Egypt’s stock market closed at a one-year high yesterday on optimism among local investors that a loan deal with the International Monetary Fund would boost the economy, while weak oil prices and global bourses pushed Gulf bourses down further.
Cairo’s main index jumped 1.6% to a one-year high of 8,105 points in rising turnover, confirming a break above major technical resistance on the April peak of 7,994 points.
Egypt said last week that it was in talks with the IMF to secure a loan of $12bn over three years.
An IMF delegation is in Cairo and Wafik Dawood, portfolio manager at Cairo-based Compass Capital, said local investors were speculating about progress in the talks.
“Not only does the size of the loan matter, it is the fiscal and monetary measures that will have to be implemented soon after which will underpin investors’ sentiment,” Dawood added.
Nine-tenths of traded stocks advanced with investment and real estate firm Amer Group up 7.1%.
Ezz Steel gained 5.9% in its heaviest trade since mid-2009 after comments by the trade minister suggested gas prices to industry might be reduced.
In the Gulf, Dubai’s index, which is sensitive to weak global bourses because it attracts a lot of foreign investors, declined 1.1%, taking its losses since the start of the week to 2.5%.
Emaar Properties, which reported strong earnings on Monday, fell 2.6%.
But a 1.1% gain by Aldar Properties helped lift Abu Dhabi’s index 0.1%. On Tuesday Abu Dhabi’s largest listed developer reported a 9.7% rise in second-quarter net profit.
Qatar’s Gulf International Services lost 4.2% after the oil and gas conglomerate reported a 67.2% fall in second-quarter net profit to 81.8mn riyals ($22.5mn), missing the 108.1mn riyals which QNB Financial Services had forecast. The Qatar index decreased 1.0% to 10,545 points.
Declines in other blue chips also weighed on the main index, which closed down 1.0%.
Riyadh’s index fell 0.5% to 6,238 points, dropping below technical support on the June low of 6,257 points.
Another close below that level would confirm a break of support, triggering a bearish right triangle formed by the highs and lows since April and pointing down to 5,700 points.
National Commercial Bank, the biggest bank, lost 1.1%.
Healthcare stocks outperformed, with Dallah Healthcare jumping 3.6%.
The insurance sector, which is usually heavily traded by short-term investors, was also strong and BUPA Arabia, a mid-cap medical insurer, rose 1.1%.
The seasonally adjusted Emirates NBD Saudi Arabia Purchasing Managers’ Index, a measure of non-oil business activity, climbed to an eight-month high of 56.0 last month from 54.4 in June.
This suggests the economy might be stabilising after a slowdown due to low oil prices and state spending cuts.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the Kuwait index edged up 0.1% to 5,471 points, the Oman index edged down 0.1% to 5,848 points and the Bahrain index dropped 0.5% to 1,156 points.