DUBAI: Dubai property shares soared yesterday as news of a major Saudi project for developer Emaar Properties boosted investor sentiment, with most other Gulf Arab bourses also posting gains.

Emaar rose as much as 7.18 percent, a day after Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Co. said it had appointed it to supervise and develop a large property project which will feature the world’s tallest tower.

The Dubai’s DFMGI index rose 4.75 percent, with Arabtec gaining 2.91 percent and Deyaar rising 7.53 percent. Abu Dhabi benchmark ADI gained 3.35 percent, its largest one-day gain since the end of March, lifted mainly by bank stocks. “People do that by buying into cyclicals, like real estate and petrochemicals ... and then we had the specific news about Emaar,” he said.

Saudi benchmark TASI closed almost unchanged, up 0.07 percent at 6,099 points. National Shipping Co. added the most points to the index, gaining 8.71 percent, while Saudi Kayan gained 1.62 percent.

It was the fourth time since last May where TASI has exceeded an intraday level above 6,100 but only to close below it, said Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) in its daily market commentary.

“Comparing SABIC’s chart along with the index we notice that SABIC has successfully broken several resistance levels while the index is lagging behind which is technically negative. We continue to believe that without seeing an upward thrust from the banking sector (as was seen on Saturday), TASI may face a shakeout near term,” FTH) added.

In Kuwait, Zain shares fell 1.75 percent as the market awaited firmer information on talk the telecoms firm may receive a bid for its Nigeria operations.

Kuwait’s bourse KWSE ended virtually unchanged, up 0.07 percent at 8,282 points. National Bank of Kuwait and Commercial Bank of Kuwait closed 6.25 percent and 1.85 percent higher respectively. NBK said on Sunday it has agreed with CBK to buy its stake in Islamic lender Boubyan Bank for about 120 million dinars ($416.7 million).

The Doha benchmark QSI ended up 0.87 percent at 7,363 points. Muscat’s MSI index ended down 0.55 percent at 5,599 points, led lower by Bank Muscat, which fell 6.61 percent.

Bahrain’s main index ended up 0.28 percent at 1,586 points.

— With input from agencies