UAE shares post Dhs9.5bn losses

Dubai: Extensive sales by foreigners

Emaar shares have been blamed for their negative movement for a long time despite being the smallest faller today, going down by 0.89%.

Analysts have attributed the sharp decline to extensive selling done by foreign portfolios and to warnings issued by the British Foreign Office of possible terror attacks in the UAE.

Mohammed Ali Yaseen from Shuaa Capital said that most selling came from foreigners following the warning by the British government, adding that the market will rebound as the reason behind the decline is external.

The concern is high though following the decline of Dubai Islamic bank by 4.5%, affected apparently by the current fraud allegations.

According to the DFM report, the selling operations by non Arab and Gulf nationals reached Dhs318.5m out of a total of Dhs1.1bn for the whole market against purchases of Dhs213.8m.

Gulf national purchases rose to Dhs67.3m against selling orders of Dhs57.6m and Arab purchases by Dhs150.4m against Dhs121.2m selling orders.

All leading shares declined today including; Emaar and DFM which fell by 3.4%, Tamweel fell by 2.4%, Air Arabia fell by 2%, Emirates NBD fell by 2.8% and Arabtec by 1.2%.

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange resisted the fall, declining by only 0.50% after pressure came from Etisalat which fell by 1.2%.

Aldar shares failed to keep their historic price above Dhs13, but eventually clinched to its price following positive a rating by Hermes Group which determined its fair price at Dhs44.9 - which is considered by many as over-estimation.

Saudi Arabia: Kingdom Holding jumps 5%

Saudi's index managed to stay above 9.800 points, supported by non-leading sectors such as hospitality, real estate development and agriculture.

Heavyweight sectors including petrochemicals and banking registered a slight decline after pressure came from Samba, Al Rajhi, and the petrochemicals industries.

For second consecutive day and after two days of listing, Basic Chemical share fell by 8.6%.

The stabilization of Sabic and Al Inmaa shares didn't help the index go up, while Kingdom Holding, owned by Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, rose by 5% after the company announced it would acquire 30% of Nas Air.

Kuwait: New record high

Kuwait's Stock Exchange registered a new record high above the 15.500 points mark supported by the rise of National Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait Finance House, which rose by 2.1% and 2% respectively.

Global rose by 1.9% after the company announced it will launch an IPO in one of its subsidiaries (Mena Global) to collect US$500m to acquire additional stake of 2.5% in Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait.

Muscat: Fulltamp shares jump 163% in the first day

Muscat trading jumped to new record high at OR195.4m on a volume of 102.6 million shares, supported by Fulltamp Energy in its first day of trading rising by 163.2% on a volume of 11.7 million shares valued at OM16.8m.

Deals conducted on Muscat bank which mounted to 85.2 million shares valued at OR173.9m drew the attention of traders, although the shares fell by 0.16% to OR1.890.

Doha and Bahrain markets continue to capitalize on profits

Doha's exchange fell for the second time below 12.500 points after pressure came from shares which registered a strong rise in the last three sessions, including Barwa which fell by 2.8% and Dalalah which fell by 3.4%.

Bahrain's market gave up its historic mark of 2.900 points after Ithmaar led the declining trend, despite trading one million shares out of 3.2 million total shares traded in the market. Total trades were valued at BD1.7m, one day after the bank sold its 2.4% stake in Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait.