Gulf bourses benefited from recovering oil prices to all close higher yesterday, although Egypt’s exchange stumbled for a second day as investors took profits from a rally inspired by future currency devaluation speculation.
Crude rose from the near-two-month lows hit the previous day: Brent crude was up $1.29 at $47.54 per barrel at 1218 GMT.
US West Texas Intermediate crude was up $1.10 at $45.86 a barrel.
The biggest swing came in Qatar, where the index had been trading as much as 0.9% down earlier in the day before closing up 0.4% at a fresh 11-week high.
Qatar National Bank rose 1%. It posted a 16% jump in second-quarter net profit after market hours, aided by the inclusion of Finansbank in its accounts after the €2.7bn purchase of the Turkish lender concluded in June.
Saudi Arabia’s index advanced for a third day since it resumed trading after the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
Its 0.8% increase was aided by Saudi Arabian Mining Co (Ma’aden), which surged 7.3%.
In the United Arab Emirates, Dubai stocks jumped 1.3%, their sixth straight positive session either side of Eid.
Abu Dhabi’s index recovered from weakness earlier in the day to edge marginally higher as banks recovered some of the losses incurred in the previous two days.
Oman’s index rose 0.5% aided by the performance of banks, including National Bank of Oman which gained 2.1% on the day it announced plans to raise $100mn through a bond tap.
Oman Cement closed flat despite reporting early in the day an 83.9% jump in second-quarter net profit after tax, according to Thomson Reuters calculations.
In Egypt the exchange recovered some of its earlier losses but still ended the day down 0.7%, its second consecutive fall.
Traders booked profits after a 7.7% surge in the two prior sessions following comments from the central bank governor that the Egyptian pound should be a market-based currency where demand and supply set the price.
The biggest fallers were developers Emaar Misr and Amer Group Holding, which dropped 2.5% and 3.3% respectively.
Global Telecom Holding continued its positive run though, rising 1.4% to hit a 16-month high.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the Kuwait index advanced 0.2% to 5,378 points, the Oman index increased 0.5% to 5,849 points and the Bahrain index moved up 0.9% to 1,167 points.