DUBAI - An overnight rise in crude oil prices to a fresh five-month peak helped to push the Riyadh stock index slightly higher on Thursday while Qatar secured its third straight day of gains.
The Saudi index
.TASI
edged up by 0.1 percent as all but two of the 14 listed petrochemical producers rose as Brent contracts
LCOc1
traded around $56 a barrel.
Yanbu National Petrochemical
2290.SE
added 0.9 percent. Shares in the large-cap producer have been active for four sessions, and one Riyadh-based analyst told Reuters that investors have been building positions in "relatively safer petrochemical stocks" because of the recent climb in the oil price.
Shares of media conglomerate Saudi Research and Marketing
4210.SE
jumped 4.6 percent after it signed a contract with Bloomberg for an exclusive license to launch a Bloomberg Arab channel. The contract is for 10 years with an annual license cost of 33.8 million riyals.
"Local retail investors depend heavily on financial TV programmes for news and analysis, like Alarbiya and CNBC Arabia, so to add Bloomberg in Arabic will mean SRMG is set to benefit from advertising revenue," said a Saudi-based investment advisor.
In Qatar, the index
.QSI
managed to build positive momentum in the final hour of trade, and added 0.2 percent. Oil drilling service provider Gulf International Services
GISS.QA
climbed 3.8 percent and maritime and logistics company Qatar Navigation
QNNC.QA
added 0.3 percent.
Shares in the index are now up 1 percent in three days thanks to local funds ratcheting up their buying and foreign funds slightly easing their selling of Qatari shares, bourse data showed.
Bourses in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt were closed because of the Islamic New Year holiday.
HIGHLIGHTS
SAUDI ARABIA
* The index
.TASI
edged up by 0.09 percent to 7,326 points.
QATAR
* The index
.QSI
rose 0.2 percent to 8,361 points.
OMAN
* The index
.MSI
added 1.2 percent to 5,100 points.
(Editing by Keith Weir) ((celine.aswad@thomsonreuters.com)(+971 5 6224 7653)(Reuters Messaging: celine.aswad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) <
