Mideast stocks eke out some gains in early trading

Mideast stocks eked out some gains in early hours of trading on Monday, while Saudi Arabia’s stock rose, boosted by petrochemical shares. However, Qatar fell as most of its banks slipped.

Oil prices were largely steady after falling 2.0 per cent in the previous session, but remained under pressure amid weaker growth in major economies and concern about oversupply.

The Saudi Arabian index rose 0.6 per cent in the first 90 minutes with Saudi Basic Industries adding 1.3 per cent. Al Rajhi Bank gained 0.5 per cent. Saudi Telecom rose 4.0 per cent to 91.20 riyals.

Arqaam Capital rated the stock a “core buy” and raised its target price to 103 riyals.

But another telecommunications firm, Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), was down 3.5 per cent at 17.36 riyals.

Al Khaleej Training and Education jumped 7.9 per cent after it was awarded a 42.2 million riyal ($11.3 million) contract by the Ministry Of Labour and Social Development.

Qatar’s index lost 0.7 per cent as Qatar Fuel dropped 2.0 per cent and Industries Qatar declined 0.9 per cent.

Recently listed Qatar Aluminium plunged 9.2 per cent to 11.82 riyals, a day after rising 29 per cent on its debut.

In Dubai, the index rebounded 0.5 per cent from a slide of 1.6 per cent in the last session, with construction firm Arabtec gaining 3.5 per cent.

Dubai Investments, which has been languishing at multi-year lows, added 3.1 per cent.