Gulf bourses close higher on oil prices

Gulf bourses benefited from recovering oil prices to all end higher on Tuesday.

Crude rose from the near-two-month lows hit the previous day: Brent crude was up $1.29 at $47.54 per barrel at 1218 GMT. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.10 at $45.86 a barrel.

The biggest swing came in Qatar, where the index had been trading as much as 0.9 percent down earlier in the day before closing up 0.4 percent at a fresh 11-week high.

Qatar National Bank rose 1 percent. It posted a 16 percent jump in second-quarter net profit after market hours, aided by the inclusion of Finansbank in its accounts after the 2.7 billion euro purchase of the Turkish lender concluded in June.

Saudi Arabia’s index advanced for a third day since it resumed trading after the Eid al-Fitr holiday. Its 0.8 percent increase was aided by Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden), which surged 7.3 percent.

In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai stocks jumped 1.3 percent, their sixth straight positive session either side of Eid. Abu Dhabi’s index recovered from weakness earlier in the day to edge marginally higher as banks recovered some of the losses incurred in the previous two days.

Oman’s index rose 0.5 percent aided by the performance of banks, including National Bank of Oman which gained 2.1 percent on the day it announced plans to raise $100 million through a bond tap.

Oman Cement closed flat despite reporting early in the day an 83.9 percent jump in second-quarter net profit after tax, according to Thomson Reuters calculations.

In Egypt the exchange recovered some of its earlier losses but still ended the day down 0.7 percent, its second consecutive fall. Traders booked profits after a 7.7 percent surge in the two prior sessions following comments from the central bank governor that the Egyptian pound should be a market-based currency where demand and supply set the price.

The biggest fallers were developers Emaar Misr and Amer Group Holding, which dropped 2.5 percent and 3.3 percent respectively.

Global Telecom Holding continued its positive run though, rising 1.4 percent to hit a 16-month high.

TUESDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

QATAR

* The index rose 0.4 percent to 10,141 points.

DUBAI

* The index jumped 1.3 percent to 3,438 points.

ABU DHABI

* The index edged up 0.05 percent to 4,543 points.

SAUDI ARABIA

* The index gained 0.8 percent to 6,626 points.

KUWAIT

* The index advanced 0.2 percent to 5,378 points.

OMAN

* The index increased 0.5 percent to 5,849 points.

BAHRAIN

* The index moved up 0.9 percent to 1,167 points.

Source: Reuters