Middle East ETF News Older than One Year
Arab countries report 9.8% rise in FDI
June 18, 2013--The Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corp (DHAMAN) has said that despite unrest in some Arab countries foreign direct investment into Arab states rose by 9.8% last year, but remained well below its level in 2010, Saudi Gazette has reported.
Arab states attracted FDI worth $47.1bn last year, compared with $42.9bn in 2011, which was 28.5% lower than the figure of $66.2bn in 2010, said Kuwaiti-based DHAMAN. Saudi Arabia topped the list of inflows with $12.2bn, or 25.8% of the total even though its share dropped by 25% from the previous year, it said. Inflows to the UAE rose 25% to $9.6bn, or 20.8% of the total, the report said.
Source: AME Info
Sabic gains on good news from its UK plant
June 18, 2013--The Tadawul All-Share Index closed 0.84% to reach 7,526.29 points.
Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, the world's biggest producer of petrochemicals and better known as Sabic, advanced 0.84% to reach SR93.25. Earlier in the day, Arab News reported that after nearly 20 years of under-investment, Sabic UK Petrochemical’s ethylene liquefaction plant on Teesside has witnessed a dramatic turnaround and is on track to make productivity gains of more than £10m a year, following an intensive reliability program with change management specialists, reliable manufacturing. "Just 18 months after embarking on its manufacturing excellence program with Reliable Manufacturing, plant breakdowns and performance issues have been dramatically reduced. Communication between the plant’s two sites has improved, saving the company more than £1m a year," said the report. Ninety-eight shares gained in Riyadh, while 38 stocks declined.
Source: AME Info
Plans to merge Abu Dhabi, Dubai bourses revived: report
June 17, 2013--The UAE has revived a proposal to merge its two main stock exchanges in a state-backed deal that could boost trade in the local market and attract more foreign investment to the Gulf country, Reuters has reported, citing sources familiar with the plan.
Talks on a potential merger between the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) have occurred on and off since at least 2010, but progress toward the proposed tie-up halted because of differences over how to value the exchanges, and because the two emirates were preoccupied by other issues such as the aftermath of Dubai's 2009-2010 corporate debt crisis. "The entire valuation, structuring of the deal is done. It's been an ongoing process and the decision is now pending at the highest authorities in the two emirates," one source said. "It's not a question of whether they would do it now. It's a question of when," added the source.
Source: AME Info
Oil price spike boosts Tadawul market
June 17, 2013--The Tadawul All-Share Index gained 1.81% to reach 7,463.37 points on Monday amid a bullish market breadth of 153 advancing shares and only one losing stock.
Oil prices rose at the Dubai Mercantile Exchange to a 2-month high on new Mideast tensions around the Syrian conflict. The price of DME Oman oil futures climbed 1.1 percent to reach 103.38 U. S. dollars per barrel. The shares of market bellwether Sabic advanced 1.10%, finishing at SR92.25. Sabic rivals Sahara Petrochemical Co. added 2.12% while Saudi Kayan Petrochemical surged 2.27% to hit SR11.55. Earlier in the day, Sahara announced that an affiliate company of Tasnee and Sahara Olefins Company (Saudi Acrylic Acid Company) has signed on Sunday a tolling and processing agreement with Sadara Chemical Company (Sadara), Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company (Saudi Kayan) and Saudi Butanol Company (SaBuco). Sabuco is a special purpose joint venture company established by Saudi Kayan, Sadara, and SAAC for the purposes of owning and funding a the Butanol production plant (Butanol Plant).
Source: AME Info
Kuwaiti shares lose across the board
June 13, 2013--The KSE Market Index declined by half a percentage point on Thursday, closing at 7,931.09 points.
National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) closed even, while the northern Gulf state's biggest Islamic bank Kuwait Finance House lost 2.90%. Telecom Giant Zain declined by 2.81%. Islamic insurer First Takaful Insurance Co. posted the biggest advance (up 9%).
Source: AME Info
Qatar Exchange drops as market heayvweights lose steam
June 13, 2013--The QE 20 Index closed 0.40% lower at 9,479.80 points on Thursday.
