Dubai biggest market winner, Muscat biggest loser

In trading today, only the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX)and Doha rose, by 0.42% and 0.13% respectively, while the DFM, Kuwait Stock Exchange and Bahrain fell by 0.36%, 0.26% and 0.19% respectively.

UAE: Dhs24.5bn weekly gains

UAE shares regained all of last week's Dhs20bn losses and ended the week with a Dhs24.5bn gain, after its general index jumped 2.9%. The DFM and ADX market values rose to Dhs849.1bn from Dhs824.5bn last week.

According to a Securities and Commodities Authority report, trading weekly value rose by 4.4% to Dhs10.4bn from Dhs9.9bn last week.
Emaar topped the most active shares list, trading Dhs1.1bn and rising by 5.4%, while UAE Takaful topped the most rising shares list, up 317%.

DFM: Profit taking

On the DFM, Emaar reached a new high of Dhs10.85 during trading, before finally closing at Dhs10.60. It traded Dhs384m out of total trading of Dhs1.3bn.

All bar seven leading shares declined. Among the climbers was Arabtec, which rose by 1% to Dhs19.65, approaching its historic price of Dhs20, after the company signed investment deals worth Dhs5bn.

Abu Dhabi crosses 5,000 points mark

Unlike the DFM, the ADX closed higher, climbing above 5,000 points after support from the real estate and services sectors, along with active trading on Sorouh and NBAD bank shares prior to H1 profits announcements.

Sorouh traded Dhs276m out of Dhs1bn on the market and rose by 2.4%.

Rak Properties declined by 2.3%, despite announcing that H1 profits rose by 115.6% to Dhs225m. Takaful and Fujarah rose by almost their maximum limit of 10%.

Kuwait: New acquisition for Agility

While real estate and services pressurised the index, banks and investment houses continued to post strong rises, raising the trading value of the market to KD121.2m on volume of 209.3m shares.

Kuwait International Bank registered a rise of 1.7%, after the bank announced a 500% increase in its H1 profits, which reached KD31.7m from KD5.3m last year.

Kuwait Finance House's share rose by 2.8% and Agility by 1.7%, after the company announced it was buying an Indian company worth $9.4m.

Doha: Sharp decline for Mawashi's share

The Doha market slightly rose today, with trading value above QR500m on volume of 11.9m shares.

Mawashi, which had seen good rises after it received QR40m from the government, plunged today by 6.5%.

Al Rayyan bank rose by 1.4%, Khaliji by 1.2%, and Cinema by 8.2%.

Bahrain: Pressure from Arig

The Bahrain market continued to decline, with pressure from Arig, which announced a 38% decline in its profits as its share registered the biggest decline in the market by 3.2%.

The prices of six shares declined and 11 stabilised and closed unchanged, including Batelco at BD0.810, despite the decline of its Q2 profits by 15% to BD23.4m. This was less than analysts' expectation of BD24.5m.