Oman continues record setting streak

RECORD STREAK: Oman continued its rally in Sunday's trading, hitting a new all-time record. (Getty Images)

Oman and the UAE were the Gulf’s only gainers in Sunday’s trading as Saudi broke its five-day winning streak and other markets fell off the pace after strong performances last week.

Muscat’s main index surged to a new all-time high, extending a tremendous rally which has seen two record closes in the past week alone.

National Bank of Oman (NBO) led the way along with Oman Cement. The two shot up 2.45% and 6.47% respectively to drive the index 1.03% higher for a new record of 11,264.86 points.

“After Bank Muscat and Oman International Bank posted profit growth in the first quarter, the market is expecting NBO to accordingly deliver profit increase of between 35% to 40%,” Adel Nasr, broker at United Securities brokerage, told newswire Reuters.

“Foreign and local institutions are accumulating the bank’s shares."

Arabtech led gains in Dubai after the construction giant announced it won a $2.72 billion building contract in Russia. Emirates NBD also contributed to the upward momentum, rising 2.59% before the closing bell.

According to analysts, the UAE benchmarks have hit a positive bullish stride.

“Technically there is a definite uptrend, especially in Dubai,” Sherif Abdul Khalek of Al-Futtaim HC Securities told ArabianBusiness.com.

“The market has looked very good in the last three [trading] days. Breaking the 5,800 point mark is very important and higher volumes also indicate more confidence, especially on the retail side,” Khalek said.

Dubai’s benchmark closed 0.76% higher for the session to end on 5,785.54 points.

In the UAE capital, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank gained 1.46% and 0.66% respectively to help the main index rise 0.24%. The benchmark, which closed on 5,018.40 points, is up 10.23% this year.

Khalek said the ability of the UAE markets to weather the storm of global volatility in recent months was a positive sign the two are fundamentally sound, and predicted more gains in coming months.

“We were affected because of the global markets, but fundamentally we are very different from the foreign markets. We are very strong and expect higher results,” he said.

Saudi Arabia's main index closed lower for the first time in six trading days, steered by Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) and Al-Rajhi Bank. The two ended down 1.82% and 3.22% respectively to drag the benchmark down 1.38%. At 9,766.27 points, the Gulf’s largest market has lost over 11% so far this year.

The story was similar for Kuwait’s benchmark, which lost 0.93% to end on 14,464.50 points. The banks led losses as Kuwait Finance House and National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) dipped 1.32% and 2.02% respectively.

Bahrain too slipped into the red as Gulf Finance House and Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait edged slightly lower. The two finished the session down 0.73% and 0.14% respectively while the benchmark ended down 0.23% on 2,831.67 points.

Profit taking in Qatar saw Doha’s main index fall with Qatar Commercial Bank and Qatar Islamic Bank down 3.12% and 1.28% respectively.

The benchmark, which had been on a blistering run over the past two weeks, dipped 1.03% to close on 11,267.31 points.

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