DUBAI, Feb 6 (Reuters) – Dubai builder Arabtec made its largest gain in nearly two years on Monday to reach a 27-month closing high, dominating trade on the emirate’s index.

Gulf Arab markets were mixed, taking their cue from an upbeat opening in Asia before some gave back gains as European stocks declined.

Arabtec rose 9.2 percent to its highest close since November 2009 and accounted for more than a quarter of all shares traded on Dubai’s benchmark.

But there was no news on the builder, which is forecast to report a 55 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit according to analysts polled by Reuters.

“We are moving beyond fundamentals with this type of move on Arabtec,” said Julian Bruce, EFG-Hermes director of institutional equity sales.

Telecoms operator du made its largest drop in seven weeks, falling 2.3 percent after the firm said it had been instructed to pay a royalty of 15 percent on its 2011 net profit, plus a further 5 percent of revenue.

Dubai’s index climbed 0.6 percent to 1,476 points, a five-month closing high, but failed to hold above 1,500 points, which is seen by investors as an important hurdle.

CAIRO/DUBAI, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Egypt’s bourse made its largest decline in six weeks on Thursday after 74 people were killed in violence at a soccer stadium, a fresh setback for a country struggling with weak security a year after its president was overthrown.

The main index ended 2.2 percent lower, regaining some of its lost ground after having fallen more than 4 percent at the open as Mobinil and its parent company Orascom Telecom Media and Technology rose 4.1 and 4.5 percent respectively to offset declines in other stocks.

“The market is in a panic after what happened yesterday,” said Omar Darwish of brokerage CIBC.

Commercial International Bank dropped 4.3 percent and property developer Palm Hills dipped 3.4 percent.

Gulf markets were mixed, with Dubai’s index falling 1.2 percent to trim to 10.4 percent its gains since mid-January’s seven-year low as disappointing results from some companies spurred investors to lock-in recent gains.

Union Properties fell 9.8 percent, its largest decline in more than two years, after reporting a widening annual loss.

The firm’s chief executive told a local newspaper in January it had reached a $1.03 billion debt deal with major shareholder Emirates NBD.

DUBAI/CAIRO, Feb 1 (Reuters) – Middle East stocks are set to extend gains this month as investors’ risk appetite increases, though much of this optimism is based on a bullish start to the year by world markets, so any ill winds globally could cool the regional rally.

The Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses slumped to multi-year lows on Jan. 16, but have since risen 11.7 and 7.5 percent, while Saudi Arabia’s benchmark is at an eight-month high. These gains came despite less-than-stellar fourth-quarter corporate earnings; sharply higher trading volumes in the past week confirm money is returning to the markets.

“There wasn’t a massive disappointment (over earnings), but a lot of the strength we’re seeing in our markets is down to improving sentiment, because not a lot else has improved - there’s a high global correlation at work,” said Ibrahim Masood, senior investment officer at Mashreq Bank in Dubai.

“Since mid-January, there has been some offshore involvement in the big UAE stocks like Emaar Properties, which some domestic liquidity has piggy-backed onto.”

Dubai ended Wednesday at 1,454 points, near its 200-day moving average at 1,467 points, which is a key resistance level, said Musa Haddad, head of the regional equity desk at National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

“If the market moves higher from here and breaks above 1,500, it would take us out of a bear market. If it stops at the 200-day average, then it signals we’re in for some profit-taking.

“But the market is looking good and even if there’s some downside I would see this as a buying opportunity.”

DUBAI, Feb 1 (Reuters) – UAE telecoms operator has invited bidders for its telephone tower operations in Africa, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

Etisalat operates in about 10 African countries, including Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ivory Coast and owns about 4,500 towers on the continent.

The former state telecoms monopoly has mandated Standard Chartered to advise on the potential deal, the sources said.

Etisalat had originally planned to sell the towers in one lot.

“It was an all or nothing deal for about $500 million - Etisalat received interest from about six or seven companies,” one source familiar with the matter said.

“It would have been a cash deal, with a lease back to Etisalat of 15 to 20 years, but the process has stalled and my guess would be that’s because it’s very difficult to sell towers in more than one country at a time. It’s not an easy process and to agree a single deal was over-ambitious.”

Etisalat was not immediately available for comment.

DUBAI, Jan 31 (Reuters) – Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank surged to a six-month high on Tuesday after its earnings beat forecasts, helping the emirate’s index extend a two-week rising trend, and most Gulf Arab markets extended gains.

FGB’s shares jumped 9.9 percent to their highest finish since Aug. 1 after the bank reported an 18 percent increase in fourth-quarter profit.

“The strength of FGB’s numbers was due to net interest income – this was a good set of numbers ahead of expectations although not dramatically so,” said Raj Madha, Rasmala MENA banking analyst.

“In Q3, FGB’s net interest income was extremely strong and that continued in Q4.”

The lender had loan growth of 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter, while rival lender Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank’s loan growth was flat over the same period, which may mean FGB took market share from its rival, said Madha.

“If bank results are good, it does imply that cash flow is improving, but the amount of non-performing loans and write-offs at FGB and ADCB suggests there are plenty of loan quality issues still out there.”

ADCB, which said last week earnings rose 39 percent, added 0.7 percent.

DUBAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Omani group Nawras is targeting mobile broadband to drive revenue growth after the telecoms operator reported flat fourth-quarter earnings, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday.

