MIDEAST STOCKS-Dubai Islamic drags Dubai, Global Telecom lifts Egypt
* Dubai Islamic Bank slumps 4.4 percent * Egypt's Global Telecom gains on prospect of going private * Heliopolis rises after plan for housing and commercial projects * ADCB changes course to rise on three-way merger By Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Ateeq Shariff Jan 30 (Reuters) - Dubai's stock market fell sharply on Wednesday, hurt by a fall in Dubai Islamic Bank, while Egypt rose, partly lifted by Global Telecom Holding rising on the prospect of going private.
The Dubai index dropped 1.1 percent, with Dubai Islamic Bank, the largest Islamic lender in the United Arab Emirates, sliding 4.4 percent in heavy trade, its biggest intra-day loss in nine months.
The bank reported a 15 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, but investors were disappointed when it proposed a cash dividend of 35 fils per share for 2018 after 45 fils in 2017, said Marwan Shurrab, head of high net worth and retail equities brokage at AlRamz Capital.
Egypt's main index gained 0.8 percent, helped by a 7.3 percent surge in Global Telecom Holding. The stock gained for the fourth straight session after its major shareholder, VEON Ltd, said it was considering taking the firm private.
Heliopolis Co rose 5.1 percent after saying it planned to implement housing and commercial projects by developing unutilised land.
Abu Dhabi's index fell 0.6 percent, with its largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank shedding 1.2 percent.
Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Union National Bank (UNB) and Al Hilal Bank agreed a merger to create the third-largest bank in the United Arab Emirates, with $114 billion of assets. Under the deal, UNB was valued at $4 billion.
"The scope for revenue synergies is restricted in our view, while, post-merger, the combined entity will enjoy a bigger scale in terms of its corporate balance sheet, but there will likely be customer overlap," said Aarthi Chandrasekaran, vice president at Shuaa Capital.
UNB was down 1.7 percent, while ADCB was up 1.1 percent.
Saudi Arabia's index was flat, with Saudi Kayan Petrochemical increasing 3.6 percent and National Company for Glass Industries rising 1.1 percent after its fourth-quarter loss narrowed.
The Qatar index was also flat, with Commercial Bank losing 0.7 percent.
SAUDI ARABIA The index was flat at 8,584 points DUBAI The index fell 1.1 pct to 2,539 points QATAR The index was flat at 10,719 points ABU DHABI The index lost 0.6 pct to 5,005 points EGYPT The index added 0.8 percent to 14,093 points KUWAIT The index rose 0.4 pct to 5,438 points OMAN The index was up 1 pct at 4,216 points BAHRAIN The index gained 0.5 pct to 1,392 points ($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham) ($1 = 17.6300 Egyptian pounds) (Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
