JEDDAH/DUBAI: Telecoms stocks led most Middle East markets higher on Tuesday as operators in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates talked up expansion plans.
World stocks hit a 2009 high, boosting regional sentiment, while a late surge in oil prices enabled Saudi Arabia’s index to end higher, despite disappointing results from financial and industrial firms. Dubai’s four-day winning streak ended as late selling highlighted fragile investor confidence. Abu Dhabi-listed Emirates Telecommunications Corp. (Etisalat) rose 1 percent after saying it would look to buy a 51 percent stake in Kuwaiti rival Zain Group. Zain’s shares added 3.5 percent.
Kuwait has already opened up its telecom sector to foreign partners, with Qatar Telecom owning 52.5 percent of National Mobile Telecommunications Co. Both these stocks added more than 1 percent.
Egypt’s Orascom Telecom climbed 0.8 percent, extending gains after Chairman Naguib Sawiris on Monday said he would consider investing in France. The stock index rose 1.9 percent to 5,950 points.
Oman Telecommunications Co. (Omantel) surged 5.4 percent, helping Muscat’s index climb 2.5 percent to a 2009 closing high.
In Saudi Arabia, The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI rose 0.6 percent to 5,5749 points.
With seven declining sectors and eight advancing sectors, sector breadth was fairly neutral, as sector losses ranged from 0.09 percent in Banking to 0.61 percent in Media, whereas sector gains ranged from 0.25 percent in Telecom to 1.92 percent for Petrochemical. Overall market breadth was also positive, with 76 advancers and 40 decliners registering an AD ratio of 1.9, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its market commentary on Tuesday.
“However, with an overall disappointing earning’s season, it is obvious that there is no local reason for this improvement and it remains contingent on the global markets. Whether TASI will be able to hold it’s own despite global pressures is yet to be seen,” the FTH said.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) rose 3.9 percent to a three-week high. Dubai’s index fell 1 percent to 1,751 points, with Emaar Properties losing 2.3 percent. The Abu Dhabi index rose 0.6 percent to 2,697 points.
The Kuwaiti index climbed 0.8 percent to 7,599 points. The Qatari index surged 2.6 percent to 6,458 points. The Bahrain stock index fell 0.6 percent to 1,484 points, its seventh decline in nine sessions and another two-year low.
— With input from agencies
