stocks fell. The state General Organisation for Export and Import Control said late on Sunday that Egypt's non-petroleum exports had dropped 22.7 percent year-on-year in April and 21.0 percent in the first four months of 2015. However, El Sewedy Electric bucked the trend and rose 1.1 percent after announcing it had connected the newly built Attaqa power plant to the national grid ahead of schedule. The company was a contractor for the government in the project.