Gulf stock markets flat to lower; Emaar loses steam in Dubai

Stock markets in the Arab Gulf were flat to slightly softer in early trade Thursday as blue chip Emaar Properties, which had been rallying strongly for the past two weeks, lost steam in Dubai.

Emaar edged down 0.1 percent to 7.00 dirhams, failing to break technical resistance on its October 2015 peak of 7.01 dirhams. A break would trigger a reverse head & shoulders pattern formed by the highs and lows since last August and pointing up in the long term to at least the April 2015 peak of 8.39 dirhams.

Dubai’s stock index was flat. Second-tier real estate firm Deyaar Development dropped 0.7 percent after reporting a 17.8 percent fall in second-quarter net profit, though a few small, speculative stocks such as Al Salam Group Holding rose sharply.

Al Salam soared its 15 percent daily limit in Dubai. In Kuwait, where its shares surged 5.8 percent, it issued a statement saying it knew of no material reason for the unusual trade in its shares.

Saudi Arabia’s index was flat as Yanbu National Petrochemical Co (Yansab) jumped 4.4 percent in unusually heavy trade after its second-quarter net profit trebled to 689.3 million riyals ($183.8 million) because of higher production and sales; analysts had on average forecast 446.2 million riyals.

But Yamama Cement tumbled 5.5 percent after reporting a 14 percent year-on-year drop in second-quarter profit to 150.5 million riyals, and slashing its second-quarter dividend to 0.25 riyal per share from 0.75 riyal.

Abu Dhabi’s index edged down 0.2 percent while Qatar fell 0.5 percent with blue chip Industries Qatar , which had risen strongly earlier this week, pulling back 0.9 percent.

Source: Reuters