Saudi Equity Index Shrugs Off Sabic’s Lower 2Q Profit: Inside EM

Saudi Stocks Fall After Sabic’s Lower 2Q Profit: Inside EM

Filipe Pacheco

29 Jul 2019, 02:46 AM IST

(Bloomberg) -- Saudi Arabia’s stocks gauge ended Sunday’s session higher even after the country’s biggest publicly traded company reported profit for the second quarter that was the lowest in a decade.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp.’s net income dropped to 2.12 billion riyals ($565 million) in the three months ended in June, shrinking 68% from last year, as lower petrochemical prices impacted performance. The biggest petrochemicals maker in the Middle East fell as much as 3.8% in Riyadh, before trimming the loss to 0.7% at close. Sabic is the third-largest individual constituent of the main Saudi gauge.

“The new capacities in key products lines that pressured Sabic’s product prices and margins in the first half of 2019 are expected to continue to impact the company’s earnings in the second half of 2019,” the company said.

HIGHLIGHTS
MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 0.8% last week. An index tracking currencies from developing markets retreated 0.4%
EM Review: Currencies Drop as Dollar Buoyant Before Fed Decision
MORE: Sabic Profit Plunges to Lowest in 10 Years on Chemicals Slump

MIDDLE EASTERN MARKETS:

The Tadawul All Share Index declined as much as 0.7% before ending 0.5% higher. It lost 2.4% last week
- Al Rajhi Bank and Riyad Bank climbed 1% and 3.1%, respectively
- More earnings in Saudi Arabia:
  - Saudi Electricity second-quarter profit drops 57% on lower sales
  - Saudia Dairy first-quarter profit rises 16% on higher sales
  - Mouwasat’s second-quarter profit 2.1% below estimates
  - Tasnee’s profit for the 2Q beat the highest analyst estimate
  - Al Hammadi second-quarter Profit 20.0 Mln Riyals
Equity gauge in Abu Dhabi loses 0.7% and the index in Dubai falls 0.2%
- Dana Gas retreats 2.8% after it said it plugged and abandoned a deepwater well in Egypt after it didn’t find commercial hydrocarbons
- CHART: Abu Dhabi’s Growth Masks Weakness as Non-Oil GDP Shrinks
Kuwait’s Premier Market index climbs 0.6%, extending increase in 2019 to 28%
- KFH and AUB advance more than 1%, contributing the most to the increase
- Kuwait’s market has about 20% upside driven mostly by as much as $3b in flows tied to index-related changes by May 2020, EFG-Hermes equities strategist Mohamad Al Hajj wrote in a note on July 24
Stock indexes in Bahrain and Israel advance as much as 0.8%, while those in Oman and Qatar fall as much as 0.6%
MORE: Oman tapped the bond market late last week in the first dollar-denominated offering of 2019, aiming to plug its budget deficit after global borrowing costs plunged

To contact the reporter on this story: Filipe Pacheco in Dubai at fpacheco4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Celeste Perri at cperri@bloomberg.net, Sara Marley