A surge in the shares of realestate developer Amer Group boosted Egypt's stockmarket on Monday, while a recovery of Saudi Arabia's marketstalled as the index ran into technical resistance. Egypt's index surged 1.4 percent as Amer jumped 8.8percent. The exchange said it would suspend trading in thecompany's shares from next Monday until it completed its plannedsplit into two companies; investors are bullish on the split,and they scrambled to buy the stock while they still could. Amer's surge ignited interest in other real estate stocks,with Palm Hills Development rising 1.9 percent andTalaat Mostafa adding 1.6 percent. Consultants JLL said in their third-quarter report on theCairo real estate market that there was "increasing confidenceand positive performance in the...market as a result of theimproved economic and political environment in Egypt". JLL also noted that depreciation of the Egyptian poundearlier this year had increased interest in purchases ofapartments and villas. Many investors think the currency maydepreciate further in coming months, making real estate a hedgeagainst a weak currency. United Arab Stevedoring soared 11.5 percent aftersaying it aimed to acquire land next to the New Suez Canal as abase for expanded operations. It did not elaborate. Gulf markets were much more subdued. The Saudi index, which had risen sharply in the past several days on theback of rebounding petrochemical stocks, edged down 0.1 percentto 7,817 points after litting a chart barrier at 7,812-7,953points, its highs in September and at the end of August. Leading petchem Saudi Basic Industries slipped 1.1percent and National Commercial Bank, the kingdom'slargest bank by assets, fell 0.9 percent after it posted a netprofit of 1.99 billion riyals in the three months to Sept. 30. Analysts polled by Reuters had on average forecast NCB wouldmake 2.23 billion riyals. But telecommunications operator Mobily gained 1.7percent in active trade as it resumed trading after a one-daysuspension in response to preliminary decisions of the marketregulator's Committees for the Resolution of SecuritiesDisputes. Mobily said late on Sunday that a committee had rejectedinvestors' demands for compensation for losses suffered as aresult of the company's restatements of its earnings. This wastaken as positive news by investors, though the company's legaland business problems are not over. Oil shipper Bahri continued a strong recoverytriggered by last week's rebound of oil prices; it climbed afurther 3.7 percent. In Qatar, the index edged up 0.1 percent though DlalaBrokerage jumped 6.4 percent in unusually heavy trade. Dubai's index rose 0.3 percent as commoditiesshipper Gulf Navigation jumped 6.0 percent. AbuDhabi's index edged down 0.1 percent. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/153790.aspx
