UAE shares rally ahead of major oil business listing in Abu Dhabi

DUBAI, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Stock markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi gained the second session straight on Tuesday as oil prices surged and ahead of the public listing of the retail business of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) on Wednesday which is 22 times oversubscribed.

The Abu Dhabi equity market index ADXGI gained 0.59 percent to reach 4,381.80, marking a one-month high.

Banks were demanded in particular with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (up 3.51 percent) and Bank of Sharjah (1.67 percent higher) joining the list of the day's top gainers.

The ADX awaits the listing and start of trading on Wednesday, December 13, of the retail division of state-owned oil giant Adnoc.

The firm runs 360 petrol service stations, along with 235 retail stores in all UAE sheikhdoms with the exception of Dubai.

During the book building period which ended last week, Adnoc raised 3.49 billion dirham (950 million dollars) from local and international investors amid strong demand, UAE-based economist Dr. Nasser Saidi said.

It will be the largest initial public offering at the ADX in a decade, he added.

The price of oil (Brent) traded 1.40 percent higher at 65.64 dollars per barrel, a 2.5-year high. But Jihad Azour, the Director Middle East and Central Asia at the Washington-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) said earlier today at the Arab Strategy Forum in Dubai the IMF does not expect the price of the "black gold" to rise further in 2018, "as we expect oil to trade in a range between 55 dollars a barrel to 60 dollars a barrel next year."

However, Azour added the UAE, a major oil supplier, "has sufficient financial buffers in order to extend its fiscal reforms and we see non-oil growth to pick up in 2018 in the country."

Abu Dhabi's sister market DFM in Dubai saw its lead index DFMGI gaining 1.17 percent to hit 3,453.99, representing a three-week high. Like at the ADX, financials were demanded, with Mashreqbank adding five percent and Gulf General Investments Company, known as GGICO, adding one percent.

Earlier in the week, Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum issued the emirate's biggest annual budget in history, set at 56.6 billion dirham (15.42 billion dollars) for the fiscal year 2018 in order to prepare the emirate for the World Expo in 2020.

In addition, Khatija Haque, Head of Middle East and North Africa Research at Dubai's biggest bank Emirates NBD, said on Monday the lender's November survey among non-oil private businesses in Dubai, "continues to show solid growth in Dubai's economy last month, at a similar pace to the previous two months."

She added that "Non-oil private sector firms in Dubai noted a sharp improvement in business activity during November, thereby extending the current sequence of growth to 21 months." Enditem