DUBAI: Qatar’s bourse rose to a fresh five-year high on Thursday amid profit-taking in most other regional markets, while Dubai gained on the back of construction and property shares.

The Qatari index rose for a fourth consecutive day, up 0.8 percent at 10,212 points. All but three of 20 constituent stocks rose.

In past months, Qatar lagged other Gulf markets such as Dubai. But once they were hit by profit-taking, it emerged as a top performer, thanks in part to local companies’ traditionally high dividend payments, which are drawing investors ahead of the end of the year.

The Tadawul All-Share Index climbed 0.2 percent to 8,317 points.

Dubai rose 0.4 percent, helped by construction and property firms such as Deyaar, Emaar, Drake and Scull and Arabtec.

Arabtec said it had cancelled the second part of a rights issue after nearly tripling third-quarter profit. Its shares rose 0.8 percent to 2.61 dirhams; in early trade they went as high as 2.67 but then pulled back from near major technical resistance around 2.70, which marked lows during most of the last three weeks.

Sentiment in the property sector may have been boosted by news that another Dubai developer, DAMAC, launched its IPO on the London Stock Exchange - the first London share offering by a Dubai developer since the 2009 market crash.

But analysts warned that overall, Dubai’s market was likely to remain jittery as the emirate awaited the final decision on its bid to host the Expo 2020 world fair.

“The closer we are to the (Nov. 27) date, the higher the volatility will be,” said Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor.

In Egypt, the index edged up early in the session but failed to gain momentum and ended the day down 0.4 percent.

“The market needs to take a breather” after rising 40 percent since late June because of the ouster of President Mohamed Mursi, said Henin.

Egypt’s biggest listed vehicle assembler and distributor, GB Auto, sank 1.7 percent after reporting a 32 percent drop in nine-month net profit to 119.05 million Egyptian pounds ($17.28 million).