Gulf bourses trade near flat, Zain Saudi jumps

Bourses in the Gulf traded near flat in early trade Sunday with shares Saudi Arabia’s third largest telecom operator rising after securing a refinancing loan.

Zain Saudi Arabia jumped 6.7 percent after the telecom operator said in a bourse statement on Sunday it has signed a 2.25 billion riyal ($600 million) loan refinancing with a group of four local banks.

The company is currently trading below its mean target price of 9.64 riyals, according to the average of 9 analysts polled by Reuters.

Shares in Advanced Petrochemical rose 0.4 percent to 48.80 riyals after the company announced on Sunday it has started operations at its South Korean joint venture PDH Plant. The financial impact of the new operations will be reflected in the second quarter of 2016, the company added.

Advanced is expected to pay a cash dividend of 0.75 riyals per share for the first half of the year on July 3.

Other petrochemical shares were mixed, with Saudi Kayan Petrochemical gaining 1.6 percent, but Saudi Basic Industries the largest producer, falling 0.3 percent.

The main index was up 0.1 percent after 50 minutes of trade.

Dubai’s index reversed earlier losses and added 0.2 percent with Shuaa Capital adding 1.2 percent.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that several local investment firms were among the bidders for Dubai Group’s 48.4 percent stake in Islamic financial firm Shuaa.

But builder Drake and Scull and amusement park developer Dubai Parks and Resorts were each down more than 1.0 percent. Combined they made up 28 percent of the total volume.

Abu Dhabi’s Dana Gas and Abu Dhabi National Energy each dropped more than 1.5 percent.

After market close of Thursday TAQA announced its chief operating officer, Edward LaFehr, is leaving the company for personal reasons and that Saeed Hamad al-Dhaheri will take over as acting chief operating officer, effective June 22.

Source: Reuters