MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf markets steady in early trade, SABB Takaful slides
October 3, 2017--Stock markets in the Gulf were mostly steady on Tuesday, ignoring another drop in oil prices amid oversupply concerns.
Brent crude, the global benchmark, was down 26 cents, or 0.5 percent, at $55.86 a barrel after losing 1.2 percent in the last session.
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Egypt breaks winning streak, Gulf ignores oil slump
October 3, 2017--Egypt's stock market fell on Tuesday, ending a six-day winning streak that took the blue-chip index to an all-time high, while Gulf bourses traded narrowly but a couple of petrochemical shares boosted Saudi Arabia.
Saudi under performs region but car-related shares rise again
October 2, 2017--Most stock markets in the Middle East made small gains on Monday with Egypt hitting yet another all-time high, while the Saudi Arabian index edged down.
The Riyadh index lost 0.1 percent; the banking sector was soft with Banque Saudi Fransi dropping 1.3 percent.
Saudi market regulator loosens asset management rules
October 1, 2017-- Saudi Arabia's markets regulator loosened its rules for licensing asset management and other investment firms on Sunday, according to a presentation by senior officials at the Capital Market Authority (CMA).
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Saudi Arabia returns to Dollar-bond market
September 28, 2017--Saudi Arabia raised $12.5 billion from its second dollar bond sale this year as the kingdom bolsters its finances amid an economic overhaul.
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Egypt strong, Saudi bolstered by $12.5bln sovereign bond issue
September 28, 2017-- Egypt's stock index climbed on Thursday ahead of a central bank meeting on monetary policy later in the day, while the banking sector helped carry the Saudi index higher after news that the government had priced a $12.5 billion international bond issue.
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MIDEAST STOCKS-Banking shares support Saudi in early trade
September 28, 2017--Banking shares helped take the Saudi index slightly higher in early trade on Thursday after news that the government has priced a $12.5 billion international bond issue, while the rest of the region was mixed.
IMF-Egypt: The Economy Is Gathering Strength
September 26, 2017--The IMF on September 26 published the staff report for the first review of Egypt's economic reform program, which aims at restoring the economic stability of Egypt and paving the way for higher long-term growth.
The program is off to a good start, with the government carrying out bold but necessary reforms while protecting the poor. The IMF Executive Board approval of the government's program led to a disbursement of $1.25 billion of the $12 billion support under the IMF's Extended Fund Facility.
"The Egyptian authorities have embarked on an ambitious reform program and have taken decisive measures aimed at restoring macroeconomic stability and sustainable public finances. At the same time, by strengthening social protection measures, they have sought to protect the most vulnerable. We have seen that economic activity has been gathering strength and efforts at reining in the budget deficit have begun to bear fruit.
Oman, Egypt and Bahrain win in regional trading last week
September 25, 2017--Sideways trading was the main theme for most of the regional markets last week.
Five of the regional indices ended the week in the red, while three ended in black with modest gains.
On a weekly basis, Kuwait was on top of the losing team, with practically a -0.9 per cent down, followed by Dubai, which was down by -0.7 per cent and then Abu Dhabi, Saudi and Qatar, each down by -0.6 per cent. Oman, Egypt and Bahrain advanced week on week by nearly 2.0 per cent, 0.6 per cent and 0.3 per cent, respectively.
Saudi shares drop on fear of FTSE delay, Qatar rises again
September 25, 2017-- Saudi Arabia's stock index fell on Monday on rumours that index compiler FTSE might not upgrade Riyadh to emerging-market status as quickly as hoped, while Qatar notched up its fifth straight session of gains.
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