JEDDAH: ositive corporate news boosted Egypt’s stock market on Thursday while Gulf bourses were mixed in modest volumes because of a lack of fresh incentives.

The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index edged up 0.4 percent as much activity focused on lower-priced, second-tier stocks, suggesting local and foreign institutional investors were not very active. Jazan Development, an agriculture and real estate firm, added 9.6 percent.

Dubai’s index fell 0.3 percent to 3,204 points, nearing support on its November low of 3,128 points.

Emaar Propertieswas down 1.0 percent. A report by industry consultants Cluttons on Wednesday said residential property prices in Dubai had declined for five successive quarters and were likely to fall a further 3 to 5 percent over the next 12 months. (Full Story)

The Dubai exchange said AlSafwa Islamic Financial Services became the first company to list its shares on Dubai’s new Second Market, a trading platform for shares of private joint stock companies.

Companies’ listing on the Second Market may be a step toward going public and listing on the main board. AlSafwa jumped 85 percent to 1.85 dirhams in volume of 1,000 shares.

Abu Dhabi edged down 0.3 percent. Abu Dhabi National Energy Co, which surged 15 percent from near a record low on Wednesday, rose in early trade on Thursday but closed 4.4 percent lower as volume remained unusually heavy.

Qatar’s index edged up 0.1 percent as Gulf International Services, which had tumbled 4.1 percent on Wednesday ahead of its deletion from MSCI’s emerging markets index at the end of this month, lost a further 0.4 percent.

Egypt’s index rose 0.6 percent to 6,428 points, bouncing further from technical support on its November low of 6,302 points.

Financial firm Pioneers Holding PIOH.CA gained 3.0 percent after reporting its consolidated nine-month net profit after taxes and minority interests almost doubled; non-consolidated profit rose 11 percent.

Global Telecom Holding climbed 3.2 percent after Vimpelcom said it and Global Telecom had agreed to combine their Pakistan telecommunications businesses with Warid Telecom to save money, boost their network and expand mobile financial services.

However, Orascom Telecom Media, Egypt’s most heavily traded stock, slid a further 6.9 percent, continuing a slide fueled by difficulties at its North Korean unit, Koryolink, and a downgrade of the stock by EFG Hermes. It has tumbled more than 35 percent since the end of last month.

Egypt appointed ex-central bank governor Farouk Al-Okda to a high-level committee at the central bank, officials said, as part of a reshuffle that analysts said was aimed at helping steer the country out of its foreign exchange crisis, which continues to threaten a currency devaluation.