Gulf moves little, Egypt rises on presidential election date

Dubai : Gulf stock markets were mostly sluggish yesterday as Qatar slowed after surging for two days, but Egypt’s bourse rose after authorities announced a date for presidential elections.

The Qatari stock index closed 0.3 per cent higher, well off early lows, as trading volume shrank by nearly a third. The index had gained 2.6pc on Monday as investors positioned for annual dividend announcements in a few weeks.

Some of the best performers of the past two days pulled back, with Doha Bank losing 1.5pc.

But Aamal Co rose 2.4pc after announcing plans for an affiliate which it owns 50-50 with Egypt’s El Sewedy Electric Co to build three factories to produce copper wires, aluminium bars and drums for cables -- the country’s first such
factories.

In Saudi Arabia, the index fell 0.3pc as petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries dropped 0.5pc. But PetroRabigh gained a further 3.9pc in the wake of the opening of facilities in its Phase II petrochemical complex.

Dubai’s index rose 0.4pc as Air Arabia climbed 3.2 pc to its highest level since early February 2017, in its heaviest trade since mid-October. Dubai Islamic Bank rose 1.7pc to its highest since August 2015.

But builder Drake & Scull dropped a further 3.5pc on further profit-taking after big gains since
November.

After the close, Dubai Financial Market released a list of the first 19 stocks for which it will permit regulated short-selling. They include Air Arabia and Drake & Scull as well as blue chips such as Emaar Properties.

In Egypt, the index gained 1.4 percent to a record high in its heaviest trade since November after the presidential elections were scheduled for March 26-28.

Incumbent Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has yet to announce his candidacy but is widely expected to run and win, which could extend a period of relative political stability and provide more time for Egypt’s economic reforms to bear fruit.