Aldar lifts Abu Dhabi; Gulf markets mixed

Reuters/Dubai

Shares in Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties helped lift the emirate’s benchmark to a 39-month high, with investors expecting strong dividend payouts, while profit-taking weighed on most other regional markets.

Aldar jumped 5.0% to a four-week high. The company’s board recommended a cash dividend of 6 fils, which needs shareholder approval. The developer paid a cash dividend of 5 fils in 2012.

Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments, said some investors were speculating that shareholders might press at their upcoming meeting for an even higher dividend than 6 fils, ahead of the company’s planned merger with Sorouh Real Estate, which is up 2.9%. In addition, a strong outlook for 2013 corporate earnings in general is helping the stock market, he added.

Heavyweight First Gulf Bank rose 2.4% and telecommunications operator Etisalat gained 1.0%.

The market index climbed 1.1% to its highest since November 2009.

Dubai’s measure meanwhile, slipped 0.2%, extending declines from Wednesday’s 38-month high.

“The market has been resilient in the profit-taking activity with new investors entering and building positions at these levels where the market has already gone up quite a bit this year,” Shurrab said.

Shares in Air Arabia fell 2.7%. The carrier reported a 6% rise in fourth-quarter net profit but missed analysts’ estimates.

In Saudi Arabia, the bourse snapped a six-session winning streak. The index slipped 0.2% to finish at 7,072 points.

“The index found some resistance close to 7,100,” said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of technical analysis at Cairo’s Beltone Financial. “The current key support is found near 6,900. We are expecting a flat movement between the current support and the resistance before the index moves towards 7,250 points.”

Analysts believe that valuations in main sectors, of petrochemicals and banks, are still attractive at current levels, with selling pressure over-done during the fourth-quarter earnings.

Petrochemical sector’s index declined 0.6% and banking shares lost 0.3%.

Elsewhere, Kuwait’s bourse rose to a fresh nine-month high on earnings optimism.

Investors overlooked an estimate-trailing drop in profit from telecom operator Zain, which blamed foreign exchange losses for the decline. Shares in Zain ended flat.

“People are accepting the results, which are not so bad if you neutralise the FX loss,” said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global Investment House. “There is a lot of momentum being driven by expectations of financial results. Retail traders, buying small-caps, is another force driving the market.”

National Mobile Telecommunications Co (Wataniya) rose 1.7%. It reported a 26.5% fall in fourth-quarter net profit as more customers failed to offset tougher competition at home and foreign exchange losses took their toll.

Kuwait’s index gained 0.1%.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Oman’s index eased 0.03% to 5,897 points, while Bahrain’s index gained 0.3% to 1,095 points.

Egypt’s index slipped 0.4% to 5,696 points.