Financial Services

MIDEAST STOCKS-Financials weigh on Saudi, blue chips gain in Egypt


    DUBAI, May 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's stock market fell
sharply on Sunday, dragged down by the financial and
petrochemical sectors, while Egypt's blue chips gained.
    Saudi's index dropped 2%, with Saudi British Bank
(SABB) falling 3.5%, Samba Financial Group,
the Kingdom's third-largest bank by assets, shedding 3.4%, and
National Commercial Bank, the country's largest
lender, 3.3%. 
    Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem)
lost 4.2% and petrochemical giant Saudi Basic Industries
Corporation (SABIC) shed 2.4%.
    Saudi Arabian mall operator Arabian Centres, which
was listed on Wednesday, dipped further by 4.8% to 23.3 riyals
($6.22) from its initial public offer price of 26 riyals.
    Savola Group, Saudi's largest food products
company, was the worst performer, dropping 6.2%. 
    The Saudi index has lost 10% this month in a sell-off
triggered by global trade disputes and regional geo-political
tensions. The market, however, is still up 7% year-to-date
driven mainly by foreign capital flows into Saudi stocks.
    Egypt's blue-chip index gained 1.5%, bolstered by
energy and telecommunications stocks.
    Orascom Investment Holding gained 8.6% as it
resumed trading after disclosing that it is seeking with banks
ways to transfer confiscated amounts under the security
council's exemption of the company's investment in North Korea.
    Egyptian Chemical Industries (Kima) gained 7.3%
and Telecom Egypt was up 4.3%.
    Dubai's index was down 0.3%, dragged down by real
estate shares. Builder Arabtec shed 5.3%, Dubai's
largest listed developer Emaar Properties lost 3.6%
and property firm Deyaar fell by 1.6%.
    The Abu Dhabi index slipped by 0.1%, while Qatar's
index declined by 0.3%, with most losses concentrated
among banks and companies working in the oil and gas sector.
    
 SAUDI ARABIA  The index         fell 2% to 8,360.2 points
 ABU DHABI     The index        slid 0.1% to 4,774.7 points
 DUBAI         The index          fell 0.3% to 2,581.8 points
 QATAR         The index        lost 0.3% to 9,697.3 points
 EGYPT         The index          was up 1.5% at 13,981.9
               points
 BAHRAIN       The index        rose 0.1% to 1,410.3 points
 OMAN          The index        slid 0.1% to 3,870.9 points
 KUWAIT        The index        was up 0.3% to 6,042 points
 
($1 = 3.7502 riyals)
($1 = 16.8100 Egyptian pounds)

 (Reporting by Tuqa Khalid
Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
  



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