UAE- Etisalat stock sputters as it readies for MSCI

11/30/2015 11:34:58 PM

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Abu Dhabi's best performing stock in 2015 is showing signs of fatigue just as it prepares to join MSCI's emerging market index.

Emirates Telecommunications Group or etisalat declined for four days through Sunday its longest losing streak since August 11 paring its advance this year to 51 per cent.

The shares which had climbed to the highest valuationin about eight years based on future earnings fell below their 50-day moving average for the first time in more than two months. They rebounded 1.7 per cent on Monday at 10.50am local time.

Investors piled into etisalat after the UAE opened its biggest telecommunications operator to foreign ownership in September a step that also put the shares on course for inclusion in MSCI's gauge.

As a result the company bucked a stock selloff across the region sparked by a plunge in the price of oil the source of most government revenue in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Etisalat shares have "overshot in terms of valuations" said Yazan Abdeen who manages $220 million of Middle East and North African assets at Jeddah Saudi Arabia-based Sedco Capital.

"The premium for the stock is partly justified by the MSCI inclusion but not by the company's fundamentals. It's not sustainable. Something has to give either the valuation or the growth."

Etisalat got 57 per cent of revenue from its home market where almost every resident has two mobile lines one of the highest rates in the world according to the World Bank.

The stock closed at 13.7 times future earnings on Sunday compared with a ratio of 8.4 for the ADX General Index in Abu Dhabi where it's listed according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Abdeen who doesn't own etisalat sees better opportunities in telecommunications companies in Saudi Arabia Qatar and Kuwait. His biggest holding is in Viva Kuwait Telecom which trades at about 10.8 times estimated earnings for the next 12 months. The MSCI EM Index is valued at 11.1 times forward earnings.

Etisalat will join the gauge as of the close of trade on Monday. UAE markets will be closed from Tuesdayfor national holidays and will resume trading on Sunday.

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