Tadawul surges 1.7% as firms report first quarter results

Gulf stock markets rose on Tuesday as several Saudi companies beat first-quarter earnings estimates and oil prices held up better than feared after the failure of Sunday's Doha meeting to agree on an output freeze.
The Tadawul All-Share Index climbed 1.7 percent to 6,532 points as Saudi Basic Industries Corp., the biggest petrochemical producer, gained 2.3 percent.
The Saudi construction sector has also been hit hard by low oil prices, but major builder Khodari rose 1.6 percent. Its profit plunged 70.6 percent to SR4.11 million but beat the estimate of EFG Hermes, which had forecast a loss of SR6.25 million.
Mouwasat Medical Services jumped 6.7 percent after posting a 27.2 percent rise in profit to 71.1 million riyals, beating an average forecast of SR60.7 million.
Jarir Marketing Co. rose 1.8 percent even though it said it was cutting its first-quarter cash dividend to SR1.75 per share from SR2.25.
Dubai's index added 1.1 percent to 3,563 points, helped by a 1.4 percent rise in Emaar Properties EMAR.DU after Chairman Mohammed Alabbar told reporters that its performance in the first quarter looked good because of better-than-expected sales and cost-cutting. The company has not yet announced first-quarter earnings.
But Dubai Parks and Resorts fell 0.7 percent to 1.38 dirhams after announcing details of a 1.68 billion dirham ($457.4 million) rights issue to finance the development of its Six Flags-branded theme park. The company will issue shares at 1.0 dirham each.
Abu Dhabi rose 1.0 percent to 4,602 points. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank soared 9.5 percent in unusually heavy trade after Bloomberg reported it planned to open its shares to 25 percent foreign ownership. After the close, the bank said it had no plans for such a change.
Qatar rose 0.6 percent as Widam Food jumped its 10 percent daily limit after reporting a 77 percent leap in first-quarter net profit.
In Egypt, the index surged 2.6 percent to 7,864 points in active trade, breaking above technical resistance on the October peak of 7,716 points. Exchange data showed foreign investors were again net buyers.
Juhayna Food Industries gained 2.4 percent, continuing to rise after it reported on Sunday a first-quarter net profit of 80.4 million Egyptian pounds ($9.05 million) versus 65.2 million pounds in the same period last year.