DUBAI: Egyptian investors continued to scoop up blue chips and property stocks on Thursday, driving up the market on increased volume, while banking shares dragged down Abu Dhabi and Oman.

Egypt's bourse rose 2.1 percent, with the major gainers including Commercial International Bank, Global Telecom and Telecom Egypt as well as several property developers. Trading volume was the third largest this year.

Ali Adou, portfolio manager at The National Investor, said the rally was mainly driven by a stabilizing political environment in Egypt and the central bank's move last week to ease the repatriation of profits by foreigners.

"Also, valuations in Egypt are attractive compared to other emerging markets," he said.

Dubai's bourse was the second strongest major market in the region, adding 1.1 percent on the back of Dubai Investments Co., which jumped 5.0 percent, and Dubai Islamic Bank, which rose 3.1 percent.

Traders said investors buying Dubai Investments may have been expecting announcements on its large land bank in the emirate, where the property market is booming.

The companies that drove the market up earlier this week, Emaar Properties and Arabtec Holding, appear to have run out of steam and moved little on Thursday.

The market extended its gains after Reuters quoted a partner at buyout firm GrowthGate Capital as saying it planned to take freight-forwarding company Able Logistics Group public on the Dubai Financial Market around the end of this year; the DFM has not seen any IPOs since 2009.

In neighboring Abu Dhabi, the index fell 1.1 percent largely because of the banking sector. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank fell 3.4 percent after its shares went ex-dividend.

Some other banks retreated after rallying earlier this week on the news that Dubai's $20 billion bailout package had been rolled over.

Banks also dragged down Oman's index, which shed 1.0 percent. Bank Muscat dropped 4.7 percent after saying the remaining half of its convertible bonds issued in 2009 would be converted into shares on Thursday with a 20 percent discount. Bank Dhofar tumbled 11.1 percent.