Dubai shares hit 32-month high

Markets Update: The Dubai index was up by 1.1 per cent in early trade as bullish sentiment on UAE equities continues.

Dubai-traded shares today rose to a 32-month high in early trade, breaking above a long-term resistance level as bullish sentiment on UAE equities continues.

The emirate's index climbed 1.1 per cent to 1,794 points, it highest level since April 2010.

Technical analysts said breaking the 1,785 level would indicate the completion of a major reversal pattern.

"[An] inverse head-and-shoulders pattern signals the UAE stock markets for a major reversal upward move, as the market typically heads higher after the completion of the pattern," Musa Haddad, head of investment advisory services at National Bank of Abu Dhabi says in a report.

In Cairo, shares in Egypt's Orascom Construction Industries are likely to rally today, buoying the local market after a group of US investors including Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates committed $1 billion to buy a stake in the firm's construction and fertiliser company OCI.

This would be one of the largest foreign currency inflows to Egypt since the 2011 revolution that swept Hosni Mubarak from power.

OCI NV said on Friday it had launched an exchange offer to acquire all of the outstanding global depositary receipts of parent firm Orascom Construction Industries SAE in exchange for ordinary shares in OCI NV.