Region mostly weak but blue chips buoy Egypt

Dubai : Most Middle Eastern stock markets fell yesterday in line with a weak global trend, with Saudi Arabia seeing profit-taking in cement shares, but Egypt rose on the back of several blue chips,

The region had already dropped on Sunday in response to Wall Street’s Friday plunge, so Gulf markets far outperformed other bourses in Asia, where MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.4pc on Monday afternoon.

The Saudi index slipped 0.3 per cent as Tabuk Cement pulled back 1.9pc. Tabuk and many other firms in the sector had jumped in the past several days on a media report that the government had started awarding contracts to build the huge NEOM business zone in the northwest of the country.

Many petrochemical shares were soft but PetroRabigh soared 9.9pc after reporting fourth-quarter net profit jumped to 641‍ million riyals ($170.9 million) from 181 million riyals a year ago, as sales increased 27pc.

“There is a high level of debt - we are working on debt amortisation. God willing in 2020 we’ll finish paying all debts from the first phase of PetroRabigh, and what remains are debts from the second phase,” PetroRabigh chief executive Nasser al-Mahasher told Al Ekhbariya television.

“This will reduce the level of indebtedness and will reflect on company performance and profitability.”

Dubai’s index fell 0.2pc. Most real estate firms dropped with Emaar Properties 0.6pc lower, but construction firm Arabtec climbed 1.9pc.

In Qatar, the index slid 1.4pc, bringing its losses in the past five trading days to 6.5pc and making Qatar the worst-performing Gulf market in that period by a large margin.

In Egypt, the index rebounded 0.6pc as Global Telecom gained 2.9pc and investment firm Qalaa Holdings, the most heavily traded stock, added 5.7pc. Exchange data showed foreign investors were net buyers of Egyptian stocks by a considerable margin.

National Housing rocketed 10pc after saying it would hold an auction this month to sell the Meridian Heliopolis hotel.