“If you consider the story of the growth of mobile voice, you can imagine we have got a similar growth prospects in mobile broadband ahead of us,” chief executive Ross Cormack said. “Smart phones are taking the market by storm as are tablets so we are seeing data usage go through the roof.”

In 2011, 30 percent of Nawras mobile revenue came from broadband, while 12 percent was from text messaging.

Nawras, majority owned by Qatar Telecommunications Co , posted a flat fourth-quarter net profit of 11.9 million rials ($31 million).

Full-year net profit fell 5 percent to 47.5 million rials. Revenue in the quarter was up 2 percent to 50.8 million rials.

Mobile and fixed subscribers numbers fell to 1.96 million at the end of 2011, down from 2.03 million in 2010, but a quarter of mobile customers now regularly use broadband and a further 25 percent use data every month.

Nawras said the fall in subscribers was “due to regulatory rule changes concerning the counting of prepaid mobile customer base as well as the reduction in the permissible number of SIM cards one person may hold.”

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – England captain Andrew Strauss admitted his team were not good enough after they were bowled out for 72 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to give Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

England’s second innings total was their fifth-lowest of the past 50 years, and the world’s top-ranked test side were condemned to their first series defeat since 2009 having lost last week’s first test in Dubai by 10 wickets.

“Individually, we haven’t been clear enough about our game plan against the spin, where are our scoring areas are and we’ve allowed pressure to build,” Strauss told reporters.

“Each time a wicket falls it makes it harder for the next guy coming in. As a batting unit we have to hold our hands up and say we haven’t done well enough. No excuses, we need to be better than that.”

Strauss has scored 68 runs in four innings and Kevin Pietersen 17 as England’s top batsmen have struggled against Pakistan’s spinners. On Saturday Abdur Rehman celebrated a six-wicket haul, while Saeed Ajmal has 17 wickets for the series.

England got closer to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi but barely improved on their mauling in Dubai.

“The fact we got rolled over twice in Dubai meant there was baggage going into (Saturday’s) final innings,” Strauss said.

ABU DHABI, Jan 28 (Reuters) – England captain Andrew Strauss admitted his team were not good enough after they were bowled out for 72 in Abu Dhabi on Saturday to give Pakistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

England’s second innings total was their fifth-lowest of the past 50 years, and the world’s top-ranked test side were condemned to their first series defeat since 2009 having lost last week’s first test in Dubai by 10 wickets.

“Individually, we haven’t been clear enough about our game plan against the spin, where are our scoring areas are and we’ve allowed pressure to build,” Strauss told reporters.

“Each time a wicket falls it makes it harder for the next guy coming in. As a batting unit we have to hold our hands up and say we haven’t done well enough. No excuses, we need to be better than that.”

Strauss has scored 68 runs in four innings and Kevin Pietersen 17 as England’s top batsmen have struggled against Pakistan’s spinners. On Saturday Abdur Rehman celebrated a six-wicket haul, while Saeed Ajmal has 17 wickets for the series.

England got closer to Pakistan in Abu Dhabi but barely improved on their mauling in Dubai.

“The fact we got rolled over twice in Dubai meant there was baggage going into (Saturday’s) final innings,” Strauss said.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Spinner Abdur Rehman took six wickets as Pakistan beat England by 72 runs in the second test on Saturday to clinch the three-match series, bowling out the tourists for 72 in their second innings after another abject batting display.

England, the number one test side in the world, had earlier dismissed Pakistan for 214 to give themselves a target of 145 to win in Abu Dhabi.

But Andrew Strauss’s men again failed to deal with the host’s triple spin threat of Rehman, Saeed Ajmal and Mohammad Hafeez.

Rehman ended on 6-25, while Ajmal’s figures were 3-22.

Only Strauss (32) and Matt Prior (18) managed double figures, the tourists losing all 10 wickets in the space of 22 overs.

Alastair Cook (7) was the first to go, caught and bowled by Hafeez, who stooped to get his fingers to the ball inches from the turf.

Ian Bell (3) came in at number three in place of Jonathan Trott who had been off the field with a stomach complaint and the Warwickshire batsman lasted just three balls before deflecting an Ajmal delivery on to his stumps with an inside edge.

ABU DHABI, Jan 28 (Reuters) – Pakistan’s spinners were rampant as they reduced England to 39-4 at tea in the second test on Saturday, with the tourists needing another 106 to win and square the three-match series.

England had appeared in control, bowling out Pakistan for 214 in their second innings, but their top order again failed abjectly to deal with Pakistan’s spinners.

Alastair Cook (7) was the first to go, caught and bowled by Mohammad Hafeez, who stooped to get his fingers to the ball inches from the turf.

Ian Bell (3) came in at number three in place of Jonathan Trott who had been off the field with a stomach complaint and the Warwickshire batsman lasted just three balls before deflecting a Saeed Ajmal delivery on to his stumps with an inside edge. England were 26-2 and reeling.

Kevin Pietersen (1) and Eoin Morgan (0) then continued their miserable form, falling to Abdur Rehman in the space of three balls. Pietersen was trapped lbw after lunging forward to defend, while Morgan saw his leg stump felled.

England’s plight could have been even worse, with Andrew Strauss deflecting a Rehman delivery off his bat and pad to Azhar Ali at short leg.

Ali sunk to his knees to scoop the ball up before it hit the ground, but the third umpire thought otherwise, earning the England captain a reprieve.