Petchems, telecom lift Saudi stocks

Dubai : Petrochemical stocks and an earnings beat by Saudi Telecom Co lifted Riyadh’s stock market yesterday while other Gulf bourses were sluggish, once more ignoring a strong performance by Wall Street on the previous trading day.

The Saudi stock index climbed 0.7 per cent. Unusually, four of the 10 most active stocks were petrochemical producers after oil prices rose sharply at the end of last week, with Brent crude hitting $60 a barrel for the first time since 2015; industry leader Saudi Basic Industries gained 0.8pc.

Saudi Telecom climbed 3.6pc after reporting an 18.2pc rise in third-quarter net profit to 2.62 billion riyals ($698.7 million), topping the 2.28bn forecast of four analysts polled by Reuters. But the increase was mostly due to cost-cutting; revenue from services fell 8.5pc to 12.84bn riyals.

Another piece of positive news was an announcement by global equity index compiler FTSE Russell that it had launched stand-alone Saudi Arabia indexes, in anticipation of Riyadh meeting requirements in early 2018 to join FTSE’s secondary emerging market index.

National Commercial Bank, the biggest listed lender and one which would attract sizeable fund inflows due to inclusion in the emerging market index, rose 1.8pc.

The Dubai index fell 0.3pc in a broad-based decline, with eight of the 10 most active stocks dropping and none rising.

Qatar’s index edged up 0.1pc as Mesaieed Petrochemical gained 1.0pc on the back of stronger oil prices. Qatar Gas Transport, which would also benefit from higher prices in the oil and gas industry, surged 3.2pc.

In Kuwait, telecommunications firm Zain fell 3.3pc after it reported net income fell 7pc from a year ago in the third quarter, in line with analysts’ forecasts. The Kuwaiti stock index fell 0.2pc.

Egypt’s index added 0.5pc as blue chip Global Telecom surged 4.1pc. Egypt Aluminum rose 0.7pc after the company reported a leap in quarterly net profit to 712.4m Egyptian pounds ($40.5m) from 28.8m pounds a year earlier, as sales more than doubled.