Qatar Electricity and Water dived 2.42% to QR153.30. Ooredoo (formerly Qatar Telecom) ended down 2.34% to QR125, while the country's biggest lender Qatar National Bank finished 1.16% lower at QR153.60. Qatar Islamic Bank bucked the trend by gaining 2.31% to reach QR70.90. Earlier in the day, QIB invited its shareholders to its extraoridnary general meeting on Sunday, June 30 regarding the bank's owenership rights.
Source: AME Info
Aldar, Sorouh soar as developers announce period when merger will be sealed
June 13, 2013--As the euphoria about MSCI's upgrade of the UAE to Emerging Market status waned, the Abu Dhabi market index ADXGI closed unchanged at 3,661.39 points.
Aldar Properties surged 4.31% to Dhs2.42, while Sorouh Real Estate jumped 8.33% to close at Dhs2.99. Earlier in the day, the 2 merging developers, partly owned by the Abu Dhabi government, said the merger would become effective between June 20 to June 30. Sorouh shares will only be de-listed after the period and for Sorouh investors would share 1.288 Adlar shares. the entity would continue to be floated on the ADX and called Aldar Properties with a combined real estate asset portfolios worth $15bn.
Source: AME Info
Dubai bourse stabilises on a high level
June 13, 2013--Despite very nagtive input from Japan, where the Nikkei index dived 6.35% after the Yen rallied, the DFM General Index closed 0.16% higher at 2,399.58 points on Thursday.
District cooling speacialist Tabreed jumped 8.15% to reach Dhs1.99. The DFM, the only Arab bourse being listed, added 1.52% to hit Dhs2.01. Emaar a the most liquid share, slipped 0.34% to Dhs5.78. Takaful Emarat lost the most, heading down 6.12% to Dhs0.69. Some 515m shares were traded valued at Dhs726m.
Source: AME Info
MSCI Upgrades UAE & Qatar
June 12, 2013--UAE and Qatar's upgrade to membership in the index is expected to take effect around May 31, 2014. Qatar would account for 0.45% of the weighting of the Emerging Markets index, with the UAE accounting for 0.4%.
The said exchanges had first sought index inclusion in the emerging markets index in 2008 and had been denied entry to the grouping five times since the first review in 2009. The move is a major sign of approval from institutional investors for the countries' stock markets, and is expected to attract more stable sources of capital to local equities. Dubai and Abu Dhabi have been the top performing markets in 2013. The major reason for such an exceptional growth has been the rebound in real estate and construction market. Not only Real Estate stocks have rallied but the same has been witnessed in Banking and Construction companies as both the sectors are highly associated with Real Estate. On the other hand Qatar has been a late starter but has recently picked up pace and currently stands at low end of the table amongst GCC in terms of return. MSCI upgrade has also been a prime reason for the run up in both the countries. Although the news would be taken very positively by the investors, foreign funds tracking the MSCI benchmarks will likely start to invest only after the reclassification takes effect in May next year. The market seems to have given a thumps up to the news evident by the 2%+ opening jump today. Although this is related particularly to UAE and Qatar, the upgrade will also bring other regional markets into the focus of EM fund managers leading to a positive sentiment overall.
Source: Zawya
Saudi market ends trading week positively
June 12, 2013--Despite market bellwether Sabic falling 0.53% to SR93.75, the Tadawul All-Share Index rose 0.54% to reach 7,623.89 points on Wednesday.
The last trading day of the Saudi Arabian working week witnessed ample interest in shares of Dar Al Arkan Alarkan Real Estate Development Company, closing 3.94% higher at SR10.50. Dairy food producer Almarai Company gained 0.36% to reach SR70.25. Earlier in the day, Almarai said following to the announcement dated March 30th 2013, regarding the agreement of the boards of United Farmers Holding Co. (UFHC) the terms of a recommended cash offer to acquire all the share capital of CFG, "Almarai is pleased to announce to its shareholders that ,at a hearing on June 11th 2013 in the High Court of Justice of the Isle of man, which is common practice in dealing with this type of transactions, the Court granted an order sanctioning the scheme of arrangement under section 157 of the Isle of Man Companies Act 2006 to effect the recommended cash acquisition by UFHC of the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of CFG on the terms set out in a circular dispatched by CFG to its shareholders on April 25th 2013."
Source: AME Info
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