DUBAI: Major Gulf markets ended lower on Wednesday with the Saudi index leading losses, while Egypt’s bourse was hurt by a blue-chip selloff.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index fell 0.9%, with Saudi Electricity shedding 3.7% and National Gas and Industrialization Company dropping 1%.
However, National Commercial Bank (NCB) advanced 1.3% after it reported on Tuesday a nearly 24% rise in third-quarter net profit.
The kingdom’s largest lender posted a net profit of 3.16 billion riyals ($842.60 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, up from 2.55 billion a year earlier.
Dubai’s main share index slipped 0.2%, hurt by a 2.6% fall in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and a 1.3% fall in logistics firm Aramex.
The Abu Dhabi index dropped 0.5%, weighed down by a 1.1% decline in telecoms firm Etisalat and a 3.5% slide in Aldar Properties, ending four sessions of gains.
On Monday, Aldar saw its biggest intraday gain in nearly six years after announcing it will take over the management and development of government capital projects worth 30 billion dirhams ($8.17 billion) under an agreement with state-backed ADQ.
In Qatar, the index fell 0.3%, with Industries Qatar losing 1.1%, a day after the petrochemical firm reported a net profit of 951 million riyals ($261.26 million) for the first nine months of 2020, down from 2 billion riyals a year earlier.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index closed down 0.4%, with most of the stocks on the index in negative territory including Madinet Nasr, which was down 3.7%.—Reuters
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