Arabtec lifts Dubai stocks, blue chips drag on Qatar, Abu Dhabi

Arabtec pulled up Dubai’s stock market at early trade on Thursday, encouraging investors to buy mid-cap stocks, while Abu Dhabi and Qatar slipped as blue chips were sold.

Shares in Arabtec jumped 8.0 percent in the first hour of trade, recouping most of their 9.1 percent slump on Wednesday. They have been swinging wildly in speculative trade since exchange data at the start of this week showed former chief executive Hasan Ismaik had raised his stake in the company to 11.91 percent from 11.81 percent – though his stake has not grown since then.

Amlak Finance, an Islamic investment firm, was up 3.1 percent and GFH Financial climbed 3.8 percent. Dubai’s index was up 0.8 percent.

But Abu Dhabi’s benchmark edged down 0.1 percent as Etisalat fell 0.6 percent and Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank lost 0.3 percent.

In Doha, the index slipped 0.2 percent with Qatar National Bank and Gulf International Services losing 1.1 and 4.7 percent respectively.

Vodafone Qatar, which had surged 4.0 percent on Wednesday in high volume, rose a further 2.9 percent.

Source: Reuters