DUBAI: Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Media and Technology (OTMT) made its largest gain in four months after saying it would pay a special dividend following its sale of a stake in telecoms operator Mobinil.
This lifted Cairo’s benchmark index, but most Gulf Arab markets fell as slumping oil prices and declines in Asian markets spurred selling.
Orascom rose 9.3 percent, rebounding from Monday’s four-month low. It will pay a 1.05 Egyptian pound ($0.17) per share dividend. The company sold most of its stake in Mobinil to France Telecom last month, netting it about $1 billion. Mobinil fell 3.3 percent.
Dubai’s index dropped 1 percent, its first decline in six sessions since last week’s four-month low.
“The correlation between our markets and global markets is huge, which is understandable because there’s no major regional news for investors to trade on,” said Samer Al-Jaouni, General Manager of Middle East Financial Brokerage Co.
Asian markets reversed Monday’s hefty gains, with nervous investors far from convinced a bailout for debt-stricken Spanish banks will halt Europe’s debt crisis.
Kuwait’s index slumped 0.9 percent to a four-month low of 6,017 points following local media reports that the minister for social affairs and labor had resigned. That would make him the second cabinet member to step down in recent weeks after pressure from opposition lawmakers.
“The market doesn’t like uncertainty — political uncertainty means economic uncertainty because government infrastructure spending can get put on hold,” said a Kuwait trader.
“We have a huge psychological support level at 6,000 points and many stocks are at 52-week lows. The market needs something to move it - we need a catalyst.”
He forecast the index would extend losses, with the next support at 5,800 points.
National Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait’s largest listed firm, fell 1.9 percent to a five-month low, while telecoms operator Zain and Kuwait Finance House each dropped 1.4 percent.
Qatar’s index fell 0.4 percent to an eight-month low.
“It has been under pressure from the banking and petrochemicals sectors,” said Jaouni. “Industries Qatar is tracking declines in SABIC and oil prices in the short term.”
Industries Qatar — a steel, petrochemical and fertilizer producer — fell 0.8 percent.
Kuwait stocks slump to 4-month low
