UAE markets 17 Jan 2008

UAE market news & discussions for 17 January 2008 Now that you're getting used to road closures in Dubai, tomorrow there'll be more roads closed from 7am to 12pm as a bunch of people who can't afford a taxi, will run around between Zabeel Park and Madinat Jumeirah in the Dubai Marathon. Both the ADSM and DFM fell back today on steady trading with Aabar Petroleum standing out in Abu Dhabi on turnover from a modest gain, while in Dubai, DFM's own shares plummeted 9% and topped the turnover table. Arabtec and Commercial Bank of Dubai stood out as the only gainers of note. The DIFX saw trading from DP World shares only, rising 2.9% to $1.08, no doubt causing many investors to breath a sigh of relief after seeing the first daily gain this year. Results updates Commercial Bank of Dubai profits rose 56% to 936m dhs, a substantial improvement on the 9% profit growth they saw for 2006, and roughly in line with operating profit growth of 54%. Revenue figures were not disclosed but are likely to be substantially higher than the 25% increase forecast by the CEO back in March 2007. 2007 PE of about 15 is about the same as the market average. Dividends of 30% cash and 25% shares were proposed. Sharjah Islamic Bank (ticker is NBS) profits rose 50% to 302m dhs, the increase roughly in line with the 57% increase in revenue to 692m dhs, while total assets increased 42% to 11 billion dhs. 2007 PE of about 17 is a little higher than the market average. Results announcements to come Agthia results to be released Tuesday 29 January 2008 Asmak results by 29 January 2008 Dana Gas results by 30 January 2008 Finance House results by 31 January 2008 Fujairah Cement Industries board meeting Thursday 24 January 2008 Oasis Leasing board meeting on Sunday 20 January 2008 RAK Bank board meeting Sunday 27 January 2008 United Arab Bank board meeting on Tuesday 22 January 2008 Abu Dhabi Securities Market signed a deal with the Tokyo Stock Exchange to expand trade with both markets. We're wondering when we'll actually see some cross market activity actually take place though - ADSM have signed MoUs with Muscat, Cairo, Alexandria, the FTSE, Doha, Bahrain, Hong Kong, Singapore, Lahore, Amman in the past year or so. But top marks to the ADSM for sending out a request to companies for dates when they expect to release their finanl results. At least, that's what it seems has happened with a number of announcements appearing on the ADSM website this afternoon. Agility Abu Dhabi was announced on Wednesday as a new joint venture to supply logistics services in Abu Dhabi. Partners are Mubadala, Al Bateen Investments, and Agility - a large logistics provider listed in Kuwait, with a rarely traded secondary listing on the DFM (ticker WARE). Al Hilal Islamic Bank said they would start operations in June 2008 with AED 4 billion of share capital, but did not give any further information on an IPO. In July 2007 there was conflicting news from WAM with one report saying that Al Hilal would be 100% owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Council, and another saying that 10-20% would be sold in an IPO. Al Hilal Islamic Bank was also referred to as Crescent Bank at the time. Al Mazaya, a Kuwait based company with a secondary listing on the DFM, said they were setting up a Al Mazaya Qatar, a Qatar based real estate company, with about AED 500m of capital. Their DFM listed shares were up 5.6% to 9.50 yesterday on greater volumes than the usual infrequent trades, but saw no trading today. Depa United Group, a Dubai based interior contracting company currently (they won a Dh 600 m deal last year to kit out apartments in the Burj Dubai) said they would launch an IPO sometime in February 2008, with a subsequent listing on the DIFX. Originally they said in September they were looking to do an IPO with a listing on a foreign market. Emaar Properties and Japan's Sega have entered into a deal where Emaar will develop new words like 'shoppertainment' and proper roller coaster rides for investors who've had enough of the DFM roller coaster. The first amusement park will be nearby, in The Dubai Mall (an Emaar development). Confusing news from NanoDynamics, a US company that was again reported to be listing on the DIFX - today their Middle East adviser said they would list by the end of January. Last week there was vague news of an IPO later this year without giving details of when or where. Last year they announced an IPO in the USA, only to then postpone it, and subsequently cancel it. Does that mean the DIFX will list a company that hasn't yet gone public? Taqa said on Wednesday they had completed the AED 18 billion purchase of Canada's PrimeWest Energy. The Taqa CEO said he expected future Canadian acquisitions to be less difficult than the PrimeWest one, and reassured the Canadians that Taqa's business was transparent. Dubai property prices and rents are forecast to rise 10-20% in 2008 with the DIFC area amongst the most expensive real estate in the world, according to Jones Lang LaSalle, a worldwide real estate advisory and management company.

