Dubai

The historic oil deal in Algeria failed to spice up the mood among Saudi investors.

Investors, who suffered a setback due to a sell-off in the past two sessions, lacked courage to place aggressive bets on Saudi stocks despite attractive valuations.

“It’s a long weekend and traders in the Middle East are worried that the reaction in other parts of the world could be muted,” Sanyalaksna Manibhandu, director Research, National Bank of Abu Dhabi Securities said. Markets are shut on October 1 due to Hijri new year. The override of US President Obama could mean that victims of 9/11 could sue Saudi Arabia, and “this was another negative,” Manibhandu said.

The Tadawul index opened in negative and fell as much as 5,477.90 or 1 per cent, but recovered later to close 1.63 per cent higher at 5,624.81.

Buying was seen in petrochemical stocks, but the overall sentiment remained subdued. Rabigh Refining and Petrochemical closed more than 6 per cent to end at 9.85 Saudi Riyals.

“Saudi Arabia is up more than the others. What happens today is not going to be a verdict on any of these factors playing out in markets,” Manibhandu said.

Back home in the UAE, the Dubai Financial Market ended 0.63 per cent higher at 3,474.38, while the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index closed 0.62 per cent at 4,476.32.

Ajman Bank witnessed a bulk deal of 52.5 million shares in last few minutes of trade. Ajman Bank closed 0.67 per cent higher at Dh1.50. Gulf Finance House, the most-active stock in trade, closed 0.91 per cent higher at Dh1.11. Eshraq Properties witnessed buying and about 116 million shares got traded.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Qatar exchange index closed 0.29 per cent lower at 10,435.46. Kuwait exchange index closed 0.07 per cent lower at 5,398.39.

Risk trades

“Between now and November, the risk trade would be very volatile. In our part of the world, we would also get volatility because Opec meeting is also due in November,” Manibhandu added. Principally, the Opec countries may have decided to agree to cut output, but the level of cuts by each producer will be decided in the next Opec meeting. The elections in the United States, the world’s most powerful economy, are also due in November.