JEDDAH - Stocks in Saudi Arabia and Qatar continued to benefit on Sunday from year-end dividend-hunting while Bahrain slipped after some companies posted third-quarter losses. Markets in the United Arab Emirates remained volatile.
Saudi stock benchmark Tadawul All Share Index climbed 0.8 percent to 8,384 points.
The top performer in Saudi Arabia was Southern Province Cement, which is expected to deliver a 5.9 percent dividend yield this year compared with the index average of 3.9 percent, according to consensus analyst estimates from Thomson Reuters. The stock jumped 9.2 percent.
Other cement producers such as Qassim Cement and Yamamah Cement were also among Sunday's top performers with expected dividend yields well above the average. The Saudi market climbed 0.8 percent to a fresh five-year high.
Qatari companies are also known for paying relatively high dividends. The Qatari index rose 0.7 percent to a five-year high of 10,285 points; after it confirmed a break last week above August's peak of 10,110 points, technical analysis suggests it is pointed up to the June 2008 peak of 12,637 in the long term.
Bahrain's index fell 0.5 percent after two listed companies, Ithmaar Bank and Gulf Finance House, reported third-quarter losses.
Although Ithmaar's loss of 1.7 million dinars ($4.5 million) was 74 percent smaller than a year ago, its shares fell 2.2 percent. Gulf Finance House dropped 6.5 percent after reporting a loss of $3.2 million, which compares with a profit of $1.8 million in the third quarter of 2012.
In Dubai, the main index weakened 0.4 percent as some retail investors appeared to be selling small-cap stocks
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Gulf Navigation, the most active stock, tumbled as much as 10 percent at one stage but ended only 0.5 percent lower. It reported an operating loss of $3.55 million for the third quarter against a year-earlier loss of $4.46 million.
In addition it announced a non-recurring loss of $84.30 million as it reduced goodwill because of the proposed sale of its very large crude carriers, part of its exit from the crude oil transport sector.
"Such aggressive selling on retail stocks is usually combined with margin calls on investors," said Marwan Shurrab, fund manager and head of trading at Vision Investments.
Healthy trading volumes, however, showed that other players in the market were willing to buy.
"The good news is we are not losing appetite," said Shurrab. "The investor base is still there."
Dubai's index is up 74 percent year-to-date and analysts expect it to remain volatile until Nov. 27, when a decision is due on the emirate's bid to host the Expo 2020 world fair.
In Oman, Galfar Engineering and Contracting sank 3.2 percent after a senior official at state-run Petroleum Development Oman went on trial on Thursday on charges of taking a bribe from two executives of the company. The two Galfar executives have denied the accusation. Egypt, which had been declining for most of the last week, rose 0.8 percent on Sunday.
Standard & Poor's Ratings on Friday raised the country's long and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings to B-/B from CCC+/C, citing the billions of dollars in aid to Cairo from Gulf countries.
© The Saudi Gazette 2013
