Saudi Arabia’s stock market continued rebounding on Thursday, led by bank and petrochemical shares, but most markets in the region weakened.
Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All-Share Indexrose 0.8 percent, although trading volume shrank to a modest level, suggesting many investors were staying out of the market.
The banking index, beaten down in past days by news that banks would have to reschedule consumer loans and housing mortgages as government austerity steps cut their customers’ incomes, rose 1.1 percent.
Some petrochemical shares were also strong after Brent oil futures rose as high as $52.09 per barrel Wednesday, the highest since early June.
National Petrochemical, which had surged 8.2 percent on Wednesday, climbed a further 3.0 percent to 15.60 riyals; NCB Capital and SICO upgraded their views of the stock this week, with targets of 17.30 and 19.00 riyals respectively.
National Industrialization (Tasnee), which has petrochemical assets, gained 4.0 percent.
But telecommunications firm Zain Saudi pulled back 3.9 percent after rising in the previous two days on hopes it would benefit from deregulation. 
Many stocks directly exposed to consumer demand continued to slide because of the austerity policies; retailer Al Hokair also fell 3.9 percent.
There was massive trade in Takween’s rights on their last day of trade; the rights sank 37.6 percent as the underlying stock rose 6.4 percent.

Dubai’s index slipped 0.2 percent as shares in Dubai Financial Market fell 2.4 percent. 
VTB Capital said MSCI might exclude the stock from its MXAE index in its November review, to be announced on Nov. 14, because of its low capitalization; in order to remain in the index, the stock will have to rise 8 percent by late October, VTB calculated.
Abu Dhabi’s index edged down 0.1 percent while Qatar fell by the same amount. Egypt’s market was closed for a national holiday.

Source: Arab News