DUBAI, Nov 16 (Reuters) – Most Gulf Arab bourses eased on Wednesday after Asian shares and the euro fell on euro zone debt contagion fears, but weakness was limited with volumes muted.

Signs that rising borrowing costs were affecting AAA-rated France stirred fears that even core euro zone members may not escape contagion from the region’s debt crisis.

World shares were generally lower with the MSCI all-country world index off half a percent.

“The global backdrop is slightly negative and so markets in the Gulf are flat to marginally lower,” said Shahid Hameed from Global Investment House.

Qatar Telecom ended 0.4 percent higher after it said it acquired a further 7.45 percent of StarHub, Singapore’s second biggest telecom company.

That helped lift Qatar’s index, which, along with Bahrain, were the only markets to gain. Qatar’s benchmark rose 0.1 percent and Bahrain’s measure advanced 0.7 percent.

In the UAE, both the Dubai and Abu Dhabi measures retreated slightly. Emirates NBD weighed, down 0.3 percent and Dubai Islamic Bank fell 0.5 percent.

DUBAI, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Most Gulf Arab bourses closed slightly lower on Monday in thin volume dealing, but overall sentiment was positive with investors looking to Europe for positive news concerning the debt crisis there.

Gulf markets opened slightly higher tracking Asian stocks which rose earlier in the day on hopes that technocrat leaders in Italy and Greece would push for radical reform to contain the euro debt crisis, before easing slightly.

Abu Dhabi’s Dana Gas was in focus after the energy firm said its third-quarter net profit more than quadrupled buoyed by a 20 percent increase in total production and higher oil prices.

The stock closed 1.8 percent higher.

“I believe UAE markets are moving up gradually and nicely as they are building on a rebound that started before Eid holidays,” said Mohammed Ali Yasin, chief investment officer at CAPM Investment.

“We are benefiting from a slight improvement in investor confidence helped by third quarter earnings. Although there weren’t many surprises, however, it demonstrated that certain sectors, especially real estate and banking, are moving in the right direction.”

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank fell 0.7 percent.

DUBAI, Nov 13 (Reuters) – Gulf Arab bourses saw mixed trade on Sunday but a rally in global markets late last week provided some comfort for the region after an Italian vote on economic reforms eased concerns that its debt burden would jeopardise the euro zone’s future.

Construction and real estate stocks boosted bourses in the United Arab Emirates with Dubai’s Arabtec climbing 3.7 percent and leading the emirate’s bourse 0.7 percent higher.

“We’re taking the good news from global markets,” said Haissam Arabi, chief executive and fund manager at Gulfmena Investments.

“There is positive sentiment in most GCC markets and Saudi got off to a good start yesterday after Eid but the markets are being careful and we are not seeing huge volumes.”

Dubai’s Drake & Scull International advanced 1.7 percent after reporting a 76-percent increase in third quarter net profit earlier on Sunday.

“Until now you don’t have a lot of reaction on results, even if they are far above consensus — the price action is limited,” said Sebastien Henin, portfolio manager at The National Investor.

“I don’t see from where we can have a positive catalyst in the UAE.”

DUBAI, Oct 27 (Reuters) – Dubai’s Emaar Properties , builder of the world’s tallest tower, reported a 34 percent drop in third-quarter net profit on Thursday as it was weighed down by the emirate’s battered property market.

However, the developer’s earnings marginally beat an average analyst forecast for a 36 percent drop in profits, as recurring income from its malls and hotels business grew.

The United Arab Emirates’s largest developer by market value made a net profit of 406 million dirhams ($110.5 million), compared with 612.3 million in the same period last year, it said in a statement on Dubai’s bourse website.

In the first nine months as a whole, recurring revenue from Emaar’s hospitality and shopping malls accounted for nearly 41 percent of total revenue, with its malls business generating 1.6 billion dirhams in revenue, it said.

“This goes to show that Emaar’s hotel and malls portfolio is the main value driver,” said Ahmed Badr, head of MENA real estate and construction research at Credit Suisse.

Among Emaar’s assets is Dubai Mall, the world’s largest shopping centre. It also has a joint venture with Italian fashion house Georgio Armani to develop luxury hotels.

The developer’s total revenue dropped to 1.86 billion dirhams in the third quarter compared with 2.8 billion a year before.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Dubai’s once-booming property market can expect more pain with oversupply likely to delay a price recovery in the Gulf emirate until 2016, ratings agency Moody’s said on Monday.

House prices in Dubai soared after the emirate — which overstretched itself building extravagant real estate projects — opened its real estate sector to foreign investors in 2002, granting them freehold ownership rights at many developments.

From start-2007 to mid-2008, prices rallied almost 80 percent, Morgan Stanley estimates showed.

But the bubble burst when global economic woes and a debt crisis at home led to billions of dollars worth of projects being put on hold or canceled while house prices plummeted some 60 percent from their peaks.

“When you look at Dubai, yes the market is oversupplied on the residential side,” Martin Kohlhase, senior analyst, EMEA Corporate Finance at Moody’s, told the Reuters Middle East Investment Summit in Dubai.

“We don’t see recovery over the next five years. New construction, new projects are unlikely to happen and the same would hold true for the commercial market,” he added.

