01/11/2010
Gulf bourses fall as TASI stays flat
Kuwait Finance House ended flat, having been down 3.3 percent intraday, after the Islamic lender posted a 23 percent decline in third-quarter profit.
Kuwait's bank index fell 0.5 percent, trimming its gains to 33 percent since July 4.The Kuwaiti index slipped 0.05 percent to 7,064 points.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (SABIC) climbed 0.5 percent to a five-month high, but disappointing bank earnings continued to weigh on Saudi Arabia's index.
Petrochemical product prices are up about 9 percent in October, said Hesham Tuffaha, Bakheet Investment Group head of research, boosting sector shares.
These have upside potential in the near term, he said, especially with product prices seen rising further if a new quantitative easing program by the US Federal Reserve meets expectations. This is seen pushing up equity and commodity prices as investors hedge their exposure to a weakening US currency.
The Saudi banking index eases 0.03 percent, taking its October losses to 4.1 percent.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) closed unchanged at 6,353.88 points. The sector activity for the day was mostly negative with 10 out of 15 sectors closing with losses ranging from 0.03 percent by the Banks & Financial Services sector to 0.99 percent by the Energy & Utilities sector. On the other side, the gains were witnessed only on five sectors ranging from 0.02 percent by the Transport sector to 0.94 percent by the Insurance sector. The overall market breadth for the day was negative with 44 advancers against 77 decliners giving it an AD ratio of 0.57, the Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market commentary. The stock market for the day reached SR2.78 billion.
Emaar Properties was the main drag, falling 1.5 percent, as Dubai's index eased from Thursday's six-month high and Shakeel Sarwar, head of asset management at Securities & Investment Co. (SICO) in Bahrain, warned further gains were likely to be limited.
