Kuwait’s main stock gauge, the Middle East’s best performer this year, rose for an eighth day, while shares in the United Arab Emirates fell as investors bet banks will boost provisions for bad loans.

Kuwait’s SE Price Index advanced 1.9 per cent to the highest level since August 2015 as 107 of the measure’s 182 members gained, the most in more than two years. Traders exchanged 722 million shares, more than any other day since September 2013. Emirates NBD, the UAE’s biggest bank, will probably post its 2016 earnings this week. The Dubai-based lender declined one per cent. 

"Normally banks during the fourth quarter increase their provisioning — that is cyclical,” said Ali Adou, an equities money manager at The National Investor in Abu Dhabi. "Banks across the region will take the opportunity to clean as much as they can in terms of provisions, as it was a very difficult year.” This year’s outlook should be better if oil prices maintain current levels, he said.

Dubai’s DFM General Index declined 1.1 per cent, Abu Dhabi’s ADX General Index decreased 0.1 per cent, while Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index fell 0.2 per cent. Egypt’s EGX30 Index, which is having its best start to a year since 2006, advanced 0.9 per cent.

Most investors will look for signs Qatar National Bank’s board will consider changing limits to foreign ownership, said Julian Bruce, the head of institutional trading at EFG-Hermes UAE in Dubai, a unit of the biggest publicly traded Arab investment bank. The bank recommends a dividend of 3.5 riyals per share for 2016, and one bonus share for every 10.

Source: Times Of Oman