Middle East ETF News Older than One Year
men to sell sukuk to finance growth
January 6, 2011--Yemen plans to sell $500m of local currency Islamic bonds to fund the country's budget deficit and spur the Shariah-compliant finance industry, Bloomber has reported.
The central bank may offer sukuk in the domestic market from the first quarter, Deputy Finance Minister Jalal Yaqoub told the news service.
Source: AME Info
Arabtec shares recover
January 6, 2011--The local Dubai exchange finished the first week of the New Year and new decade positively. The DFM General Index added. Shares of Arabtec recovered 2.02% to reach Dhs2.02, after the UAE's largest construction firm suffered a setback on news that its CEO Riad Kamal was banned from trading by the market regulator ESCA for six months.
CEO Kamal called the issue "trivial, according to media reports, and declared to cooperate with ESCA to find a solution. Three stocks lost, 22 gained and one ended flat. Islamic bank Ajmanbank declined 0.21% to finish at Dhs0.815. Its rival Noor Islamic Bank (NIB, not listed), which has also just passed three years of operations, today opened today the new headquarter for its Islamic insurance arm Noor Takaful in Dubai at the Sheikh Zayed Road near the Noor Islamic Bank-Metro station. Grop CEO Hussain AlQemzi told AMEinfo.com that he is positive for the Islamic finance in 2011 in general and that he is optimistic NIB will break even in 2011. The Group CEO again denied that there were any plans to merge with Islamic bank Dubai Bank. Traded volumes declined 15% as 66.58m shares worth Dhs106.88m (off 20%). During the first week of January the DFMGI gained 2.34%.
Source: AME Info
Abu Dhabi blue chips gain, index dips
January 6, 2011--The ADX General Index dipped 0.16% to end at 2,752.33 points, despite gains among real estate and energy heavyweights. Shares of Dana gas surged 1.30% to reach Dhs0.78. Aldar Properties gained 2.59%, closing at Dhs2.43, while Sorouh Real Estate posted a profit of 1.83%, ending at Dhs1.67.
Etisalat, however, declined 0.94% to finish at Dhs10.70 and as trading volumes remained low the telecom giant weighed on the index. Some 72.29m worth Dhs134.99m changed hands. Over the week the ADXGI added 1.19%.
Source:AME
Banks weigh on Kuwait exchange
January 6, 2011--The Kuwait market KSE did not cheer after the country's Prime Minister Shaikh Nasser Al Mohammad Al Sabah survived a parliamentary no-cooperation motion on late Wednesday. The KSE Market or Price Index weakened
Thursday by 0.34%, ending at 6,975.6 points. Islamic bank Kuwait Finance House (KFH) lost 3.22% on profit booking, closing at KD1.200. Gulf Bank of Kuwait, which doubled in value in 2010, dipped 1.72%, finishing at KD0.570.
Source: AME Info
Qatar market cracks 9,000 points-level
January 6, 2011--A gain of 0.28% at the Doha-based Qatar Exchange (QE) was enough to rise above 9,000 points, as the lead index closed at 9.019.26.
Real estate developer United Development Company added 0.72% to reach QR28.00. Doha Insurance finished 1.32% higher to close at QR30.70.
Source: AME Info
Indian Rupee Volume Hits All-Time Daily High on January 5th
January 6, 2011--Trading activity on DGCX Indian Rupee / Dollar futures is growing rapidly, with daily volume touching 12,000 contracts for the first time on January 5th, 2010. 11,968 contracts traded and notional value of USD 525.21 million. This was the second record daily volume in a row.
The Indian Rupee futures contract continues to attract more interest daily, as market participants become aware of its unique offering as the only Indian Rupee futures contract available for trading and hedging outside of India. Furthermore, the contract is cash settled based on the US Dollar reference rate published by the Reserve Bank of India on the last day of trading.
Source: DGCX
Nasdaq Dubai equities traded value rises 22% in 2010
January 5, 2011--The value of equities traded on Nasdaq Dubai increased by 22% to $1.31bn in 2010, up from $1.07bn in 2009. The increase was achieved during a challenging year for regional exchanges. Nasdaq Dubai was the best performing stock exchange in the UAE during the year, measured by percentage change of traded value from 2009.
Regional brokers gained market share of traded value on Nasdaq Dubai from international brokers in 2010. The regional brokers share more than doubled to 43%, up from 20% in 2009.
