The emirate announced last month plans for a huge tourism and retail development including the largest shopping mall in the world to be built by conglomerate Dubai Holding and Emaar. Budget carrier Air Arabia and telecom operator due advance 2.6 and 0.9 percent respectively, with this pair seen as offering high dividend yields. "We're still relatively cheap and we have the dividend-led uptick coming up. Some people will be positioning ahead of it," said Shehzad Janab, head of asset management at Dubai-based Daman.
Dubai's top listed bank Emirates NBD added 0.7 percent after it agreed to buy a 95.2 percent stake in BNP Paribas' Egyptian arm, expanding its footprint. In Abu Dhabi, banks helped lift the index, which closed 0.3 percent higher. First Gulf Bank rose 0.9 percent and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank gained 0.7 percent. In Egypt, the bourse rose to a fresh four-week high as Arab investors bought into risk ahead of the second round of voting on a new constitution.
Commercial International Bank rose 2 percent and Telecom Egypt added 4 percent. Amer Group dropped 8.1 percent, after a dividend payout of 12.2 percent. "I don't think that we will see another rally in the near term even if the political situation ends," said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of technical analysis at Cairo's Beltone Financial. Cairo's benchmark gained 0.4 percent to 5,443 points, its highest close since November 21.
The market faces resistance at around 5,500 - 5,600, which could bring the market back down towards the 5,100-5,200 level, Agena said, adding that breaching this resistance is unlikely before year-end. Elsewhere, Doha's measure climbed 0.4 percent to its highest close since November 25. The market rallied on what analysts said was a technical break-out. The next resistance is seen at 8,450. Gainers outnumbered losers 15 to two on the 20-stock index. Qatar Telecom rose 1.8 percent, Qatar National Bank gained 0.6 percent and Vodafone Qatar added 3.1 percent.