Saudi Reits shine on a sluggish day for local bourses

Saudi Arabia's Nomu market accounted for nine IPOs in the first hal of this syear worth $200.5m . Reuters

Real estate investment trusts (Reits) were some of the top gainers on Saudi Arabia's stock exchange on Monday, a day before the listing of a new trust, but bourses in the region were generally sluggish, especially Qatar.

All four listed Reits were among the 10 most heavily traded shares in Riyadh, where the main index edged up 0.2 per cent. Al Jazira Mawten Reit jumped 9.6 per cent.

Jadwa Reit Haramain Fund rose 1.3 per cent. The trust said it would distribute a cash dividend of 0.1 riyal per share for the 75-day period to June 30.

Maather Reit Fund will list on Tuesday. Analysts at NCB Capital estimated that based on its subscription price of 10 riyals per share, its dividend yield for 2017 would be 7.2 per cent, and its subscription was covered 15.2 times, signalling strong investor appetite for real-estate-related securities.

Half of the 14 listed petrochemical shares advanced as Brent oil prices largely held onto Friday's big gains. Yanbu National Petrochemical rose 1.1 per cent.

Qatar's index fell 0.8 per cent in the market's lowest trading volume this year. Commercial Bank lost 1.7 per cent, wiping out Sunday's 1.2 per cent gain.

Dubai's index declined by 0.6 per cent to close at the day's low. Builder Drake & Scull fell 1.8 per cent; it said on Monday that it would seek shareholder approval to convert itself into a sharia-compliant company.

Union Properties, which has been volatile since last week when it posted a big quarterly loss as it fixed accounting errors, fell 2.0 per cent.

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Damac Properties and Emaar Malls led gains in Dubai, rising 1 per cent and 0.8 percent.

In Abu Dhabi, the index edged up 0.1 per cent as Dana Gas soared 8.1 per cent. Last week the company reported a 71 per cent rise in second-quarter net profit as it slashed capital spending.

Etisalat acted as an anchor on the index, falling 0.6 per cent.

Egypt's index rose 0.6 per cent as investment firm Qalaa Holdings, the most heavily traded stock, surged 3.7 per cent.

But Pioneers Holding fell 1.2 per cent despite reporting that first-half standalone net profit rose to 106.2 million Egyptian pounds ($6.0 million) from 71.1 million pounds a year earlier.