DUBAI: Most Gulf stock markets closed lower on Sunday, a day after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi oil installations at two Red Sea ports and Saudi-backed forces bombed the Houthis, extending the war in the Gulf to a second front.
Amid a weekend pause in US strikes against Iran, the US ambassador to the United Nations told Fox News on Sunday that President Donald Trump was giving Iran talks “some space”.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index lost 0.3 percent, dragged down by a 4 percent slide in Banque Saudi Fransi as the lender traded ex-dividend, or without the right to receive the next scheduled dividend payment.
Among other losers, oil major Saudi Aramco retreated 0.9 percent.
On Sunday, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that an oil tanker exploded in the strategic Strait of Hormuz after colliding with a naval mine.
According to the report, the collision occurred after the vessel veered off the shipping lane designated by Iran.
Separately, Iran’s Foreign Ministry condemned a Ukrainian attack on an Iranian commercial vessel in the Caspian Sea, saying on Saturday it resulted in an explosion that killed one sailor and injured another.
In Qatar, the index was down 0.3 percent, with Qatar Islamic Bank losing 0.8 percent.
Beyond the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index dropped 1 percent, as most of its constituents were in negative territory including Commercial International Bank , which declined 0.9 percent.
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