Dubai index underperforms, Egypt’s TMGH shares soar on appointment of CEO

Stocks prone to speculative trade dragged Dubai’s equity index down Wednesday while Egypt’s blue chip developer Talaat Mostafa Group outperformed on news its former chairman has been pardoned and named chief executive.

Dubai’s index dropped 0.7 percent in the lowest daily volume in one year.

Shares of builder Arabtec fell 8.5 percent; on Wednesday the company said it has raised 1.5 billion dirhams in equity as part of its recapitalisation programme and “extinguished the company’s accumulated losses of AED 4.6 billion as at December 31 2016”.

GFH Financial, the most heavily traded stock, however, climbed 3.1 percent on news that it had agreed to sell part of its real estate portfolio, which it said had an “approximate value” of $55 million. The book value of the asset is $20 million.

In neighbouring Abu Dhabi, some large caps, which were the main drag on the bourse earlier in the session, reversed course and helped take the index 0.4 percent higher. First Abu Dhabi added 1.4 percent to 10.65 dirhams ($2.90) after hitting a session low of 10.40 dirhams.

Kuwait’s index closed flat in very thin trade. Blue chip banks outperformed with Warba Bank adding 1.2 percent while Boubyan Petrochemical lost 1.0 percent.

EGYPT

Cairo’s Talaat Mostafa Group jumped 5.8 percent in unusually heavy trade after the developer said it has appointed former chairman Hisham Talaat Mostafa as its chief executive.

Last Friday Mostafa was among 502 prisoners pardoned by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. He had been sentenced in 2010 to 15 years in prison for hiring a hitman to kill a Lebanese pop star. He was pardoned on health concerns, security sources told Reuters.

Shares of Telecom Egypt rose 1.5 percent following last Thursday’s news that the state-owned landline monopoly will secure a loan of up to 13 billion Egyptian pounds ($718.23 million) to improve infrastructure and mobile internet services.

Heliopolis Co for Housing and Development advanced 2.6 percent after local newspaper, Almal, reported that the developer will launch a new project in New Heliopolis in 2018 with investments worth 1 billion Egyptian pounds ($55.25 million).

The index, however, edged down 0.2 percent as the largest lender, Commercial International Bank, lost 1.3 percent.

Markets in Riyadh and Doha remain closed and will resume trading on July 2.

HIGHLIGHTS

DUBAI

* The index lost 0.7 percent to 3,379 points.

ABU DHABI

* The index added 0.4 percent to 4,450 points.

EGYPT

* The index edged down 0.2 percent to 13,396 points.

KUWAIT

* The index edged up 0.04 percent to 6,769 points.

BAHRAIN

* The index fell 0.2 percent to 1,310 points.

Source: Reuters