HSBC, which helped arrange two Gulf bond issues this week, said on Friday the issues were a sign debt markets in the Gulf Arab region are picking up again.

The bank was one of the arrangers for Islamic Development Bank's (IDB) $850 million sukuk and Abu Dhabi National Energy Company's (TAQA) $1.5 billion bonds.

The IDB sukuk was 'further evidence of the re-opening of the sukuk market in 2009 and the strong international interest that sukuk are receiving from investors all over the world,' said Mohammed Dawood, director of debt capital markets, at HSBC Amanah.

The Gulf Arab market bond market has been lying idle for much of 2009, after issuance was hit last year by the global financial crisis. Issuance fell 56 percent to $14.9 billion in 2008, according to Standard & Poor's.

The order book for IDB's sukuk was $2 billion, 2.4 times oversubscribed and for TAQA was $12 billion, 8 times oversubscribed, HSBC said.-Reuters