Gulf stocks track world markets lower

Most Middle Eastern stock markets fell yesterday in line with a weak global trend, with Saudi profit-taking in cement shares, but Egypt rose on the back of several blue chips,

The region had already dropped on Sunday in response to Wall Street’s Friday plunge, so Gulf markets far outperformed other bourses in Asia, where MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.4 per cent yesterday afternoon.

The Saudi index slipped 0.3 per cent as Tabuk Cement pulled back 1.9 per cent. Tabuk and many other firms in the sector had jumped in the past several days on a media report that the government had started awarding contracts to build the huge Neom business zone in the north-west of the country.

Many petrochemical shares were soft, but PetroRabigh soared 9.9 per cent after reporting fourth-quarter net profit jumped to 641 million riyals from 181m riyals a year ago, as sales increased 27 per cent.

“There is a high level of debt — we are working on debt amortisation. God willing in 2020 we’ll finish paying all debts from the first phase of PetroRabigh, and what remains are debts from the second phase,” PetroRabigh chief executive Nasser Al Mahasher told Al Ekhbariya television.

“This will reduce the level of indebtedness and will reflect on company performance and profitability.”

Mediterranean & Gulf Cooperative Insurance and Reinsurance plunged a further 9.4 per cent after losing 9.9 per cent on Sunday, when the Capital Market Authority said it might suspend or cancel trade in the stock following the central bank’s decision to prohibit the firm from issuing or renewing policies pending a capital increase.

Telecommunications firm Mobily surged 6.1 per cent to 16.30 riyals in its highest volume for nearly a month after HSBC said the company was its preferred pick in the sector, with a target price of 25.50 riyals.

Dubai’s index fell 0.2 per cent. Most real estate firms dropped with Emaar Properties 0.6 per cent lower, but construction firm Arabtec climbed 1.9 per cent.

In Qatar, the index slid 1.4 per cent, bringing its losses in the past five trading days to 6.5 per cent and making Qatar the worst-performing Gulf market in the period by a large margin.