Qatar recovers; Emaar, DSI buoy Dubai

Dubai : Qatar’s stock market rebounded yesterday from sharp falls last week after the finance minister said the economy was essentially operating as normal despite the region’s diplomatic crisis, while property-related shares buoyed the United Arab Emirates.

The Qatari stock index rose 0.8 per cent after it fell 1.9pc on Sunday; it is still down 8pc since last Monday, when Saudi Arabia and three other Arab states cut diplomatic and trade ties with Doha.

Foreign funds remained net sellers of Qatari shares yesterday but the pace of their selling slowed, bourse data showed, suggesting some funds were willing to accept higher political risk now that valuations were lower.

Non-Qatari Gulf funds have also slowed their pace of selling; yesterday they made up roughly 5pc of total market turnover, in line with pre-crisis levels, bourse data showed.

Dubai’s Drake & Scull climbed 2.4pc; it has now risen 8.0pc in unusually large volumes since Thursday. 

A 3.0pc gain in shares of the largest listed real estate developer, Emaar Properties, to 7.83 dirhams also helped to carry Dubai’s index 1.2pc higher.

The stock has been strong since last week when Emaar said it planned to distribute funds from a listing of its local real estate developer to shareholders. A second straight close above technical resistance at its December peak of 7.79 dirhams would confirm a break and target resistance at the April 2015 high of 8.39 dirhams.

In Abu Dhabi, its largest listed developer Aldar Properties was also strong, gaining 4.4pc to its highest closing price since late March.

Dana Gas finished flat; the gas explorer has soared 48pc this month on news that it received a portion of its overdue payments from Egypt and on hopes for its legal efforts to recover money from Iraqi Kurdistan. The Abu Dhabi index added 0.3pc.

In Saudi Arabia, the index rose 0.2pc as Brent oil prices recovered some of last week’s heavy losses; eight of 14 listed petrochemical makers rose with Saudi Basic Industries up 0.5pc.

Most blue-chip banks rose; National Commercial Bank added 1.2pc.

Egypt’s index fell 0.9pc on profit-taking with the three shares that are members of the MSCI emerging market index dropping.

Commercial International Bank fell 1.6pc, investment bank EFG Hermes lost 2.0pc and Global Telecom declined 1.4pc.