Bahrain's Gulf Finance House, lifting Dubai's benchmark, rose yesterday after it announced plans to exit investments in India and Tunisia to buy property in Dubai and Saudi Arabia.
Gulf Finance House, which is listed in several regional markets, gained 0.4 per cent to close at 42 fils on the Dubai Financial Market General Index, which rose 0.6 per cent to close at 1,603.71 points.
The bank started to "partially exit" an infrastructure development project consisting of technology and energy cities in India's Navi Mumbai, Hisham Alrayes said in a telephone interview on Monday. "The total value of the transaction is US$1 billion [Dh3.67bn] and we've started exiting our clients in 2012 and will continue with the redemption plan in the new year and onwards,"Mr Alrayes said. The company and its clients, will also seek to gradually sell stakes in the Tunis Financial Harbour project from next year, he added.
"The investment has a total value of $300 million, 10 per cent of which is directly owned by us."
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange General Index slipped 0.3 per cent to 2,618.68 points.
Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait's bourse added 0.4 per cent to 5,950.38 points. Bahrain's measure added 1.2 per cent to 1051.71. Oman's MSM 30 Index slipped 0.1 per cent to 5,668.05. Qatar's QE Index lost 0.6 per cent to 8,327.38 points. The Saudi Tadawul All-Share Index closed up 0.03 per cent to 6,866.71 yesterday.
* with Bloomberg News
