Egypt index tumbles after anti-Israel protest - FT.com

Egypt’s stock market took a fall this week after relations deteriorated with its neighbour Israel and the government hastily reversed new rules that might have hurt tourism.
Israel evacuated its Cairo-based diplomatic staff on Saturday after parts of its embassy were breached in a violent protest that left three dead and more than 1,000 injured.

Adding to the tension, the military authorities on Sunday widened emergency laws and clamped down on the press, raising fears of a curtailment of liberties.

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MENA stock markets close - September 14, 2011

	Exchange		Status	Index	Change
		TASI (Saudi Stock Market)		6071.52	0.04%
		DFM (Dubai Financial Market)		1466.81	0.42%
		ADX (Abudhabi Securities Exchange)		2579.18	-0.17%
		KSE (Kuwait Stock Exchange)		6035.7	0.46%
		BSE (Bahrain Stock Exchange)		1270.14	0.30%
		MSM (Muscat Securities Market)		5700.26	0.13%
		QE (Qatar Exchange)		8319.17	-0.18%
		LSE (Beirut Stock Exchange)		1267.97	-0.03%
		EGX 30 (Egypt Exchange)		4485.04	-1.18%
		ASE (Amman Stock Exchange)		2033.43	0.25%
		TUNINDEX (Tunisia Stock Exchange)		4539.13	0.07%
		CB (Casablanca Stock Exchange)		11593.5	-0.33%
		PSE (Palestine Securities Exchange)		479.52	0.16%

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Bahrain: Like Wall Street, but now with guns /Euromoney magazine

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Shuaa eyeing brokerage buy in Egypt: sources | Reuters

Shuaa Capital has run the rule over at least two Egyptian brokerage companies it considers potential acquisition candidates, as the investment bank seeks to boost revenue amid a slump in its local UAE market, three sources said on Wednesday.

Shuaa, which took companies such as ports operator DP World to market, has looked at HC Securities and Beltone Financial, said two of the sources speaking on condition of anonymity.

"They (Shuaa) do have some cash on their balance sheet from previous asset disposals, and revenue-generating capabilities in the UAE are limited," said one of the sources.

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Mideast Oil Surges Amid Gains in Refinery Processing Profits - Bloomberg

Middle East oil for sale to Asia surged to the highest level in nine months as refiners ramped up demand amid gains in processing profits.

Qatar Marine jumped 50 cents to a premium of 61 cents a barrel over its official selling price, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s the highest since December 2010. Murban from Abu Dhabi’s National Oil Co. climbed 40 cents to a premium of 53 cents a barrel, Bloomberg data showed, the biggest premium since May.

Cargoes of Qatar Marine also sold at a premium of as much as 80 cents a barrel to the official price, said three traders of the region’s oil, who declined to be identified because they aren’t authorized to speak with the media.

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Bahrain's Arcapita swings to FY profit | Reuters

Bahrain-based investment firm Arcapita swung to a profit in its fiscal year ended June 30, it said on Wednesday, helped mainly by multiple exits or disposals of assets in its investment portfolio.

The Islamic investment firm recorded net income of $50.2 million compared with a loss of $560 million for the year before.

Arcapita said it completed seven full and partial exits during the year, returning about $1 billion to the firm and its shareholders.

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gulfnews : Construction sector remains soft

The construction industry in the UAE is still feeling the impact of the global recession with more than $170 billion (Dh 624.36 billion) worth of projects either on hold or cancelled, a report has claimed.

"Its total project awards have fallen by $6 billion in the year-to-end August, while its cancelled & delayed projects are up 13 per cent to $170 billion," Citi notes. Meanwhile, the UAE's project pipeline has increased by 7 per cent to $175 billion, it says.

A construction project tracker by Citigroup revealed that the UAE — the region's second biggest market — accounts for 56 per cent of total project cancellations and delays across the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region.

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Qatar National Bank's Bond Seeks Longer-Term Money: Arab Credit

Qatar National Bank SAQ, the Gulf country's biggest bank by assets, may raise about a $1 billion from a bond sale as it seeks longer-term money to fund growth.

The state-controlled lender said Aug. 29 it set up a $7.5 billion euro medium-term note program and hired Barclays Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and QNB Capital to manage the sale. The money raised would be used for "normal operations," it said.

The maturity of Qatar National's loans is much longer than the duration of its customer deposits and it's likely to try and close that gap, Raj Madha, a Dubai-based analyst at Rasmala Investment Bank Ltd., said in a telephone interview yesterday. "They're well supported by the government, their business is pretty secure, they have a lot of capital and I would expect them to issue debt at a pretty good rate."

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Bank liquidity, debt spreads may lift UAE stocks-exec | Reuters

Increased liquidity in the banking system and tightening debt spreads could spark the UAE's moribund equity markets into life and early investors can pick up stocks on the cheap, the chief executive of Dubai's Daman Investments said on Tuesday.

Many investors have given up on UAE markets -- trading volumes are poised to slump to a seven-year low in 2011, while Dubai's index is down 77 percent from a 2008 peak. Abu Dhabi's measure has lost 50 percent.

"UAE equities today look lethargic. It's not a pretty picture," Shehab Gargash, Daman Investments CEO told reporters. "UAE markets have been very badly battered -- there's not much downward space left."

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Gulf Times – Dubai sukuk drops on risk aversion, falling oil prices

Dubai’s Islamic bonds are dropping more than the debt of energy-rich Abu Dhabi and Qatar as investors shun the region’s riskier assets after slowing global economic growth crimps oil demand.

The extra yield investors demand to hold Dubai’s 6.396% bond maturing 2014 and the five-year 2.375 Treasury due the same year widened more than 100 basis points, or 1 percentage point, from its May 19 low to 446 basis points on Monday. The gap between Islamic bonds in the Gulf, home to about a third of the world’s oil reserves, over those in emerging markets rose six basis points in the past month to 36 on September 9, according to the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai GCC US Dollar Sukuk Index and the HSBC/Nasdaq Dubai US Dollar Sukuk Index.

“The short answer is that Dubai sold off in recent weeks as a result of global de-risking,” Ahmad Alanani, Middle East director at Exotix Ltd, said in an e-mail on Thursday. “Investors sold Dubai and bought the perceived safe haven bonds of Abu Dhabi and Qatar.” Dubai’s bonds make up about a quarter of the HSBC/Nasdaq GCC index.

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gulfnews : A year of great change

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), widely believed to be the world's largest sovereign wealth fund by assets under management, said in its annual review yesterday that at the end of last year, in US dollar terms, the 20-year and 30-year annualised rates of return for the Adia portfolio were 7.6 per cent and and 8.1 per cent, respectively.

This compares to 20-year and 30-year annual returns of 6.5 per cent and eight per cent respectively, at the end of 2009, said Adia.

"2010 was a year of great change. Externally, it will be remembered as a year when financial markets proved their resilience and generated positive returns against a backdrop of considerable uncertainty," Shaikh Hamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Adia's managing director, said in the annual review.

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