Mideast funds bullish on Saudi equities, negative on UAE

Fund managers in the Middle East expect to inject more funds in Saudi equities in coming months, data from a monthly Reuters survey showed Wednesday.

As many as 13 leading regional fund managers said that 69 percent expect to boost Saudi allocations within a regional portfolio over the next three months, and none to cut allocations.

This is the most upbeat balance towards Saudi Arabia since September 2013, when the ratio was 75 percent to zero.

The bullish outlook was attributed to expectations that Saudi Arabia will join emerging market equity indices, which would attract billions of dollars of fresh money to the country.

The Kingdom is also projected to see stronger economic growth this year, backed by higher spending, with the planned listing of state-run Saudi Aramco in Riyadh in H2 2018 is likely to attract funds.

Meanwhile, fund managers were much less positive on the United Arab Emirates stock markets, where 8 percent expect to raise stock allocations and 38 percent to reduce them - the most negative ratio for the UAE since July 2014.