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DP World finishes week on a high note
July 18, 2013--The FTSE NASDAQ Dubai UAE 20 Index closed 0.53% higher at 2,817.16 points on Thursday.
Dubai Ports (DP) World, the number three among global maritime port firms, added 0.31% to close at $16.30.
CBQ rises as lender seals majority purchase of Alternatifbank
July 18, 2013--The Qatar Exchange 20 Index added 0.81% to reach 9,549.87 points.
Commercial Bank of Qatar, the country's second lender finished Thursday trading 1% higher at QR72.10. Earlier in the day, CBQ said it completed its acquisition of a 70.84% shareholding in Alternatifbank A.S. ("ABank") in Turkey from Anadolu Endustri Holding A.S. ("Anadolu"). CBQ said it will launch a mandatory tender offer to acquire the 4.16% of ABank’s shares that remain in the public domain. Details of the tender offer will be announced in due course. "The transaction is based on two times book value at 30 June 2013, and expands CBQ’s international footprint to four regional markets. Anadolu will retain a 25% stake in ABank, in addition to board representation."
Trimmed H1 profit drags Sharjah Islamic Bank down
July 18, 2013--The Abu Dhabi market index ADX advanced 0.60% to reach 3,822.21 points on Thursday.
This was the index's 10th (!) rise in a row. RAK Bank gained the most (up 4.55% at Dhs6.90). Its rival Sharjah Islamic Bank, known as SIB, dived 2.60% to Dhs1.50. Earlier in the day, SIB said the net profit for the first six months amounted to Dhs134.7m, down from Dhs149.2m in the same period last year. Net operating income fell 9.3% to Dhs219.9m
Dubai market freezes week's advance
July 18, 2013--The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index closed unchanged at 2,495.89 points on Thursday.
The gauge rose 4.34% over the week. Dubai Investments gained 2.86% today, closing at Dhs1.80. Dubai Investments has said it is reviving a sale of Islamic debt after an emerging-market rout forced it to delay the offer, Bloomberg has reported. On July 8, Standard & Poor's gave Dubai Investments Park Development a 'BB' rating, two levels below investment grade. "We were supposed to issue in May or June, but the cost of funding rose," said the firm's CEO, Khalid bin Kalban. "Now we'll come back to the market with a rating and a planned listing, and hopefully get a better profit rate." The wholly owned subsidiary plans to issue around $300m of five-year sukuk to help refinance debt and invest in an industrial park, Kalban said. "With the rating, we hope we can get the profit rate below 5%," he said. "There's still an appetite in the market for sukuk, so we are confident." Emaar slipped 0.34% to Dhs5.85. Some 437m shares were traded, valued at Dhs543m.
Edible Oil sweetens Savola Group's half-year result
July 17, 2013--The Saudi Aarabian equity measure Tadawul All-Share Index slipped 0.05% to 7,699.25 points on Wednesday.
Food and beverages giant Savola Group gained half a percentage point, finishing at SR52.75. Earlier in the day, Savola said the net profit for the first six months amounted to SR683m, an increase of 17.03% over the same period in 2012. Savola said the surge was triggered by a sustained growth in the Edible Oil segment, continued sales growth and increased market share in its retail sector.
Qatari bank shares get a boost from Cairo market comeback
July 17, 2013--The QE 20 Index added 0.38%, finishing at 9,473.57 points on Wednesday.
Qatar National Bank (QNB), Commercial Bank of Qatar and Al Khalij Commercial Bank gained 1.75%, 0.28% and 0.30%, respectively. The sentiment on financials was boosted by the Egyptian Stock Exchange which hit a 1-month high after interim president Adly Mansour presented his new cabinet yesterday. Most appointed ministers are non-ideologists and technocrats. QNB bought a controlling stake of 77 in SocGen's Egypt business for $1.97bn. The deal was announced in Dec. 2012 and closed in March this year.
Dana Gas buoyant as Egypt outlook blooms
July 17, 2013--The ADX General Index hit 3,800.28 points (up 0.34%) Wednesday, the highest level since Oct. 1 2008.
Dana Gas rebounded by 1.70% to reach Dhs0.60. Earlier in the day, Dana said peak production of natural gas in Egypt Peak reached 39,000 barrels of oil per day, an increase of 13% over 2012. In addition, Dana Gas said the total financial support of $12bn for Egypt pledged by KSA, the UAE and Kuwait would improve the business outlook for its operations in the Nile Delta. On Oct. 31, the Sharjah-based regional energy firm missed to pay off a $1bn Islamic bond upon maturity (a first for the UAE) mainly due to delayed payments by its Egyptian clients (the sukuk was in May this year sucessfully restructured). United Arab Bank (UAB) advanced 6.72% to reach Dhs5.40. UAB said it earned in H1 a net income of Dhs260m, up 35% year-on-year.
Dubai bourse rallies ahead of Bernanke speech, Air Arabia flies up & away
July 17, 2013--The DFM General Index extended the Ramadan rally on Wednesday by closing 2% higher at 2,495.46 as trading turnover hit a multi-week high.
U. S. federal reserve chief Ben Bernanke will deliver later in the day his widely expected testimony on the U. S economy to the congress. Earlier in the week, BNY Mellon said in its weekly preview "in view of the protracted and universal influence of burgeoning USD based liquidity on markets globally, each and every sentence employed by Mr Bernanke to outline plans for its withdrawal is subject to logomachy and hence constitutes a potential catalyst for the sort of volatility that we witnessed (last) mid-week." At the DFM, shares of low cost carrier Air Arabia gained the most, ending up 8.26% at Dhs1.31, the highest level since Oct. 26 2008. Emaar edged up 1.21% to reach Dhs5.87. Some 709m shares were traded, valued at Dhs928.5m.
Al Salam Bank Bahrain back to profits, shares dip on exhausted rally
July 16, 2013--The Bahrain All-Share Index ended Tuesday trading insignificantly higher at 1,187.47 points.
Al Salam Bank Bahrain fell 1.92% to BD0.102. Al Salam reported a half-year net profit of BD6.02m, up from a loss of BD812k in the same period last year. The Islamic banks' shares rose 2.5-fold in the last 12 months.
Investors do not mind Bank Muscat's H1 profit dip
July 15, 2013-The Omani stock market index MSM-30 advanced 0.72% to reach 6,564.25 points on Monday.
The country's largest lender Bank Muscat added 1.18%, closing at OR0.598. Earlier in the day, Bank Muscat said posted a net profit of OR63.1m for the six months, down from OR68.4m for the corresponding period in 2012. "An exceptional operating loss provision of OR15m relating to the Prepaid Travel Card fraud incident (as disclosed to the market on February 25, 2013 and February 26, 2013) was considered in Q1 2013 in accordance with the IFRS." The lender added it was working on "various channels" to recover the loss arising from this exposure. Bank Muscat said further that net interest income and income from Islamic financing in the first six months was OE114, up from OR108.9m.
