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Tadawul market, Mobily bounce back
November 26, 2012--The Riyadh-based Tadawul All-Share Index gained 0.35% to reach 6,547.19 points.
Etihad Etisalat or Mobily, the kingdom's second telecom company recovered by 0.35%. On Sunday, the share dived over 2% after the Saudi telco regulator urged Mobily to implement required sales procedures for SIM Cards and suspended the sales of the latter until further notice.
Egypt's Q1 economic growth dropped 21%
November 25, 2012--Egyptian minister of planning and international cooperation, Ashraf El-Arabi has said the country's economic growth rate shrunk by 21% in the first quarter of the current fiscal year which started July 2012, Ahram has reported.
Growth in the quarter was 2.6%, compared with 3.3% in the previous quarter, he said. The minister said Egypt's economy is expected to grow 3.5% in the current fiscal year, which will end on 30 June 2013, a figure previously announced in the government's plan announced two weeks ago.
Bahrain Bourse investors halt four-day losing streak
November 25, 2012--The Manama-based Bahrain All-Share Index added a quarter percentage point Sunday to close at 1,040.93 points amid lackluster trading.
Islamic bank Ithmaar surged 6.90% to reach $0.155. Bahrain Telecom, knwon and branded as Batelco, closed unchanged at BD0.400.
UAE, Bahrain top the list of economically free Arab states
November 23, 2012--According to a report by the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Liberty (FNF), the International Research Foundation (IRF) of Oman and the Fraser Institute, Bahrain and the UAE have the highest levels of economic freedom among Arab nations, Kuna has reported.
The UAE scored 8.1 out of 10, tying with Bahrain after ranking second overall in 2011 with a score of 7.9. Jordan moved into the third spot from eighth overall, improving its score to 7.9 from 7.4 last year, the ‘Economic Freedom of the Arab World’ report showed.
Qatar rated 'AA' by S&P
November 23, 2012--Qatar's sovereign credit ratings have been rated by Standard & Poor's (S&P) at 'AA/Stable/A-1+,' the Peninsula has reported.
The agency said the ratings reflect its view of is high levels of economic wealth and strong fiscal and external balance sheets with modest levels of debt and large external liquidity. “We believe the ratings are constrained, along with those of the peer group,” it said.
Industries Qatar gains as QAPCO opens new polyethylene plant
November 22, 2012, 2012--The QE Index gained insignificantly Thursday and closed a tricky week at 8,409.85 points.
Market bellwether share Industries Qatar (IQ) edged up by 0.30% to close at QR150.50. Deutsche Bank markets research has set a buy rating for the company and has set IQ's price target at QR164. Earlier in the day, Qatar Petrochemical Company (QAPCO), which is owned 80% by IQ, said Qatar's ruling Emir H. H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani inaugurated QAPCO's third low-density polyethylene plant. The QR2.3bn will produce 300,000 metric tons of LDPE a year. The plant will be able to produce 300,000 metric tons of LDPE per year which will push up QAPCO’s annual production of LDPE to 700,000 metric tons per annum.
Kuwait bourse rises to one-month high
November 22, 2012--The KSE Market Index gained the fourt day straight Thursday, closing up 0.35% to hit 5,888.30 points as banks and telecoms mostly advanced.
Shares of Burgan Bank rose 1.92% to reach KD00.530. Islamic bank Boubyan closed unchanged at KD0.630. On Wednesday, Boubyan Chairman and Managing Director Adel Abdul Wahab al-Majed told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit that credit volumes at Islamic banks in Kuwait reached KD11.1bn ($39.3bn) in the first nine months of 2012, up 13.2 percent on last year, Arab Times reported.
Dana Gas again in focus at Abu Dhabi market
November 22, 2012--The Abu Dhabi market ADX ended flat at 2,660 Thursday, after the gauge lost 1.1% over the week amid nervous hands due to the war in Palestine which ended Wednesday night with a ceasfire brokered by Egypt and the U. S. Shares of Dana Gas closed likewise unchanged at Dhs0.39.
Earlier in the day, the Sharjah-based energt firm said it signed a set of agreements with the Sharjah and Ajman Governments to jointly develop the shared field located around 40km off the two coasts. In addition, Bloomberg reported Dana Gas plans to pay sukuk-holders $100m as part of its restructuring of $920m worth of debt the firm owes to investors after failing to settle a $920m sukuk which matured on October 31. The news agency cited "a person familiar with the deal". Developers and merger candidates Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate fell again in lockstep, finishing off 0.80% at Dhs1.25 and Dhs1.23, respectively.
Arabtec puts cards on Depa stake purchase on the table
November 22, 2012--The Dubai Financial Market General Index ended a sluggish trading week 0.21% lower at 1,596.54 points.
Shares of the UAE's largest real estate builder firm Arabtec Construction fell 2.14% to Dhs2.29. Earlier in the day, NASDAQ Dubai-listed interior design firm Depa Limited said that Arabtec Holding bought 149,555,275 ordinary shares in the company from a range of investment funds at a price of $0.44 per share, representing approximately 24% of Depa’s total issued share capital. Shares of Depa, which jumped 47% Wednesday, fell back to $0.32, down 14.77% today. Depa, which was responsible for the inner outfit of the seven-star hotel Burj Al-Arab and the world's tallest tower Burj Khalifa (828m), lost last July a contract to shape the interior design of the New Doha International Airport. The contract was cancelled by the Qatari party and was worth $250m. In the first six months 2012, Depa reported a net loss of Dhs110m, down from a profit of Dhs48m in the same period in 2011.
Kuwait market remaines buoyant on oil
November 21, 2012--The Kuwait Stock Exchange gained value for the third consecutive day, closing one percent higher at 5,867.51 as National Bank of Kuwait (up 1.04% at KD0.970) and Islamic bank Kuwait Finance House (3.8% higher at KD0.810) helped to lift the market.
As oil prices (DME Oman Crude) continued trading at a three-week high, the KSE received addtional tailwinds for its buoyant momentum. Earlier in the day, Mark McFarland, Chief Investment Strategist at Emirates NBD's private banking division said the bank's models still indicate a preference of emerging markets equities over developed market equities. "PMI data in China, Russia, Turkey and the Middle East is improving, not deteriorating" said McFarland. [AMEInfo.com]
