All Gulf markets close week down

The Tadawul in Saudi Arabia, which closed its trading yesterday, was the third biggest loser, dropping 1.5%. Doha fell by 1.3%, the Kuwait Stock Exchange 0.60%, Bahrain 0.52% and Muscat 0.30%.

In trading today only the KSE closed up, by 0.67%, with other trading markets falling for the fifth consecutive day. The Dubai Financial Market (DFM) ended the day down 0.02%, as did the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), while Doha fell 0.04%, Muscat 0.68% and Bahrain by 0.23%.

Dubai: Emaar falls below Dhs10 as profits rise

As the DFM tried hard to rebound upwards, Emaar's share fell through the critical Dhs10 barrier to Dhs9.95, before rising by the session's close to stay above Dhs10.

After Emaar fell through the Dhs10 mark, random selling started in the market and didn't stop until external forces intervened and pushed the share up to Dhs10.05.

After the trading session, Emaar announced that its H1 profits rose by 1% to Dhs3.315bn from Dhs3.279bn last year, while the second quarter profit rose by 7% to Dhs1.5bn.

Emaar's profits are within analysts expectations, as some expected profits to decline.

According to an Emirates Securities and Commodities Authority report, the UAE weekly index fell by 2.2% after its market value also fell to Dhs824.5bn. Trading value reached Dhs9.9bn, compared to Dhs12.8bn last week.

Ajman Islamic Bank topped the weekly list of most traded share, while Methaq topped the most rising shares, up by 12%.

Prices for 14 listed firms declined today, with seven rising. Trading value reached Dhs1bn, including Dhs264m for Ajman which closed unchanged at Dhs3.34.

The market in Abu Dhabi saw sharp speculation around Methaq's shares, which registered a record high, rising by 7.3% to Dhs8.09. They traded more than Dhs663.4m, which represent 47% of the total trading on the ADX, which reached Dhs1.4bn.

Real estate and energy shares rose today, with Abaar up 2.6%, Taqa 2.4%, Dana Gas 1.6% and Sorouh 0.34%.

Kuwait: Banks push the index up

After a series of sharp declines, banks and investment house shares pushed the KSE index up.

Burgan Group registered its highest rise, up 7.2%, National Bank of Kuwait rose by 2.2% and KFH up by 2.2%, while Ahli Bank fell by 2% despite a 10% rise in H1 profits to KD45.2m from KD41m.

Doha: Companies profits fail to stop the decline

The Doha stock market continued to decline, despite many firms announcing record H1 profits. Qatar Islamic Bank posted a 70% rise in profits to QR853.5m from QR501.6m last year. But that did not stop the share falling 0.50% to QR156.70.

Dalalah and General Insurance saw the biggest declines by 8.6% and 8% respectively, despite record profits posted by both firms, which rose by more than 70%.

Muscat: Omantel pressurises index

The decline on the Muscat index today was led by Omantel, which fell 1%.

Trading value also fell significantly to OR6.1m on a volume of 9.3 million shares.

Muscat Bank, Dhofar Bank and Oman International Bank all rose and some shares rose by their maximum limit of 10% - Muscat Gas and National Gas were both up 9.9%.

United Insurance rose by 1.7% after the company posted 356% rise in H1 profits to OR5m from OR1.9m.

Bahrain: weak trading

Bahrain fell 0.25%, after pressure from banks and investment firms amid weak trading of BD1m and 2.5 million shares.

Al Salam Bank fell by 3.2%, NAS by 2% and Al Barakah by 1.6%, while Saudi Bahraini Bank and GFH rose by 0.37% and 0.27% respectively.