Property shares put Dubai into reverse

The Dubai stock market reversed course to slide yesterday as its property shares fell, while Egypt’s blue-chip index gained for a fifth straight session, aided by its industrial stocks.

Dubai’s index fell 0.2 per cent at 2,529 points after rising for three straight sessions. Dubai’s largest listed developer Emaar Properties dipped 1.3 per cent, while its unit Emar Development lost 2.8 per cent.

The Egyptian blue-chip index rose 0.5 per cent to 13,405 points, with Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals gaining 4.6 per cent and El Sewedy Electric adding 5.6 per cent.

The Saudi index inched up 0.1 per cent to 8,057 points, with Jabal Omar Development rising 2.5 per cent and Banque Saudi Fransi both up 2 per cent. Nama Chemicals added 3.7 per cent to end as the top gainer on the index. The company said the Capital Market Authority approved a request to increase the company’s capital through a rights issue valued at 200 million riyals .

In Abu Dhabi, the index was down 0.2 per cent at 4,927 points , with Aldar Properties losing 1.9 per cent, and Dana Gas sliding 1 per cent.

Meanwhile, a strong day for Europe and a jump in Wall Street futures kept world stocks at a three-week high, after Asia was knocked back by a shock profit warning from tech giant Samsung.

Hopes that Washington and Beijing may be moving towards a trade deal helped the mood again and also gave the dollar a lift in the currency markets after its shaky start to the year.

That increase, along with the alarm from South Korea’s Samsung that it would badly miss its earnings forecasts, caused a slip in emerging markets, but Europe managed to hold its nerve – unlike last week after a similar warning from Apple.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 rose 1.5 per cent despite some wobbles in Italy as Rome stepped in to support another of its struggling lenders. Britain’s FTSE was up 1.2 per cent as its retailers cheered rare good news on Christmas trading.

“The market has been quite extreme in pricing recession risks, so I think we have value now in both the equity and bond markets,” SEB investment management’s global head of asset allocation Hans Peterson said.