Oil fuels Gulf stocks rally

Dubai - Dubai index jumps 3.78%; Abu Dhabi climbs 2.16%; Tadawul soars 3.18%

Rising oil prices invited bulls to Gulf bourses and Dubai led the rally on Thursday.
Oil surged as much as eight per cent to above $35 per barrel on Thursday, hitting a three-week high and bouncing sharply away from a 12-year low set this month, as expectations built that major producers may cooperate to cut output.
Dubai Financial Market (DFM) General Index jumped by 3.78 per cent to 2,857.24 points, Abu Dhabi's benchmark index increased by 2.16 per cent to 3,910.44 points, and the Tadawul All Share Index of Saudi Arabia up by 3.18 per cent to close at 5,879.98 points. Stock markets and Oman and Bahrain also witnessed more than one per cent increase in their respective indices.
Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) was up 3.44 per cent. It jumped 5.7 per cent on Thursday when reported higher than expected fourth-quarter net profit. Popular stock Emaar Properties jumped by 4.94 per cent to Dh4.89 with 93.8 million shares changed hands. Arabtec increased by 3.48 per cent to Dh1.19 with 61.2 million shares. Gulf Finance House topped the list of volume leaders with 172 million shares and its share price increased by more than 5 per cent to Dh0.554.
The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks 200 companies in GCC nations, jumped 6.8 per cent in the past five days, including a 2.8 per cent gain on Thursday.
Bets that the Federal Reserve won't raise interest rates in the next few months as policy makers monitor global developments is also boosting demand for riskier assets, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index climbing 1.4 per cent this week.
DFM weekly
Dubai Financial Market announced that the value of shares bought by foreign investors, or non-UAE nationals, during the week ended on January 28 reached Dh1,228.86 million comprising 50.76 per cent of the total value of stocks traded during the period.
The value of stocks sold by foreign investors during the same period reached Dh1,232.34 million comprising 50.91 per cent of the total value of stocks traded during the period. Net foreign investment on the market reached Dh3.49 million during the same period.
The value of stocks bought by institutional investors during last week reached Dh714.41 million comprising 29.51 per cent of the total value of stocks traded during the period. The value of stock s sold by institutional investors during the period reached Dh619.76 million which constitutes 25.60 per cent of the total value of stocks traded during the period. Net institutional investment on the market reached Dh94.65 million during the period.
- abdulbasit@khaleejtimes.com