Saudi stock market continues rebound, Egypt pulls back

DUBAI / Reuters

Saudi Arabia’s stock market continued rebounding on Tuesday in a generally strong Gulf region, while a drop by shares in real estate firm Emaar Misr dragged down Egypt.
The Saudi index climbed 1.1 percent, adding to Monday’s 1.7 percent gain.
With the fourth-quarter earnings reporting season more or less over, many Saudi firms have posted flat or weak profits because of government austerity steps and a sluggish economy. Over half a dozen major firms, including food maker Savola and several banks, missed analysts’ estimates by wide margins.
But stocks in most companies which missed estimates have recovered strongly, suggesting investors are looking towards improvement in the non-oil economy this year as the government’s introduction of austerity measures slows.
Mouwasat Medical Services jumped 3.5 percent after saying its board was recommending a cash dividend of 2.5 riyals per share for 2016, up from 2 riyals in the previous year. The company reported an estimate-beating 34.2 percent rise in fourth-quarter profit last week.
Savola surged 3.3 percent. It had dropped 2.0 percent on Sunday after reporting a shock fourth-quarter net loss, but jumped 5.4 percent on Monday.
Kuwait’s index climbed 0.9 percent as trading volume remained extremely high, though it fell slightly from Monday’s level. The index is up 17 percent since the end of last year, causing funds and individual speculators to pile into the market to catch the momentum.
Dubai’s index rose 0.3 percent as GFH Financial , a speculative favourite and the most heavily traded stock, jumped 11.2 percent. It also soared during the day on Monday but gave up all its gains by the close on that day.
In Qatar, the index rose 1.0 percent as Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan, the most heavily traded stock, rose 4.6 percent to a 14-month high.
Egypt sank 0.9 percent as Emaar Misr dropped 4.3 percent to 2.67 Egyptian pounds, confirming a break of technical support at 2.80 pounds, the bottom of its range since mid-November.
That triggered a bearish right triangle formed by the highs and lows since November and pointing down to the area of 2.30 pounds.
Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals jumped 10 percent to 19.89 pounds, however. Last week Beltone Financial raised its fair value estimate for the stock to 32.3 pounds from 17.68 pounds, citing stronger global oil prices among other factors.