Tadawul index gains 0.7%; Zain Saudi advances 2.9%

03/08/2016 05:22 AST

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All-Share Index gained 0.7 percent Monday with 70 percent of traded stocks advancing as investors bought shares following recent dips.

Zain Saudi advanced 2.9 percent on news that its competitors Saudi Telecom Co. (STC) and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) had signed a deal to jointly explore options for their network of transmitter towers.

The bourse statements from the top two operators did not mention Zain Saudi by name, but said they might involve “other licensed operators.”

STC dropped 2.4 percent while Mobily gained 0.6 percent. Gulf stock markets rose, supported by positive quarterly earnings from several major companies, while Egypt cooled for a second day as foreign traders exited positions. Dubai’s index added 0.9 percent as Emaar Properties climbed 1.9 percent to AED6.95 after reporting an 8 percent rise in second-quarter net profit to AED1.27 billion ($346 million). That was ahead of the AED1.06 billion forecast by SICO Bahrain and Thomson Reuters data shows the median target price of 11 analysts covering the stock is AED9.64.

Other property-related companies, which have not yet reported earnings, also fared well with builder Arabtec gaining 2.8 percent. But Dubai Investments fell 1 percent after the company reported a 2.3 percent fall in second-quarter net profit. Abu Dhabi’s index edged up 0.1 percent. Dana Gas, which has not yet reported quarterly earnings, gained 3.6 percent.

But food producer Agthia dropped 2.7 percent after reporting an 18 percent jump in second-quarter net profit compared to a year ago.

Kuwaiti telecommunication operator Zain climbed 1.5 percent after it reported late a 14 percent rise in second-quarter profit to 45 million dinars ($149.3 million), well ahead of analysts’ expectations.

EFG Hermes and SICO Bahrain had forecast 36.2 million dinars and 37.4 million dinars respectively. Kuwait’s main stock index rose 0.3 percent.

Egypt’s main index fell 0.7 percent as international funds sold shares, bourse data showed. The index is still up 5.2 percent since Wednesday after Cairo said it was in talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $21 billion loan program.

Juhayna Food Industries declined 7.6 percent after the country’s largest dairy product and juice maker posted net income of 30 million Egyptian pounds ($3.4 mln) in the second quarter, down from 65 million pounds a year ago.

“We expected increased costs to weigh on profits, with margins being sensitive to transactional and translational FX exposures; however, the impact was a bit greater than anticipated,” Naeem Brokerage said in a note.

Arab News