Reuters, Bloomberg/Dubai

Investors watch financial data on computer screens at the Kuwait stock exchange

Gulf bourses were mostly lower yesterday with political tension weighing on Kuwait, while Saudi Arabia’s measure gained in thin trade.
Kuwait’s index slumped to a new eight-year closing low ahead of a major demonstration planned by the opposition later in the day. The market finished 0.1% lower.
The opposition said it would press ahead with the march to protest against new voting rules, while the government warned it would not tolerate unsanctioned demonstrations. Some protests in recent weeks have seen clashes between police and demonstrators.
 “Retail investors were nervous today — we have another protest tonight. But I don’t think too much will happen because a lot of security forces have been sent out,” said a Kuwait-based trader who asked not to be identified.
Nine of the 10 largest stocks by market value closed flat, with smaller stocks facing the brunt of the selling pressure. Government-linked funds were seen buying larger blue chips to support the market during some periods of market weakness last month and investors think they may do so again, though there was little if any such buying noted yesterday.
National Ranges was the most active stock, falling 2.8%. Ithmaar Bank shed 1.1%.
“Not many people are selling, trading values are low — people are scared to leave or to enter the market,” said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage services at Global Investment House.
In contrast to other Gulf countries, few Kuwait companies have so far reported third-quarter earnings, apparently because they want to limit the negative impact from the political tensions on their stocks, he added. They seem to be calculating that politics-related selling is less likely if investors are still hoping for positive third-quarter earnings surprises.
Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia bucked the regional trend. The index rose 0.2%, up for a third straight session, but trading volumes were low as investors stayed cautious.
The insurance sector rose 2.4%, accounting for a third of all trading volume on the bourse. Short-term retail investors often target insurance stocks because they are plays on domestic demand, avoiding petrochemical and banking shares which are more affected by global trends.
“Right now it’s a wait and see period — there’s more cautious behaviour from investors right now because of global events like the US elections,” said Muhammad Faisal Potrik, research analyst at Riyad Capital.
 “We could see some improvement since the market did get bogged down. Petchem prices have improved on average since the last quarter and Q4 is likely to be better.”
Petrochemical stocks edged higher, with Saudi Basic Industries Corp (Sabic), the Gulf’s largest listed company, adding 0.3%.
In the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi’s measure dipped 0.2%, easing away from a 15-month high.
Heavyweight Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank fell 1.5%. The lender posted a quarterly profit decline, missing by a considerable margin the forecasts of analysts who had predicted, on average, a 23% increase in quarterly earnings.
Dubai’s benchmark closed 0.3% lower, trading within a 20-point range since last Monday. Dubai Financial Market, the only listed Gulf bourse, fell 1%. It said its third-quarter net loss narrowed to Dh1.7mn ($463,000) from 9.3mn in the same period last year.
In Oman, the benchmark climbed 0.3% to 5,703 points, whereas in Bahrain, the index gained 0.1% to 1,053 points.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s benchmark stock index slumped to the lowest level in two months on concern the government isn’t doing enough to resolve disputes with investors.
Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt’s largest publicly traded company, decreased 2.4%. Property developer Talaat Moustafa Group declined to the lowest level since August. The EGX 30 Index lost 2.2% to 5,449.37, the lowest since September 2, at the close in Cairo.
The North African country’s measure, the world’s best performer this year, fell 2.2% last month, the first such drop since May, in selling partly triggered by uncertainty over the status of government contracts with companies.
 The country’s Administrative Court ruled last week that an 18 year-old agreement that allowed Centamin to extract gold in Egypt was invalid. Centamin shares tumbled 38% last week in London trading.
“The recent contradicting statements by the government regarding current disputes with companies is weighing on sentiment,” said Wafik Dawood, director of institutional sales at Cairo-based Mega Investments Securities.
Dawood said the “main overhang” in the market has been president Mohamed Mursi’s October 6 speech, in which he said the government is seeking to recover money it’s owed by companies he didn’t name. Mursi mentioned specific cases that led investors to speculate he was referring to companies including Orascom Construction Industries and Talaat Moustafa.
Orascom Construction Industries was indirectly accused in the speech of avoiding tax on the €8.8bn ($11.3bn) sale of its cement unit to Lafarge in 2007, two months after listing it on the Cairo stock exchange.
The company, which has said the profit is exempted from tax under Egyptian law, is holding talks with tax authorities. Orascom Construction declined to 248.64 Egyptian pounds, the lowest since July 25.
Talaat Moustafa faces a court hearing on Wednesday over land it purchased from the government for a real estate project on the outskirts of Cairo. Shares of Talaat, the largest publicly traded property developer in Egypt, dropped 3% to 4.51 pounds, the lowest close since August 22.  Centamin said last week that operations are continuing normally and it plans to appeal.
Prime minister Hisham Kandil’s government has said it will respect previously signed agreements with investors.
QE slips from six-week high
The Qatar Exchange slipped from its six-week high as investors booked recent gains, with Industries Qatar the main drag.
Industries Qatar fell 2.4% to QR150.90, down from Thursday’s four-year high — suggesting it has not cleanly broken major technical resistance at the January 2011 intra-day high of 154.50.
If the stock falls today, that will create a bearish engulfing pattern on the daily candlestick chart, a classic sign of the end of an uptrend for the short term.
“IQ’s price is on the upper end, but they are also getting into a lot of projects so the bar will be raised,” said Yassir Mckee, wealth manager at Al Rayan Financial Brokerage.
“They have the potential to break the 52-week high but trading is a little bit speculative — materialisation of the projects will take some time.”
Doha’s index ended 0.5% lower at 8,565 points in its largest one-day decline since September 26.
The market’s year-end target is near the 8,600 level, Mckee added.
“Everybody is waiting for the big-ticket projects and new construction but I don’t see that happening this year. People will try to cash in on the (year-end) dividends, so there won’t be a lot of selling.”
Qatar Electricity and Water shed 0.7% and Qatar National Bank slipped 0.3%.