Dubai buoyed by speculation

Saudi Arabia Monetary Agency (Sama) announced yesterday that it would be pumping $3bn into the banking sector for the first time in ten years to activate liquidity, while each bank will get between $200,000 and $350,000.

The UAE has already announced it is pumping Dhs120bn into the banking sector while also guaranteeing all assets to avoid the negative impact of the world financial crisis.

Kuwait's Investment Authority has also announced that it is pumping KD300m into the stock market, while Qatar allocated QR22bn to buy 10%-to-20% of banks shares.

The Saudi move has boosted the banking sector, pushing Tadawul index up 1%, while Doha rose by 3.1%, KSE 1.7%, Muscat 1% and Bahrain 0.16%.

Dubai sees heated speculations

Dubai Financial Market has witnessed heated speculation building on the upward trend which the market already started one week ago, in a move aimed at capitalizing on leading shares like Emaar which pushed index up 3% before speculations begin to affect leading shares to fall, as happened with Arabtec, Dubai Investments and Salamah.

Emaar rose at the beginning by 5% to Dhs6.25 before closing up 2.7% dominating almost 50% of the total trading which reached Dhs1.4bn.
Shuaa which fell three days ago by the maximum limit as a result of less profit by the company, rose yesterday after the company announced it will buy back its own shares.

Abu Dhabi: Record rises for banks

Banks along with Etisalat continued to push the index further up including Union National Bank, First Gulf and ADIB which rose by 9.8%, 9.5% and 7.5% respectively.

Etisalat rose by 3.5% after the company announced a 19% rise in profits, while Sorouh and Aldar dominated one third of the total trading which reached Dhs696m after rising by 4.3% and 3.6% respectively.

Saudi Arabia: Sama pumps in SR3bn

The Saudi market witnessed some speculation starting with a rise after Sama's decision to pump SR3bn in the banking sector.

Initially Sabic fell by 1.7% to reach SR87.
Later on, banks and telecom shares started to rise, pushing the index up again with some shares up by 10% including Al Saderat and Al Hukair which posted a 43% rise in profits.

Mobily, meanwhile rose by 5.2% after a 52% rise in profits registering the highest quarter profit by SR539m which coincided with Ramadan which is considered the peak month for worshipers who come to perform Omrah.

KSE rises in the last minute

Kuwait Stock exchange managed to rise in the last minutes changing its trend from falling to rising after strong demand on leading shares.

Zain which declined by maximum limit last week, rose yesterday by 6.6% to KD1.280 after its president Saad Al Barak said that profits will grow by 30% in a clear reply to a report by Credit Suisse which expected Zain's profit to be disappointing in the future.

Kuwait's Industries share also rose by 6.9% after the company decided to cancel its proposed IPO to raise capital by 25% following the decline of the market value of the share.
Sources close to management said that the managing board may decide to lower the IPO price and the issuance fee, which was set at KD0.800.

Doha sees strong profit for three firms

Three shares including Industries Qatar, Doha Bank and First Finance, led Doha market to rise above 8.000 points with trading value of QR1.1bn and 22.8 million shares.

This includes 60% for five shares, Al Rayyan, Nakilat, Industries Qatar, Qatar Bank and Commercial bank.

First Financing rose by 10% after it announced an 87.3% rise in profits, while Doha Bank rose by 5.1% after a 23% rise in profits and General Insurance Company rose by 8% after a record QR249.9m profits.

Three shares lead Muscat rise

Three leading shares led Muscat market up including Muscat bank, Omantel and Gulfar amid a trading value of OR7.6m and 12.8 million shares including 2.4 million shares for Al Maha and Gulfar which rose by 6%.

Muscat bank rose by 1.5%, Omantel 0.50% while Oman Ahli bank rose by 0.50% despite an 85% rise in profits. Fulltamp declined by 1.5% despite a 25% rise in profits.

Bahrain sees profit decline for Al Banader and Bahraini Saudi bank

Bahrain market reversed trend and rose in the last minute by 0.25% after support from Batelco and Ithmaar which rose by 3.1% and 3% respectively.

Meanwhile, ARIG declined by 5.4% despite trading around one third of the total shares which reached 1.4 million shares.

Al Banader company posted a 56% decline in profits and Bahraini Saudi Bank profit also fell by 50%, while the nine months profits rose by 3%.
The bank saw no trading on its shares yesterday.