Saudi index retreats on haj curbs; Egypt outperforms

Saudi Arabian shares ended lower on Thursday, following the kingdom's decision to bar visitors from abroad from the annual haj pilgrimage due to the coronavirus, while the Egyptian bourse advanced with broad-based gains among its constituents.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index was down 0.7%, hurt by a 1.9% fall in Al Rajhi Bank and a 1.4% decline in petrochemical firm Saudi Basic Industries.

The kingdom is to limit the number of domestic haj pilgrims to around 1,000 to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, after barring Muslims abroad from the rite for the first year in modern times.

Official data showed that Saudi Arabia earns around $12 billion a year from haj and the year-round pilgrimage umrah.

Egypt's blue-chip index closed 2.6%, with 27 of the 30 stocks in the index rising, including heavyweight Commercial International Bank, which advanced 2%.

Egypt will from Saturday lift a night-time curfew that had been in force since March 25 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, and reopen restaurants, cafes, and places of worship, albeit with limits on the numbers visiting, the government said.

Dubai's main share index fell 1%, with sharia-compliant lender Dubai Islamic Bank shedding 1.8% and Emirates NBD Bank losing 1.1%.

Emirates NBD began cutting hundreds of jobs this week after the impact of the coronavirus crisis accelerated planned lay-offs, Reuters reported, citing three sources.

Although the full scale of the redundancies was not immediately clear, one source estimated that the lender is cutting some 10% of its staff, equivalent to around 800 people.

The Abu Dhabi index edged up 0.2%, helped by a 4.7% gain in aquaculture firm International Holding.

Qatar's index was down 0.4%, with petrochemical firm Industries Qatar declining 1.2% and Qatar Islamic Bank easing 0.7%.