Wall Street surge boosts Gulf, real estate lifts Dubai
Saudi Arabia and most other major Gulf stock markets rose in early trade on Thursday, buoyed by the sharp rebound on Wall Street overnight and Brent oil's recovery from below $50 a barrel. Saudi Arabia's index rose 0.8 percent in the first 75 minutes with all 14 petrochemical stocks rising; Saudi Basic Industries increased 0.4 percent. Riyad Bank climbed for a fourth straight day, adding 1.5 percent. The stock has been buoyed by news of merger discussions with National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's biggest lender by assets, which edged up 0.1 percent. Saudi Cable Co, which jumped its 10 percent daily limit in the last session, added a further 4.9 percent; it reached a final settlement deal with creditors on 313.6 million riyals ($83.60 million) of loans. The Dubai index was up 0.5 percent with developer Emaar Properties climbing 2.6 percent and DAMAC Properties increasing 4.1 percent. Construction firm Arabtec gained 2.2 percent after saying its unit was awarded a construction contract by Dubai Properties for 222 million dirhams($60.4 million). Qatar's index rose 0.5 percent with United Development adding 3.1 percent in heavy trade. on Wednesday, the firm said it finalised a sale agreement with an unnamed strategic Qatari investor for a plot at The Pearl Qatar project, for which it is master developer.
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