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Gulf Markets Open Positive, Except Saudi

Stock markets in the Gulf, except Saudi Arabia, opened up on Sunday after a volatile week trailing the behavior of global markets hit by uncertainty over European and U.S. economic woes.

The Dubai Financial Market index continued its rise on Sunday after returning to the green in the latter part of last week.

The DFM index rose 1.00 percent up to 1,478.62 points in later morning trading before reducing profits to 0.77 percent up just after midday. It had closed 0.21 percent up on Thursday.

The leading shares of Emaar Properties jumped 2.17 percent.

In neighboring Abu Dhabi, the general index was up 0.57 percent at 2,603.48 points, with real estate shares up 2.21 percent and banks 0.69 percent.

The market of the capital of the United Arab Emirates had ended last week's tradings in the red, slipping 0.57 percent down on Thursday.

Qatar Exchange also climbed to the green on Sunday, edging 0.64 percent up in late morning trading before slowing pace to 0.10 percent. It had dropped 0.25 percent on Thursday.

Muscat Securities Exchange of Oman also recovered on Sunday, rising 0.88 per cent percent to 5,474.040 points after being in the red for all of last week.

The Saudi market, which is the largest Arab bourse, opened its trading week on Saturday with a surge of 1.93 percent to 6,155.88 points.

The market opened down on Sunday, trading 0.13 percent lower at 6,147.82 points. The petrochemical sector which was up on Saturday slipped 0.2 percent into the red, while banks were 0.11 percent down.

The Kuwait exchange opened 0.05 percent up at 5,853.6 points, but slipped later 0.1 percent.

Global markets had recovered on Friday ending a turbulent week as panic and profit-taking sales kept markets on a rollercoaster.

New York's Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday closed up 125.71 points (1.13 percent) to 11,269.02.

The broader S&P 500 was up 6.17 points (0.53 percent) at 1,178.81, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 15.30 points (0.61 percent) to 2,507.98.

European markets also rallied on Friday with London's FTSE 100 index climbing 3.04 percent to 5,320.03 points, Frankfurt's DAX climbing 3.45 percent to 5,997.74 points and the CAC 40 in Paris rising 4.02 percent to 3,213.88 points.

Source: Agence France Presse


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