Tadawul index rises 0.7%; Al-Jazira Bank up 2%

03/12/2015 05:58 AST

Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index rose 0.7 percent on Wednesday. Al-Tayyar Travel Group soared 9.3 percent in its heaviest trade for six weeks on what traders said was a rumor that a Saudi investment company would buy a stake in the firm. An Al-Tayyar official was not available to comment.

Al-Jazira Bank climbed 2.0 percent in unusually heavy volume after it said it had signed a memorandum of understanding to sell land in Eastern Province, and expected a capital gain of SR209 million ($55.7 million) which it planned to book in the first quarter of 2016.

Oher Saudi banks and companies may also sell land in coming months after the Cabinet last month approved the imposition of a tax on undeveloped land, which could come into effect as soon as the end of next year.

Qatar’s stock index edged up 0.2 percent in thin trade; Qatar National Bank ended almost flat after dropping 2.4 percent at one stage, dragging the index down. The Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman markets were closed for National Day holidays. Egyptian stocks rose sharply on Wednesday after the central bank sought to reassure markets by providing hard currency to foreign investors.

The Egyptian index jumped 3.5 percent to 6,650 points, rising above its end-November high, which triggered a minor double bottom that confirmed it has established at least a short-term floor. As it closed, it was testing minor chart resistance on the late November peak of 6,642 points.

The central bank changed the way it allocated US dollars at a foreign exchange auction on Tuesday and repaid to foreign funds a backlog of over $500 million built up during a long-running dollar shortage — clearing the entire backlog.

This appeared to spur some selective buying by foreign investors. Commercial International Bank, one of their favorite stocks, surged 5.6 percent. Overall, however, non-Arab foreign investors remained net sellers of stocks by a large margin on Wednesday, exchange data showed. There was continued uncertainty over how foreign exchange policy will develop in the future — a devaluation may be inevitable at some stage — and how the central bank obtained the money to repay the foreign funds; it may simply have started running down its limited reserves faster.

“Foreign investors will be pleased by the clearing of the backlog,” said Simon Kitchen, head of regional strategies research at Cairo-based EFG Hermes. “But they will want clarity on the US dollar-Egyptian pound path before coming into the market.”

Global Telecom GTHE.CA surged its 10 percent limit to 1.87 Egyptian pounds in its heaviest trading in five weeks. In a brief statement, it said a newspaper, which it did not name, had published a story on rumors that European firm Vimpelcom had offered to buy out Global at a price of 2.30 pounds per share. Vimpelcom already owns about 52 percent of Global, according to the latest data.

“The company does not respond to rumors and confirms that the company does not have any material events unannounced,” Global said. Last Thursday, Vimpelcom said it and Global wouldd combine their business in Pakistan with Warid Telecom.

Qalaa Holdings climbed 6.8 percent after jumping 4.5 percent on Tuesday when it said its Gozour agrifoods unit had signed deals to sell assets in Sudan and Egypt for about $11 million, as Qalaa continued to sell non-core assets. Real estate developers were also big gainers, with Palm Hills Development up 7.0 percent.

Arab News