UAE markets surge, S.Arabia leading gainer

26/12/2016 05:53 AST

Dubai’s index edged up 0.2 per cent in a broad-based rise. Abu Dhabi inched up 0.1 per cent as Etisalat rose 0.6 per cent. Qatar’s index fell 0.3 per cent. Egypt’s index dropped 1.4 per cent as Orascom Telecom, the most heavily traded stock, pulled back 4.6 per cent. But Arabia Cotton Ginning climbed 5.9 per cent after its board approved splitting the company into two separate entities.

Saudi Arabia’s stock market rose sharply on Sunday in response to the release of the 2017 state budget, which includes an increase in government spending, while other major Gulf bourses were sluggish and Egypt retreated on profit-taking.

The Saudi stock index added 1.5 per cent to 7,191 points, nearing technical resistance on this year’s peak of 7,235 points, hit earlier this month.

Trading volume rose to its highest in over a week.

Balancing act

Financial analysts generally welcomed the budget as balancing the need to continue cutting Saudi Arabia’s fiscal deficit with support for economic growth. But many said it would not avert a further slowdown next year from the 1.4 per cent gross domestic product growth in 2016.

“We expect that the economy will continue to decelerate in 2017, dragged down by slower growth in the oil sector, while non-oil sector growth is expected to rebound but remain subdued,” Jadwa Investment said in a post-budget report.

National Commercial Bank predicted the economy would contract by 1.0 per cent in 2017 as Saudi Arabia cut oil output in line with an OPEC agreement, and that the non-oil sector would expand only 1.2 per cent.

Nevertheless, utility Saudi Electricity jumped 8.7 per cent after the government said in the budget it would raise domestic fuel and electricity prices by unspecified margins later this year.

The petrochemical sector was strong, rising 2.2 per cent, after the government said it would not raise gas feedstock prices before 2019. A feedstock price hike in the 2016 budget squeezed some petrochemical producers’ margins.

The Gulf Today