JEDDAH/DUBAI: Gulf Arab markets advanced on Monday, taking their cue from rising global stocks, but most regional benchmarks ended significantly below their intraday highs, which may indicate a weakening uptrend.
Oman’s index claimed a new nine-month high, Qatar rose for a third session running and Kuwait and Abu Dhabi edged slightly higher.
Saudi Arabia shrugged off Sunday’s losses to rise 1.3 percent, but Dubai fell for the first trading day in three.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) increased 1.26 percent to 5,789.78 on Monday, with only one negative sector for Monday’s close, namely the Energy & Utilities sector, which saw a close with a loss of 0.29 percent. Otherwise, all sectors saw positive gains, ranging from 0.18 percent in the Telecom & IT sector to 2.49 percent in Media & Publishing, followed by 2.09 percent in the Petrochemical Industries sector.
Overall market breadth was also fairly positive, with 101 advancers and 16 decliners registering an AD ratio of 6.31, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market report.
The stock market turnover was over SR3 billion on Monday. The Kuwait index edged up 0.1 percent to 7,897 points.
Oman’s index climbed to its highest close since Nov. 30, lifted by minor gains in National Bank of Oman and Bank Muscat. The index climbed 0.5 percent to 6,248 points.
Dubai’s index dropped 0.6 percent to 1,847 points as trading volumes fell by more than half from the day before, with some key stocks failing to breach resistance levels.
The Qatari index rose 1.3 percent to 6,928 points. The Bahraini index was flat at 1,514 points.
— With input from agencies
