Dubai Shares Gain Most in World as Banks Post Quarterly Profit

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Dubai stocks climbed to the highest in three weeks after fourth-quarter earnings at the sheikhdom’s largest banks, Emirates NBD PJSC and Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC, surged. Qatar shares gained the most this year.

Emirates NBD jumped after quarterly profit soared more than 10-fold and Dubai Islamic Bank surged 5.2 percent. That pushed the DFM General Index up 2.2 percent, the biggest increase since Jan. 20 and the biggest gain among global benchmark indexes tracked by Bloomberg. The measure advanced 0.8 percent this week, closing at 1,676.2. Qatar’s Doha Securities Market Index rose 1.6 percent, the most since Dec. 14, as the prime minister said the budget for the next fiscal year will be “much larger” and the nation “stands by” its publicly listed companies.

The earnings are “an indication that the banking sector has reached a bottom both in terms of provisioning and operating profit, so the outlook now looks a lot healthier,” said Rabih Sultani, a fund manager at Duet Mena Ltd., a unit of Duet Group, which oversees $2.1 billion.