Region may have upward bias on oil, interest rates

DUBAI / Reuters

Middle Eastern stock markets may have an upward bias on Sunday because of a gradual recovery in oil prices and in Egypt’s case, last week’s interest rate cut, although there appears to be little reason for any strong rise in equities.
Wall Street closed marginally firmer while Brent oil continued its gradual recovery, settling up 51 US cents at $64.84 a barrel.
In Egypt, the 1 percentage point rate cut exceeded the median expectation. In Saudi Arabia, National Medical Care Co may attract interest after proposing a 1 riyal per share cash dividend for 2017; it paid no dividend for 2016.
Dubai Investments appointed Al Mal Capital as lead manager for the initial public offer of shares in Emirates District Cooling. Last at AED2.27, Dubai Investments is testing major technical support on September and December 2017 lows of AED2.28. This would be a logical base for a rebound, but any clean break of support would be very bearish, triggering a head & shoulders pattern formed by the highs and lows since August and pointing in the medium term down to the
mid-2017 lows around AED2.0.