Poor earnings results from Saudi lenders weigh on Abu Dhabi bourse

18/10/2016 05:16 AST

Shares in Abu Dhabi fell sharply on fears that poor banking results in Saudi Arabia would be replicated by the emirate’s large financial institutions.

The capital’s bellwether stock FGB sank by 4.9 per cent to Dh10.60, its lowest close in almost nine months. ­National Bank of Umm Al Qaiwain fell by 8 per cent, to Dh2.05.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index ended down 2.2 per cent at 4,220.44, its lowest close since May 23.

The sell-off is expected to be short-lived, with UAE banking results outperforming their Saudi counterparts.

"There was a bit of an overreaction today on banking stocks in particular after the bad results in Saudi Arabia," said Sanyalak Manibhandu, a research manager at NBAD Securities. "Emirates NBD’s results were lower than estimated and UNB’s results came in ahead of our expectations, so probably we’ll see some calm return tomorrow."

In Saudi Arabia, the Tadawul fell by 1.2 per cent, dragged lower by disappointing third-quarter results from Alinma Bank and Najran Cement.

Shares in Dubai fell for the fourth consecutive day, ending down 0.89 per cent at 3,272.37, with trading volumes remaining low.

Emaar Properties shares bore the brunt of the sell-off, closing down 2.4 per cent at Dh6.44, the stock’s lowest close in more than three months. Tabreed was the pick of a handful of gainers in Dubai. The company said that it had surpassed 1 million tonnes of cooling capacity after commencing supply to Dubai Parks and Resorts.

In Doha, the Qatar Exchange ended the day up 0.5 per cent.

The National