Saudi Stocks Top Gulf Gains With Oil, Earnings Eyed: Inside EM
Saudi Stocks Top Gulf Gains With Oil, Earnings Eyed: Inside EM
(Bloomberg) --
Saudi Arabia’s equities index led gains among peers in the Gulf, with petrochemical shares climbing after Brent crude posted the biggest weekly increase since early June.
The Tadawul All Share Index advanced 1.2% in Riyadh on Sunday, with Saudi Basic Industries up 6.4% and boosting the index the most. United Electronics jumped the most in more than a month after posting a 96% jump in profit for the third quarter on higher sales in all divisions.
Stock gauges in the rest of the region were mixed as investors tracked third-quarter earnings reports. In Doha, Qatar National Bank QPSC announced after markets were closed a 15% drop in nine-month profit after raising loan-loss provisions.
Investors in the Middle East and North Africa will “closely watch out for Q3 earnings, which should broadly reflect the gradual reopening of parts of the economy and release of pent-up demand,” analysts at Allied Investment Partners wrote in a note.
Trading with National Commercial Bank and Samba Financial Group shares was halted in Riyadh pending disclosures. In June, NCB proposed to pay as much as $15.6 billion to acquire the rival.
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MIDDLE EASTERN MARKETS:
- The Saudi market “has been resilient, and that has been mainly on local buying,” says Ahmed Badr, the head of Middle East and North Africa equities at Credit Suisse
- “With the U.S. market also being so strong, we still don’t have an excuse for this market to basically correct,” he says in an interview with Bloomberg TV
- “But if you look at banks and even petchems, fundamentally, things are still quite detached from economic reality”
- READ: Saudi Arabia May Face Budget Squeeze After 2021, Moody’s Says
- Saudi Electricity climbs as much as 5.3% after saying that talks with the government regarding financial obligations won’t affect dividend distribution
- In Dubai, business conditions improved for the third straight month in September even as a renewed spike in coronavirus cases poses a threat to the city’s recovery
- ADQ, an Abu Dhabi state-owned entity, started a company called Q Market Makers LLC to boost liquidity in the Abu Dhabi stock market
- Equities benchmarks in Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt and Israel rise as much as 1%, while those in Abu Dhabi, Doha and Abu Dhabi fall as much as 0.4%
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