Region mostly soft, some Saudi stocks surge on positive news

DUBAI, March 14 (Reuters): Most Middle Eastern stock markets were soft on Wednesday with Qatar pulling back after two days of strong gains, but a few individual stocks in Saudi Arabia rose sharply in response to positive news.

The Qatari index, which had surged 6.7 per cent in the previous two days as heavyweights Qatar National Bank and Industries Qatar soared after announcing plans to raise their foreign ownership ceilings, fell back 0.6 per cent.

QNB slipped 2.0 per cent and Industries Qatar retreated 0.9 per cent. Qatar Insurance sank 8.4 per cent in its heaviest trade since May 2015; at the end of this week, it will be removed from several FTSE global indexes.

Islamic insurer Al Khaleej Takaful tumbled 9.1 per cent after saying on Tuesday that it would distribute no dividend for 2017, after the central bank asked it to recognise an impairment provision.

In Saudi Arabia, the index was almost flat amid profit-taking in banks and petrochemicals. Al Rajhi Bank , into which foreign money has been pouring in anticipation of Saudi Arabia being upgraded to emerging market status later this year, pulled back 2.2 per cent.

But stocks with positive news were heavily traded, showing underlying market sentiment remained strong. Saudi Automotive Services jumped 3.7 per cent after its board proposed a capital increase to 600 million riyals ($160 million) from 540 million riyals, using retained earnings, to fund expansion.

Retailer United Electronics climbed 6.9 per cent to 67.30 riyals. EFG Hermes raised its target price for the stock to 90 riyals from 50 riyals and, earlier this month, CI Capital raised its target by 38 per cent to 80 riyals.