Gulf markets rally further on solid 3rd quarter results

23/10/2014 05:52 AST

Most stock markets in the Middle East continued to recover from last week’s sharp declines yesterday thanks to generally strong third-quarter earnings and a supportive global environment.

Equity markets in the US rose overnight, inspiring rallies in Asia and Europe as oil prices remained steady.

Dubai’s bourse rose 2.3%, largely on the back of lenders Emirates NBD (ENBD) and Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), both of which reported strong profit growth yesterday.

Shares in DIB, the United Arab Emirates’ largest Shariah-compliant lender, jumped 3.3% after it posted a 55.7% increase in third-quarter net profit. The bank made 676.8mn dirhams ($184.3mn) in the period while analysts polled by Reuters had forecast 659.5mn dirhams.

ENBD rose 2.2% after it beat analysts’ forecasts by a wide margin and reported a doubling of third-quarter net profit. The bank earned 1.56bn dirhams against a forecast of 1.16bn dirhams.

However, Dubai’s retail investors were net sellers during the day, according to bourse data, and the market’s main index closed at 4,546 points, below the 200-day average - an important technical level - of 4,581 points.

Abu Dhabi’s benchmark gained 0.6% and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, up 1.4%, was one of the main supports. The lender reported a 16.4% rise in third-quarter profit, in line with forecasts.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark rose 0.7% but some stocks began to pull back after strong gains in the last few sessions. The index had jumped 2.6% on Tuesday.

Shares in Alinma Bank fell 1.0% after it reported a 26% jump in quarterly profit, matching analyst forecasts. The stock had surged 19% earlier this week.

Meanwhile, shares in Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical Co rose their daily limit of 10% after the company reported a third-quarter profit of 294mn riyals ($78.4mn), up from 14mn riyals a year earlier.

The company said, however, that the decline of crude oil price had “burdened net profit with carried-forward inventory”, a factor which could affect profits in the current quarter.

Egypt’s bourse, which had tumbled 12% between October 8 and 20, continued a rebound ignited by a turnaround on global markets and the decision by Moody’s earlier this week to change its outlook on the country’s sovereign debt rating to stable from negative, because of improvements on both political and economic fronts.

Most stocks in Cairo rose and the benchmark climbed 2.1%.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait’s index edged up 0.3% to 7,379 points; Oman’s index added 1.7% to 7,033 points; Bahrain’s index edged down 0.6% to 1,435 points.

Gulf Times