RAK Properties rack up triple revenues, but profits drop

Markets Update: UAE markets make a quiet start to the week, though analysts hope that earnings releases from big banks will reignite trading levels.

Fresh earnings from RAK Properties provided little ignition for UAE markets though hopes are running high that earnings estimates from big banks reporting this week will spark new trading on local bourses.

Profits at the Ras Al Khaimah-based property developer fell 55 per cent to Dh30.3m, despite a tripling of revenues, ascosts of sales and impairments on investments spiked. The shares rose 3 per cent to Dh0.34.

But the broader markets were slow to rise from their torpor after the weekend, with the Dubai Financial Market flat at 1,365.05, while Abu Dhabi's measure remained unmoved at 2,444.81. Around two-thirds of UAE stocks had not moved after an hour's trading.

The sleepy start to the week in the UAE follows a dull day of trading in Saudi Arabia, which saw the Tadawul All-Share Index close unchanged.

Earnings due for release later today from the National Bank of Abu Dhabi may jump-start market activity.

The UAE's biggest bank by market capitalisation is expected to report profits of Dh965m, a 4.9 per cent increase on the same period a year earlier, according to analysts polled by Bloomberg News.

The shares are suspended today ahead of the bank's earnings release.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait's markets fell 0.1 per cent to 5,884.80, while Qatar's QE Index rose 0.4 per cent to 8,396.89. Oman's index rose 0.1 per cent to 5,537.52.