DUBAI: Most stock markets in the Gulf ended lower on Monday, in line with global shares as worries about higher interest rates and a tightened lockdown in Shanghai deepened investors’ fears the global economy is headed for a slowdown.
Shanghai authorities were tightening the city-wide COVID lockdown they imposed more than a month ago, prolonging into late May an ordeal that China’s capital Beijing was desperate to avoid by turning mass testing into an almost daily routine.
Dubai’s main share index declined 2%, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties falling 2.7% and top lender Emirates NBD retreating 2.3%.
In Abu Dhabi, the index dropped 0.7%, hit by a 2.2% fall in the United Arab Emirates’ largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.
The Qatari benchmark lost 0.3%.
Oil prices, a key catalyst for the Gulf’s financial markets, see-sawed after the Group of Seven nations committed on Sunday to banning or phasing out imports of Russian oil over time, before falling.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index gave up early gains to close flat.
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