Source: AME Info
Tadawul bourse dips slightly
January 5, 2011--The Tadawul market dipped 0.05% to close at 6,696.55 on Wednesday, as investors lacked catalysts. A third of the 145 traded securities finished the day unchanged.
Al-Baha Investment & Development Co. ended as the main losing share, weakening 2.70% to end at SR12.60. Arab National Bank surged 4.76%, reaching SR39.60. During the first week of 2011, the TASI index gained 1.15%.
Source: AME Info
DGCX 2010 Annual Volumes Increase 28% to Record 1.925 Million Contracts
2010 is the Exchange’s best year in terms of annual volumes and value
Currency futures increased by 109%; with Indian Rupee futures growing by 625% on 2009
January 5, 2011--Annual volumes for 2010 on DGCX registered a 28% growth on 2009, reflecting a surge in the popularity of DGCX's cleared and regulated derivatives both as an asset class and a hedging tool. The Exchange ended 2010, its best-ever year, with a total annual volume of 1.925 million contracts. The value of the Exchange’s annual volume reached $104.18 billion, a 32% increase on last year.
Total currency volumes reached 1,287,409 contracts, a 109% increase from last year. Annual volumes of Euro, Pound and Yen futures rose 54%, 12% and 43% from 2009 to reach 473,771, 205,548 and 82,922 contracts. 2010 volumes for Gold and WTI reached 490,175 and 115,777 contracts respectively. Australian Dollar, Canadian Dollar and Swiss Franc, currency pairs launched by DGCX in 2010, achieved annual volumes of 14,064, 15,735 and 14,644 contracts in 2010.
Indian Rupee futures were the Exchange’s biggest success story in 2010 accounting for 480,725 contracts over the year, a growth of 625% from 2009. The Indian Rupee enjoyed an outstanding run in 2010 setting five consecutive monthly records between June and October. In December, it recorded its highest monthly volumes of 98,105 contracts. It also set its highest ever daily volume of 8,275 contracts on Nov 12.
For December 2010, volumes on DGCX reached 164,893 contracts. Currencies reached 119,566 contracts, while Gold registered 36,701, Silver 3,598 and WTI futures 5,028 contracts. Currency volumes in December grew by 34% year-on-year.
Source: DGCX:
What to expect in 2011 for GCC Markets-Markaz Report
Janiary 4, 2011--
After severely underperforming Emerging Market peers in 2009, GCC markets performed more on par with the same in 2010; the S&P GCC index has gained 11% YTD versus about 13% for MSCI EM (MSCI BRIC remains an underperformer with a gain of just 3%). A recent report released by Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz”, “What to expect in 2011”, points out that there was no perceptible difference in the scale and magnitude of issues that haunted the market post financial crisis. Companies are still busy repairing their balance sheets and image, while governments are busy spending with nothing specific to write home about regarding regulatory reforms.
The report notes that while oil prices did not spring any negative surprise in 2010, it was not enough to propel the market. In the wake of mounting pressures in the form of weak earnings, ultra weak liquidity and ever present volatility, stable oil price alone is not sufficient to lift the markets to heights that investors are used to in the past.
One possible reason for the ultra poor liquidity is that retail investors (constituting the backbone) are still busy putting their house in order while sources of traditional funding for stock market (bank lending) has come to a complete halt. Earnings destruction in certain cyclical sectors like the investment sector has been too severe to stage a meaningful comeback. Even the elephant among the sectors i.e., banking, continued to surprise investors with high levels of provisioning. Given firmer oil prices and a better global economic environment, the GCC is set to show stronger growth going forward despite slower private investment/credit growth continuing to be a drag on economic growth. Private demand is expected to remain weak in the intermediate term until investor confidence returns more fully and bank balance sheets return to a healthier state.
Overall, the authors remain optimistic in the New Year with positive outlooks for Kuwait, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Oman while neutral for others. There are several interesting investment themes at play. We reiterate our strong belief that high volatility should be a source of portfolio strategy rather than a problem. We also provide some ideas in the space of defensives and cyclicals. We believe that GCC is a good yield play. Watching analysts’ coverage can provide some important clues to stock picking. Strategies that benefit in a low liquidity environment are also emphasized. Finally, it is time to remove the wheat from the chaff through the lenses of corporate governance.
Source: Markaz
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