Gulf stocks mixed; businesses slow down

06/06/2016 05:35 AST

Gulf stocks were mixed as trading slumped in advance of the holy month of Ramadan, when business across the region slows.

Dubai’s DFM General Index advanced 0.7 per cent at the close and Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index climbed 1 per cent. The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks 200 of the largest and most liquid stocks in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, slipped 0.3 per cent and Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index fell 1.2 per cent. The number of shares trading on Dubai’s index was 55 per cent below the 20-day average.

Emerging-market stocks last week climbed to a one-month high as expectations for a June interest-rate increase in the US receded and an inconclusive Opec meeting stoked a decline in oil prices.

Ramadan, which starts this week, typically heralds a slowdown in trading activity across the region as many Muslims fast all day and work reduced hours.

Investors are staying on the sidelines as the holy month begins, said Hisham Khairy, the Dubai-based head of institutional trade at Mena Corp Financial Services, one of the United Arab Emirates’ largest brokerages.

Even though Eshraq Properties Co.’s price was unchanged, 89 million shares changed hands, more than any other company across GCC stock indexes. It accounted for 75 per cent of volume on Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index, where investors traded only a third of the gauge’s 61 members.

Emirates NBD, the UAE’s largest bank by assets, increased 0.5 per cent. The lender is seeking to buy Barclays’s Egypt operation, according to people familiar with the plan.

One-year dirham forwards climbed 22.5 points last week to the highest level since March, signaling increased bets the UAE may devalue its currency against the dollar.

Governor Mubarak Rashed Al Mansoori on Sunday said the country remains committed to the peg said and the UAE will follow any increase in the US interest rate.

Kuwait’s SE Price Index and Bahrain’s BB All Share Index both slipped 0.1 per cent, Oman’s MSM 30 Index was little changed. Qatari stocks added 0.4 per cent with trading 26 per cent below the average.

In Saudi Arabia, Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical, an integrated refining company, declined 1.8 per cent. It awarded a 563 million-riyal ($150 million) clean fuel project to KT SpA.

Mobile Telecommunications, the company known as Zain Saudi, jumped 9.4 per cent, the most in more than two months. Zain said it refinanced a 2.25 billion riyal commercial loan.

In Cairo, Egypt’s EGX 30 Index retreated 0.7 per cent. Commercial International Bank Egypt, which makes up almost 40 per cent of the gauge, was the biggest contributor to the decline, losing 0.6 per cent.

The Gulf Today