Abu Dhabi leads Middle East stock markets

05/04/2017 06:20 AST

Stock markets in the Middle East rose on Tuesday with Abu Dhabi gaining the most, buoyed by heavy trade in the shares of a newly merged bank while buying from foreign funds boosted Egypt.

Shares of recently merged First Abu Dhabi Bank jumped 4.8 per cent in very heavy trade, helping lift Abu Dhabi’s index 1.8 per cent.

Shares of Abu Dhabi National Energy, however, retreated 5.3 per cent as investors booked profits after they had soared 24 per cent since Sunday.

On Tuesday, Taqa said government-run utility company Abu Dhabi Water & Electricity Authority (Adwea) has raised its stake in the energy company to 74 per cent from 52.38 per cent.

Dubai’s index extended on the 1.4 per cent gains made on Monday to add 0.6 per cent supported by gains in large and mid-sized shares.

Builder of the tallest tower in the world, Emaar Properties added 1.2 per cent and Dubai Islamic Bank rose 1.8 per cent.

In Qatar, the index rose 0.5 per cent, recovering from some of the small losses made earlier in the day.

Shares of Islamic lender Masraf Al Rayan jumped 3.2 per cent; on Monday they fell 3.0 per cent as its shares went ex-dividend. But shares of Qatar International Islamic Bank dropped 4.5 per cent as they went ex-dividend on Tuesday.

Egypt’s index added a further 1.6 per cent to 13,265 points with a little over two-thirds of the shares closing higher.

“Some positive momentum is building in the market again mainly because of inflow from foreign funds, and the market may test technical resistance at the January peak of 13,544 points,” said a Cairo based technical trader. Exchange data showed foreign funds were net buyers on Tuesday by a wide margin.

Stocks, favoured by those international funds, outperformed with Commercial International Bank adding 2.7 per cent. Palm Hills Development rose 1.3 per cent.

Analysts at Prime Holding have increased their valuation of the company by 14 per cent mainly because of an appreciation in price of the company’s inventory and expected new unit launches.

The analysts also said they were positive on the short term cash flow of the company although they are cautious on the demand outlook, especially on the premium real estate market.

The Gulf Today