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Dubai World expects 'significant' recovery
February 19, 2011--Dubai World expects recovery in its critical businesses such as ports and free trade zones, a government statement said. "The board of directors voiced confidence in Dubai World's ability to achieve significant recovery in critical areas... including ports, dry docks and free zones... and has strong expectation of achieving profitability goals," the Dubai government said.
The board passed a 2011-12 budget for Dubai World and its subsidiaries that aims to "strengthen the overall financial performance and raise the efficiency of its units to achieve high profitability in the coming period", it said, without giving budget figures.
Saudi equity market most attractive in Gulf
January 19, 2011--Saudi Arabia’s equity market continued to attract the most attention among the Gulf’s markets, accounting for 46 percent of research notes and 39 percent of companies covered within the region.
Of the 243 research notes, "Buy" calls (48 percent of research notes) continued to dominate over "Hold" (41 percent) and "Sell" (11 percent), indicating a positive sentiment in GCC markets, Kuwait Financial Center (Markaz) latest statistics said.
The market capitalization of researched stocks in Saudi Arabia accounted for 83 percent of the total domestic market capitalization. Oman (79 percent), Qatar (66 percent), Kuwait (57 percent), the UAE (55 percent) and Bahrain (36 percent) followed in that order.
The UAE was the most preferred equity market in 4Q10 as reflected by the fact that 56 percent of the reports were assigned a "Buy" rating.
SABIC dips, discloses annual results
January 18, 2011--The Tadawul'a main index TASI declined 0.78% on Tuesday, closing at 6,715.64 points. Market bellwether and petrochemical giant SABIC finished off 1.34% at SR110.75. SABIC annonced that it net income for the quarter ended December 31, 2010 was SR 5.81 billion compared to the net income of SR4.58bn for the same quarter in 2009 representing an increase of 27%, and compared to the net income for the third quarter of 2010 of SR5.33bn representing an increase of 9%.
The net income for the twelve months period ended December 31, 2010 amounts to SR21.59bn compared to the net income of SR9.07bnfor the same period in 2009, an increase of 138%. Samba Financial Group ended down 1.24% at SR59.75. Earlier in the day, Credit Suisse analyst Mohamad Hawa commented on Samba's results from yesterday: "Samba reported weak Q4 results with net income of SR901m (down 18.3% q-o-q and up 7.9% y-o-y) below both our estimates and consensus estimates by 21.7% and 11.7% respectively. (...) While we expect the results to weigh on the share performance in the short term, we continue to believe that Samba is well positioned for growth once loan demand picks up, while current valuation of below 2x book 2011e remains quite reasonable." Ash-Sharqiyah Development Company was the main gainer of the day, closing 4.36% higher at SR40.70.
Nasdaq Dubai Proposes Rule Changes To Encourage Retail IPOs, Attract Small And Medium Enterprises And Family Companies
Janary 18, 2011--Nasdaq Dubai today announced proposals for wide-ranging changes to its listing rules, including steps to increase participation by individual investors in initial public offerings (IPOs).
All IPOs would be required to reserve at least 10% of the offer for individual investors, or else have a minimum of 400 institutional or individual security holders, under the proposals. The current rules contain no minimum requirements.
Kuwait Stock Exchange stabilises
January 18, 2011--The KSE Market or Price Index added 0.04% to close at 6,918. Gulf Investment House surged 8% to reach KD0.054. Fist Takaful Insurance Company was the main loser, finishing 11.11% lower at KD0.080. Global Investment House closed flat at KF0.058. Earlier in the day, Global commented on the KSE's market performance in 2010: "Volume of shares traded on the exchange decreased by 29.81 percent to 74.69bn shares.
In line, the value of shares traded decreased 41.71 percent to stand at KD12.53bn ($44.43bn)." Global added, that "the Investment sector led the market in terms of volume accounting for 28.95% of total shares traded while the Services sector was most active in terms of value traded accounting for 30.34% of the aggregate."
Dubai bourse gains 0.56%, reaching 1,608.97
January 17, 2011--Arabtec was the most actively traded share in relation to value, closing 1.09% higher at Dhs1.85. Earlier in the day, Arabtec said in a statement to the DFM it has received a letter of award from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) to build an underground car park at ADNOC's headquarter.
The project is worth Dhs219m. Arabtec's Egypt subsidiary was also granted a luxury villa project worth Dhs137m by Emaar Misr. Most construction firms and real estate developers gained, while Union Properties declined 1.07% to end at Dhs0.371. Nine stocks gained, 12 declined and three closed flat. Traded volumes and values weakened 46% to 42.8m shares worth Dhs69.79m changed hands.
TAQA shares gain on Caribbean exit
January 17, 2011-Abu Dhabi's ADX General Index weakened 0.85% to end at 2,690.07 points. Abu Dhabi National Energy Co., better known as TAQA, added 0.68% to reach Dhs1.49. Earlier in the day, TAQA said it has sold its stake in Marubeni TAQA Caribbean Ltd., a move which terminates TAQA's purchase of 50% of Marubeni's assets going back to March 2009.
TAQA added it aims to focus on it water and power business in the MENA region. Construction and real estate shares weighed on the market. Aldar Properties lost further, finishing off 3.79% to close at Dhs2.06. Sorouh Real Estate bucked the trend and ended unchanged at Dhs1.53. Nine shares advanced, 8 closed flat and 13 lost value.
Insurance operators drag Qatar market down
January 17, 2011--Shares at the Qatar bourse QE lost across the board, dragging the QE Index down by 0.85% to 9,163.84. Qatar Insurance weakened 1.83%, closing at QR91.30.
Islamic Insurance finished off 0.40% to close at QR49.50. Mannai Corporation, a mixed industrial group, posted the largest advance, closing 7.62% higher at QR139.90.
Tadawul bourse loses 0.30%
January 17, 2011--The Saudi Stock Exchange closed off 0.30% at 6,768.24 points on Monday as financials and transport firms posted losses. The Kingdom Holding Company closed unchanged at SR9.25. Earlier in the day, the holding, owned by HH Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, announced that interim net income for the last twelve month period amounts to SR605.2m compared to the net income of SR402.6m for the same period in 2009, which represents an increase of 50.3%.
"The reason for the change in net income is due to an increase in income from investment, the improvement of hotel operations, and operations in associates, despite the decrease in dividends from the Companys investments in the international markets", Kingdom Holding said in a statement to the Tadawul market. Petrochemical bellwether SABIC extended its rally, gaining 1.35% to reach SR112.25. Twenty-eight shares gained, 101 stocks decreased in value and 16 closed flat.
Gulf sukuk issuance bounces back 61% following recessionary crisis
January 17, 2011-- The value of Islamic bonds (sukuk) issued in the Gulf[2] has jumped 61% in the past year having slumped to the lowest level in four years as a result of a number of factors,
including the global financial crisis, according to research by Trowers & Hamlins, the international law firm.
