Bullish sentiment from Saudi Arabia, coupled with positive noises out of Europe, should help Gulf markets extend gains Sunday, according to experts. Stock benchmark Tadawul All Share Index rose 0.27 percent Sunday to close at 6.554.77 points. Saudi Cement Co. rose to the highest level since July 2008 after Saudi Arabia's largest producer of the building material by market value recommended paying a better-than-expected second-half cash dividend. The shares gained 5.1 percent to SR77 at 11:59 a.m. They earlier rose as much as 7.2 percent. The board of the Dammam-based company proposed a second-half dividend of SR4.5 a share after paying SR2 for the first six months, it said in a statement after the market closed Saturday. The company paid a dividend of SR4 in 2010, according to data posted on the Saudi bourse website. Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi's ADX General Index climbed 1.8 percent, the most since December 2009. Bahrain's BB All Share Index and Kuwait's Stock Exchange Price Index rose 0.1 percent, while Oman's MSM 30 Index and Qatar's QE Index were little changed. Dubai's DFM General Index slipped 0.3 percent, snapping a five- day rally. Petrochemical stocks helped Saudi's index climb 0.9 percent Saturday in its fourth straight advance, as oil price gains emboldened equity investors in the world's top crude exporter. Petrochemical shipments from Saudi Arabia rose 5.7 percent to 3.33 million tons in December, compared with a year earlier, according to data published on the Saudi Ports Authority website. Shipments for all of 2011 increased by 4.1 percent from 2010 to 32 million tons. This should feed through into trading in other markets, said Marwan Shurrab, vice-president and chief trader at Gulfmena Investments. "We saw yesterday the bullish sentiment in Saudi and this is expected to fund further gains in the United Arab Emirates this week," he added. Abu Dhabi's index was up in seven consecutive sessions, having slumped to a three-year low earlier this month. Dubai's benchmark was up 3.9 percent year-to-date, rallying from January 16's seven-year low. Meanwhile, Egyptian stocks advanced to the highest in more than four months after protests marking the first anniversary of the uprising were held peacefully. Orascom Telecom Holding SAE, the Egyptian mobile-phone company that was split into two units, rallied 6.9 percent. Commercial International Bank, the biggest publicly traded lender in Egypt, jumped to the highest in almost two months. The EGX30 Index surged 2.3 percent to 4,535.18, the highest since Sept. 13, bringing its gain for the year to 25 percent. "It is definitely a deserved rally given the market performance since the revolution, but at current levels we think investors might have gotten carried away," said an analyst.
