Gulf stock markets tumble on oil and earnings

Most Gulf stock markets dropped on Thursday amid soft oil prices and mixed corporate earnings.

Dubai’s index edged down 0.1 percent. Dubai Parks & Resorts surged 3.8 percent but real estate stocks were weak, with Deyaar Development dropping 1.1 percent after reporting a 17.8 percent fall in second-quarter net profit.

Blue chip Emaar Properties, which had been rallying strongly for the past two weeks, lost steam. It edged down 0.3 percent to 7.00 dirhams, failing to break major technical resistance on its October 2015 peak of 7.01 dirhams.

A few small speculative stocks rose sharply including Al Salam Group Holding, which gained 10.6 percent. In Kuwait, where its shares surged 5.8 percent, the company issued a statement saying it knew of no material reason for the unusual trade in its shares.

Saudi Arabia’s index fell 0.5 percent as Yamama Cement tumbled 5.2 percent after reporting a 14 percent year-on-year drop in second-quarter profit to 150.5 million riyals ($40.1 million), and slashing its second-quarter dividend to 0.25 riyal per share from 0.75 riyal.

Petrochemical shares were strong, however. Yanbu National Petrochemical Co (Yansab) rose 2.8 percent in its heaviest trade since January 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. Petrochemical heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries gained 0.6 percent.

Abu Dhabi’s index fell 0.5 percent, dragged down by profit-taking in merger candidates First Gulf Bank, down 1.2 percent, and National Bank of Abu Dhabi, off 2.0 percent.

Qatar also dropped 0.5 percent because of widespread selling in banks. Commercial Bank of Qatar, which slumped 6.6 percent on Wednesday after it missed second-quarter earnings forecasts by a large margin, fell a further 2.0 percent.

THURSDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

SAUDI

* The index fell 0.5 percent to 6,601 points.

DUBAI

* The index edged down 0.1 percent to 3,544 points.

ABU DHABI

* The index fell 0.5 percent to 4,590 points.

QATAR

* The index dropped 0.5 percent to 10,534 points.

KUWAIT

* The index rose 0.2 percent to 5,391 points.

OMAN

* The index edged up 0.02 percent to 5,818 points.

BAHRAIN

* The index climbed 0.2 percent to 1,160 points.

Source: Reuters