Bargain-hunters lift some Saudi blue chips, but troubled Mobily tumbles again; Dubai’s Arabtec regains some ground; poor Q2 earnings weigh on Abu Dhabi; Egypt’s bourse bounces from technical support
Reuters
Dubai
Most Middle East stock markets fell yesterday as oil prices remained weak, but some shares in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt rebounded after particularly steep drops in the previous session.
Saudi Arabia’s main index edged down 0.3% to 8,437 points but closed well off its intra-day low of 8,381 points.
Oil shipper Bahri was one of main supports, jumping 2.5%. The stock had tumbled 8.3% in the previous session after tanker freight rates from the Gulf to Japan dropped to their lowest in more than 10 months.
Some beaten-down blue chips also attracted bargain-hunters after Sunday’s sell-off. Al Rajhi Bank added 0.8% and Saudi Basic Industries edged up 0.3%.
But most shares fell and telecommunications firm Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) was the main drag on the index, tumbling 6.1% to a fresh 6-1/2-year low of 26.20 riyals.
Early this month the firm posted a second-quarter loss after announcing yet another negative earnings restatement; in total it has slashed its profits by 3.63bn riyals ($967.8mn) for the 27 months to March 31, 2015, citing accounting errors related to the booking of revenue from wholesale broadband leases and mobile promotional campaigns.
Dubai’s index closed 0.1% lower at 3,927 after hitting an intra-day low of 3,911 points, close to chart support at its May low of 3,913 points. Builder Arabtec rose 2.4% after tumbling 5.4% in the previous session on poor second-quarter results. The firm posted its third quarterly loss in a row, while analysts had expected a profit.
Abu Dhabi’s bourse fell 0.9% and Abu Dhabi National Insurance Co tumbled 9.4%, having reported a 299mn dirham ($81.4mn) loss for the first half of 2015 at the end of last week, compared with a profit of 104mn dirhams a year earlier.
Eshraq Properties, which on Sunday posted a 92% drop in second-quarter profit, lost 1.4%.
Qatar’s market slipped 0.9% and Industries Qatar, whose petrochemicals business is suffering from the oil price plunge, was one of the main drags, sliding 1.2%.
But Commercial Bank of Qatar edged up 0.2%, extending gains since index compiler MSCI announced late last week that it would nearly double the stock’s weighting in its emerging markets index.
Egypt’s bourse closed 0.4% lower at 7,594 points, trimming losses after it rebounded from technical support near its July low of 7,527 points.
Juhayna Food Industries, which had tumbled 7.5% on Sunday, rose 1.4%. The stock had come under pressure after state media said the bourse was poised to freeze trading of chairman Safwan Thabet’s shares in the company because of his alleged links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood.
Property developer Medinet Nasr also rebounded, gaining 1.6% after the market had initially ignored its second-quarter profit increase in Sunday’s broad sell-off.
Elsewhere in the Gulf; Kuwait’s index fell 1.1% to 6,196 points; Oman’s index lost 1.2% to 6,220 points, while Bahrain’s index was flat at 1,332 points.
Mobily was the main drag on the Saudi index, tumbling 6.1% to a fresh 6-1/2-year low of 26.20 riyals
