More oil gains ‘needed to boost Tadawul index’

Saudi Arabia’s stock market rebounded on Thursday on the back of petrochemical shares, which rallied in response to OPEC’s deal to restrain oil output, but the bourse posted a big weekly loss.
The largest petrochemical producer, Saudi Basic Industries Corp., gained 3.5 percent.
This encouraged buying back of a range of stocks and the insurance sub-index, which had seen many of its constituents drop their 10 percent daily limits in recent days, rebounded 2.4 percent. 
BUPA Arabia, the largest medical insurance provider, jumped 4.1 percent.
John Sfakianakis, director of economics research at the Gulf Research Center, commented: “The local market received the news positively but for it to recover, oil prices have to rise further or at least not decline again.”
He told Arab News: “While Wednesday’s agreement imposed an overall production cap on the group of 14 oil producers, it didn’t assign individual limits — that was left to a committee that will report back at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries’ next meeting in November. The devil is in the details of the quota agreement. Agreeing and monitoring those targets will be very important to realize a supply reduction.” 
Commenting on the deal, James Reeve, deputy chief economist and assistant general manager, Samba Financial Group, told Arab News: “The agreement signals a shift in Saudi strategy from market share to price protection. Implementation will be key, but it is positive because excess OPEC production has been the main reason why crude stocks are still so high.”
Petrochemical firms, their profit margins closely tied to oil prices, recovered after Brent oil surged above $48 a barrel Wednesday on the OPEC deal in Algeria. 
The overall Tadawul All-Share Index closed 1.6 percent higher but it was down 5.5 percent for the week.
“The stock market was dragged down by a wave of heavy selling, taking many shares to multi-year lows, so technically it was oversold,” Mohammad Al-Shammasi, chief investment officer of Riyadh-based Derayah Financial, told Reuters.
A monthly Reuters poll, published on Thursday, found Middle East fund managers had become negative on balance toward Saudi equities for the next three months because of the austerity policies.
There appeared to be little impact on the market from news that the US Congress overwhelmingly rejected President Barack Obama’s veto of legislation allowing relatives of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia. Any lawsuits could take years to wind their way through US courts, with uncertain prospects for success.
“Investor sentiment is likely to be impacted as this opens the door to uncertainties in US-Saudi relations that cannot be resolved at the executive arm of the government,” Raza Agha, chief Middle East economist at VTB Capital, told Reuters.
“Previous issues always had the potential to be resolved through diplomacy — this now means there are potential legal challenges ahead for Saudi Arabia, which the White House and Riyadh cannot address via talks.”
According to Reuters, ther Gulf markets followed global shares higher in the wake of the OPEC deal. Dubai’s stock index closed 0.6 percent higher with DXB Entertainments, formerly known as Dubai Parks and Resorts, adding 0.6 percent and Emaar Properties gaining 1.4 percent.
The two largest listed shares in Abu Dhabi helped carry the index up 0.6 percent; First Gulf Bank rose 0.9 percent and Etisalat added 0.8 percent.
In Qatar, the main index ended 0.3 percent lower as Qatar National Bank, which had led advances in the first hour of trade, slipped 0.1 percent. But the index rose 0.6 percent over the week.
Egypt’s main index fell 0.3 percent as a little over half of traded shares declined. Private equity firm Qalaa Holding dropped 4.6 percent and the largest listed bank, Commercial International Bank. lost 1.7 percent.
But Orascom Construction climbed 1.1 percent to 71.05 Egyptian pounds after the company set the price for its buy-back of 1 million Cairo-listed shares at 74.05 pounds.

Source: Arab News