Dubai’s housing market will plummet another 10 percent before it stabilizes, a Reuters poll showed earlier on Monday, adding the market is oversupplied by about 25 percent.

DUBAI (Reuters) – Bahrain handed out life sentences Monday to 14 men for killing a Pakistani national during pro-democracy protests led by the Gulf kingdom’s Shi’ite majority earlier this year, the state news agency BNA said.

A military court also sentenced 15 others to 15 years in prison each for the attempted murder of a soldier, vandalizing buildings at the University of Bahrain and “inciting hatred of the ruling system,” the agency said.

Another six received 15 years each for intent to murder several people at the university, while a seventh was given 18 years. They were charged with setting a building on fire to kill those on an upper floor.

Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim rulers quashed the protests in March, with the help of troops from fellow Sunni neighbors Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. At least 30 people were killed, hundreds wounded and more than 1,000 detained — mostly Shi’ites — in the crackdown.

Pakistani national Abdulmalik Ghulam Rasool — killed in March — was assaulted with wooden planks and metal bars as he left his home in Manama, BNA said, adding that the 14 were also charged with intending to cause riots and commit other crimes.

Those jailed in all three cases were convicted for “spreading terror,” BNA said.

The court rejected requests by lawyers in the three cases for an independent medical committee to investigate allegations that the defendants had been tortured, Mattar Mattar, a member of the largest Shi’ite opposition group Wefaq, told Reuters.

DUBAI, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Dubai’s hotel, retail and residential real estate sectors are enjoying a boost from the emirate’s “safe haven” status amid unrest elsewhere in the Arab world, a report said on Monday.

The Arab Spring, which has resulted in the downfall of leaders in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, has confirmed Dubai’s position in the region, property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle said.

“This stimulus has helped push the hotel and retail sectors into the recovery stage of their market cycle over the past six months, while selected sectors of the residential market are now recovering,” the report said, adding that the office sector had seen the least benefit.

Dubai’s property sector was hit hard by the global financial crisis, with residential prices plummeting as much as 60 percent while billions of dollars worth of projects were put on hold or cancelled.

Jones Lang LaSalle said that although residential rents and prices are not increasing across the board, some areas are approaching stability.

“Interest from those displaced by the Arab Spring or looking for safe-haven residential properties in Dubai is reported to be particularly strong for upmarket villas in iconic projects such as Palm Jumeirah,” it said.

Recovery in demand however could be delayed by slowing growth in the United States and Europe and further supply increases.

DUBAI, Aug 15 (Reuters) – Hundreds of Asian laborers sit silently on the floor outside Dubai’s Fatima Hassan Mosque in front of plates laden with fruit, pakoras and biryani as they wait patiently in the energy-sapping humidity to begin their Ramadan iftar.

Nearby, sweat-drenched volunteers hastily scoop the deep-fried vegetables and the rice-based dishes of stewed meats from huge metal urns on to plates for the last of their weary guests, as they count down the final minutes until the sun disappears from the horizon, the moment they can break their daily dawn-to-dusk fast in the Muslim holy month due to end as August closes.

The mosque, situated downtown just yards from Dubai’s creek – the location of the emirate’s original trading hub when it was just a small trade and fishing centre — provides a free iftar for the poor every day during the holy month, cooking enough rice, mutton or chicken to feed some 1,500-1,800 workers in one sitting.

The Fatima Hassan Mosque’s waste bins may be empty, but Ramadan brings a huge incease in food waste across the city and the Gulf as leftovers from more lavish banquets attended by the well-to-do are thrown out in a region where soaring summer temperatures mean that fresh food goes off quickly.

“We hardly have any waste. Whatever is left over we serve to people. We call the people over and give it to them,” said Nour Mohammed, a sales coordinator who volunteers to serve food.

But not all iftars in Dubai are simple meals provided for the poor — many of whom are migrant workers, paid less that 1,000 dirhams ($272) a month and often have large debts.

Dubai has transformed itself over the last 50 years into a regional business and tourism hub renowned for extravagant real estate projects, flashy living and the luxurious banquets at hotels and restaurants to accommodate the demands of wealthy consumers who want the best fresh food at their iftar feasts.

ABU DHABI/DUBAI, July 28 (Reuters) – Sorouh Real Estate , which reported a fourfold surge in second-quarter profit on Thursday, plans to invest 1.4 billion dirhams ($381 million) in completing and delivering its existing projects until year-end.

Abu Dhabi’s second-largest developer by market value made a net profit of 125 million dirhams compared with 31 million in the same period last year as it delivered more units and reduced bad debt provisions.

Analysts had forecast, on average, profit of 157.17 million dirhams in a Reuters poll.

“We plan to invest another 1.4 billion dirhams (in the second half). Our focus is on project delivery and we are expecting good results for the year-end,” Richard Amos, chief financial officer, said in a conference call on Thursday.

Sorouh invested 1.4 billion dirhams in its projects in the first six months and plans to deliver some 1,000 homes by the year-end, he added.

Profit for the first half rose 33 percent to 202 million dirhams, Sorouh said in an earlier statement.

Revenue for the second quarter reached 1.22 billion dirhams, most of which was derived from the ongoing handover of units in Sun and Sky Towers, revenue from housing projects awarded by the government and income from rental portfolio.