IPOs from Saudi Arabia have been the star performers

Saudi Arabia's initial public offers (IPOs) have been the standout performers in a series of recent share sales in the Gulf region.

This comes even as several prominent listings in the region have marked lacklustre starts in recent months.

Nice One Beauty Digital Marketing and Alamosa Health, two Saudi firms, remained above the offer price after posting good early returns in their trading debuts in January.

While not all Saudi listings have done well in the last year, the Saudi stock market has the best after-market performance and the most first-day pops of any Gulf bourse.

This is quite the contrast when compared to last year's three biggest listings in other Gulf regions.

Saudi listings grab the spotlight

The UAE's Talabat holding and Oman's Lulu retail holding, together with Oman’s OQ Exploration & Production Saog, had underwhelming debuts.

Out of the three, only Talabat is trading at a little premium to its offer price today.

There have been far more subdued rises for all newly-listed equities in the UAE except for Parkin's massive Dubai IPO.

Vijay Valecha, chief investment officer at UAE-based broker Century Financial, pointing to a "glaring contrast" between newly-listed stocks in Saudi and elsewhere in the region, said, "The bullish euphoria surrounding the primary listings in Saudi Arabia shows no signs of stopping."

Valecha said that Saudi Arabian stocks had an average post-listing increase of 37 per cent over the last year.

He added, "However, UAE stocks had an average performance of 17 per cent."

(With inputs from the agencies)