Most Gulf stock indexes rose, even after an attempted coup to overthrow the Turkish government that began on Friday rattled global markets.
Saudi Arabia’s Almarai Co., the region’s largest publicly traded packaged-food manufacturer, climbed as much as 5.5 per cent before trading 2 per cent higher as of 12:05 p.m. in Riyadh as it posted a 19 per cent increase in second-quarter profit.
It was one of the biggest contributors to the Tadawul All Share Index’s 0.4 per cent gain The Bloomberg GCC 200 Index, which tracks some of the biggest companies in the six nations that comprise the Gulf Cooperation Council, added 0.2 per cent.
Stocks in the Middle East were the first to trade after an attempted military coup that killed more than 200 people in Turkey collapsed less than a day after it started. The MSCI ACWI Index of emerging- and developed-nation stocks ended a six-day winning streak Friday that was its longest stretch of gains since October.
With most of the Middle East region’s biggest investors still on vacation Sunday, the volume of shares traded on gauges across most of the GCC markets fell below their six-month intraday averages.
“At the end of the day, there was no change in government,” in Turkey, said Sanyalak Manibhandu, the head of research at NBAD Securities LLC, a unit of Abu Dhabi’s biggest bank. “There has been no disruption to crude supply, trade and transport. Also, a lot of big investors are on holiday, but they’re on holiday until something big brings them back.”
Almarai Profit
Manibhandu, who has an accumulate recommendation on Almarai, said the company “gives investors a way to diversify from banks and petrochemicals.”
Second-quarter profit rose to 628.8 million riyals ($168 million) as sales climbed 10 per cent, according to a company statement to the Saudi bourse on Sunday. Traders exchanged 729,000 of the company’s shares, more than four times the six-month intraday average.
Dubai’s DFM General Index advanced 0.3 per cent, Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index gained 0.5 per cent and Oman’s MSM 30 rose 0.2 per cent. In Bahrain, the BB All Share Index fell 0.7 per cent, and stock gauges in Qatar and Kuwait declined 0.6 per cent and 0.2 per cent, respectively.
Egypt’s benchmark EGX 30 Index lost 0.4 per cent, while Israel’s TA-25 Index was little changed
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