Middle East ETF News Older than One Year
Saudi stock market gains slightly over the week
June 1, 2011--The Tadawul bourse failed to jump on the bullish bandwagon and closed only 0.10% higher at 6,741.83 points on Wednesday. Market bellwether Sabic (down 0.23% at SR107), the Kingdom's petrochemical giant, did not advance during the week, after Credit Suisse downgraded Sabic to 'neutral' from 'outperform' at the end of last week.
Citigroup's Chief Economist Middle East Farouk Soussa commented in a study on Saudi Arabia's plans to cap low-qualified expats' stay to 6 years, saying that "We would caution that the cost of moving aggressively on Saudization of the work force will have ramifications for the economy as a whole on at least four fronts: (i) potential failure of a number of private sector companies, (ii) potential productivity loss, (iiI) economic cost of training locals for jobs, and (iv) higher wage bill. Lower competitiveness with pass through to inflation." But Soussa adds that KSA must tackle the problem of youth unemployment now, despite the aforementioned costs. Soussa: "Serious imbalances have been building in the country over decades and that we believe require urgent attention: only 40% of Saudis of working age are in employment, 43% of 20-24-year-olds are officially unemployed, 51% of Saudis are below the age of 21, expat workers make up 90% of the private sector work force." Over the week the Tadawul bourse added 0.27%.
Source: AME Info
Kuwaiti investment firms now need separate lending licenses
May 31, 2011--The governor of Kuwait's central bank, Sheikh Salem Abdul Aziz al-Sabah, has said local investment firms need to have separate licences to operate their lending and investment businesses as the apex bank eliminates regulatory overlap with the newly formed Capital Markets Authority, Reuters has reported.
"The Central Bank of Kuwait requests from investment firms to review their positions, assets and activities, and look into the possibility of fixing their positions, so that it is supervised by only one of the two parties (central bank or Capital Markets Authority)," the central bank governor said in a circular.
Source: AME Info
Petrochem soars on postponed merger
May 31, 2011-The Saudi Stock Exchange's lead index Tasi ended up 0.04% on Monday, closing at 6,735.98 points. Shares of National Petrochemical Co., known as Petrochem jumped 6.10% to SR24.35 after Saudi Industrial Investment Group (off 0.21% at SR23.65) said it would delay a merger with Petrochem until Petrochem's Project,
"Saudi Polymers Company", starts up and reaches a stable state of production. "This postponement will help provide a better valuation of the companies involved, as it will rely on actual figures," the statement to the Tadawul bourse says. Sixty-one stocks gained, 55 lost and 29 ended flat.
Source: AME Info
Barwa Real Estate recovers 1.90%
May 31, 2011--The Qatar Exchange Index ended a two-day downturn on Tuesday, closing a quarter percent higher at 8,375.19 points.
Barwa Real Estate surged 1.90% to close at SR29.50. As most real estate shares in Qatar, Barwa suffered heavy loses in May.
Source: AME Info
Bahrain Bourse closes even
May 31, 2011--The Bahrain Bourse ended flat at 1,346.66 points on Tuesday.
Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH) closed flat at $0.125. Earlier in the day GFH reported a profit for the first quarter of $11.93m compared to a loss of $7.5m in the same period of 2010.
Source: AME Info
Kuwait market finishes flat
May 31, 2011--The KSE Market Index closed 0.06% higher at 6,378.2 points on Tuesday.
Investment company Ekttitab Holding soared 7.54% to close at KD0.0285. National Bank of Kuwait, known as NBK and the largest lender in the northern Gulf state, added 1.69%, closing at KD1.200.
Source: AME Info
Abu Dhabi National Hotels gains the most at Abu Dhabi bourse
May 31, 2011--The ADX General Index continued its step-by-step recovery and closed at 2,639.14 points (up 0.68%). Shares of Abu Dhabi National Hotels surged 9.80% to reach Dhs2.80.
Gulf News reported that the number of hotel guests rose 10% to 694,181 during the first four months 2010 compared to to the same period a year ago. Profit takings dragged Abu Dhabi National Takaful down by 1.66% to Dhs7.22.
Source: AME Info
Bahrain Bourse closes even
May 31, 2011--The Bahrain Bourse ended flat at 1,346.66 points on Tuesday. Islamic investment bank Gulf Finance House (GFH) closed flat at $0.125. Earlier in the day GFH reported a profit for the first quarter of $11.93m
compared to a loss of $7.5m in the same period of 2010.
Source: AME Info
Yemen conflict costs economy $5bn - trade minister
May 31, 2011--Yemen's trade minister has said the political crisis has cost the economy as much as $5bn and that immediate aid is needed to prevent a
meltdown, Reuters has reported. "We have reports that the losses range between four to five billion dollars," Hisham Sharaf Abdalla told the news service. "The economy should not be held hostage to the political crisis, because the situation is alarming.
Source: AME Info
DGCX Weekly Market Comentary -May 29, 2011
May 29, 2011-Economic Data Overview
Monday is a holiday in the US but the remaining four days are packed with economic data. There won't be much to distract from the upcoming May data on employment and payrolls, but the numbers will round out what is known about conditions in the second quarter to-date. The median estimate for May non-farm payrolls is around up 200,000. This is roughly between the performance for the first quarter average (+175,000 a month) and the April increase (+244,000).
The expectation for the unemployment rate is at 8.9%, down one-tenth from April. The outlook for the labour market remains on a sustained path of modest improvement. The May report on Friday should confirm this. Leading up to the employment data will be a few other labour market indicators, the most important of which is likely to be the ADP National Employment Report on Wednesday. The readings for the last three months have shown a fairly good correspondence to the actual payroll data. If the May numbers point to another steady rise, it will confirm expectations for the Friday BLS data. Also on Wednesday, the Challenger report on layoff intentions in May should offer some evidence about the health of the labour market. Layoff activity has been quite low in recent months, and should remain so for now. While job growth remains sluggish, job losses have stabilized. Initial jobless claims on Thursday could well remain elevated. Severe weather has plagued the Midwest with widespread flooding and a series of tornados that caused pockets of destruction. It may take a few weeks for the full extent of impact on new filings to be seen.
The ISM will release its indexes for manufacturing and non-manufacturing on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. Regional data suggests that there has been some slowing in the factory sector in May, in part related to shortages in the supply chain and also due to severe weather conditions that have hindered deliveries. Services are likely to feel the pinch less, but consumers and business have been expressing less confidence, and therefore are likely to limit demand in the non-manufacturing sector. However, expansion should continue in new orders, and employment to make modest gains. Other indicators for manufacturing and services scheduled for release during the week are...
Source: DGCX
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