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Reuters
Qatar’s stock market continued to recover on Tuesday from last week’s big losses, while Saudi Arabia’s main index was dragged down by the banking and insurance sectors.
The Qatari index rose for a third straight day in a technical rebound after hitting five-year lows last week. It was up 0.5 percent on Tuesday after gaining 0.9 percent.
Foreign investors from outside the Gulf were net buyers by a considerable margin and accounted for nearly 40 percent of buying, bourse data showed.
Saudi Arabia’s index fell 1.0 percent as most banking and insurance stocks
were down. Bank Aljazira plunged its 10 percent daily limit after announcing that it would resubmit a request to the regulator for approval of a $800 million rights issue; it appointed Alinma Investment and JP Morgan Saudi Arabia as financial advisers. Banque Saudi Fransi lost 3.3 percent while Saudi British Bank was down 1.9 percent. The central bank has taken a tough stance on compliance in the insurance sector during recent months, suspending business at several insurance companies. Petrochemical firm PetroRabigh plunged 7.0 percent. In Dubai, builder Drake & Scull, the most heavily traded stock in recent days, rose 2.1 percent in its largest trading volume since it listed in 2009, gaining for a fifth straight day. The stock has been surging since last Wednesday, after the firm completed a capital restructuring.
Dubai’s main index was marginally lower as GFH Financial dropped 1.8 percent.