• 17 January 2008 financial and business news for the UAE
• ADIA subsidiary buys 20% of AMP in NZ - R 17 Jan 08
• ADSM signs deal with Tokyo Stock Exchange - TF 17 Jan 08
• CBD 2007 FY profit +56% to AED 936m - 16 Jan 08
• Damas IPO
• Depa IPO
• DFM profit 2007 AED 1.4 bn +76% - PR 13 Jan 2007
• DPW report Deutsche Bank FV $1.33 [BUY] 15 Jan 08
• DPW-New promises
• DP World share price falling - Jan 2008
• Dubai Financial Market General Index (DFMGI) Comments 01 Dec 07
• EMAAR amusement parks with Sega - 17 Jan 08
• EMAAR 2007 FY profit AED 6.57 bn +3.1% 16 Jan 2008
• EMAAR MGF IPO
• Emaar in 2008 13 Jan 08
• Expected FV for GNAV AED 18.00 ? 16 Jan 08
• NanoDynamics IPO
• NanoDynamics - DIFX listing
• Nasdaq-DIFX - timelines?
• NBS (SIB) 2007 profit up 50% to AED 302m - 16 Jan 08
• NBS rights issue - R 16 Jan 08
• Tamweel in 2008 18 Dec 07
• Reliance IPO this week
• What to trade?

More UAE stock market news and discussions...

best stock rises symbol price change UAB 7.54 +0.69 +10.1% GMPC 8.80 +0.77 +9.6% DRIVE 5.69 +0.42 +8% OIC 10.50 +0.50 +5% NCC 11.60 +0.55 +5%

worst stock falls symbol price change DFM 5.82 -0.58 -9.1% CBI 3.41 -0.23 -6.3% OEIHC 32.00 -1.90 -5.6% ASCANA 2.09 -0.11 -5% AMLAK 5.22 -0.25 -4.6%

top volume symbol value (AED) price DFM 833,411,810 5.82 EMAAR 711,221,485 14.50 AABAR 622,181,013 4.79 DIB 398,787,065 11.45 ALDAR 307,790,308 11.50

Dubai Financial Market

The DFMGI started off in a promising fashion with an initial burst to almost 6240 points but then fell steadily to end the session at 6060 points, a drop of 1.4% for the day, with turnover a robust AED 3.7 billion. Only 2 stocks traded more than AED 1m worth. Arabtec gained 3.7% to close at 11.10, and Commercial Bank of Dubai (CBD) was up 4.9% to 12.95. Three other stocks rose on thin trading.

DFM shares crashed 9.1% to close at 5.82 and topped the traded value table with 833m dhs worth. Emaar Properties (EMAAR) was in second place on turnover but only fell by 0.7% to 14.50. Other significant losses for Amlak Finance (AMLAK) doen 4.6% to 5.22, Tabreed (TABREED) down 3.6%, AMAN down 3.1%, Du Telecom (DU) down 3%, Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB) 2.6%, Islamic Arab Insurance (IAIC) 2.5%, and another 11 stocks falling by less than 2%.

Abu Dhabi Securities Market

The ADSM saw red today also but only half as much as the DFM with a 0.76% fall to 4843 points and moderately high turnover of 1.9 billion dhs. Gulf Cement (GCEM) rising by 4% to 7.34 was the top stock on turnover, except for those trading less than 1m dhs worth and Finance House (FH) rose 3.5% to 10.10. But Aabar Petroleum (AABAR) stood out with a solid trading of AED 622m dhs and a 2.1% rise to 4.64, investors apparently shrugging off the question marks posed by the announcement this week that Aabar would sell most of Pearl Energy. Another 5 stocks rose by less than 2%.

The long list of losers saw NBS almost at the top with a 4.1% fall to 4.55 from solid trading. RAK Cement (RAKCC) fell 3.7% to 2.30, RAK Ceramics (RAKCEC) 3.1% to 4.90, ARKAN 3.1% to 3.71, and AGTHIA 3% to 2.21. Another 6 stocks fell between 2-3% and the remainder were down by less than 2%. Etisalat (ETISALAT) fell 1.6% to 24.35.

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