Qatar and Oman buck regional trend

Qatar’s bourse gained sharply and recovered some of its losses from the past two sessions, while the Oman index registered its best day in nearly two months as telecom and bank stocks gained. Other Gulf markets were mixed.

Qatar’s main index booked a 1.1 per cent rise and snapped two sessions of losses, buoyed by a 3.1 per cent rise in Qatar National Bank and a 4.5 per cent rise in Qatar Fuel.

The main Saudi index moved 0.6 per cent lower, dragged down by industry heavyweights Al Rajhi Banking & Investment and Saudi Basic Industries, which both fell nearly 1 per cent.

Saudi Cable slid 5.7 per cent after third-quarter sales plummeted 43.1 per cent, while Arabian Pipes dropped 2.6 per cent after posting a loss for the same period.

Saudi Fisheries outperformed the market, surging 10 per cent.

“We are not seeing liquidity move into the local markets yet despite the good [earnings],” said Marie Salem, director of capital markets at FFA Private Bank in Dubai.

“Investors are still not too comfortable investing in the region in general and in the local markets in particular.”

The Oman blue-chip bourse rose 1 per cent, marking its biggest one-day gain since September 12, supported by a 5 per cent jump in Oman Telecommunications.

Abu Dhabi’s index edged 0.3 per cent higher, recovering from early losses, as Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank gained 1.2 per cent and heavyweight Emirates Telecommunications edged 0.4 per cent higher.

Abu Dhabi National Energy (Taqa) reversed course to fall 0.9 per cent despite recovering from a year-earlier loss to post a third-quarter profit as higher oil prices boosted its revenue.

The Egyptian blue-chip index rose 0.9 per cent, boosted by a 2 per cent gain in Commercial International Bank after it reported a 53 per cent jump in its net interest income for the third quarter.

The Dubai index edged down 0.1 per cent, weighed on by a 2.2 per cent fall in the region’s biggest lender Emirates NBD.

Emirates NBD has applied to Turkey’s competition authority to take over Turkish lender Denizbank, a posting on the competition authority’s website showed on Thursday.

Outperforming the index, Damac Properties climbed 3.9 per cent higher.