Stock markets in the Gulf closed higher on Monday, led by the Qatar index ahead of the Eid al-Fitr holidays, although Kuwait shares hit a three-month low, led by the industrial and communications sectors.

The Qatari benchmark index was up for a third straight session, rising 0.1%, helped by finance and real estate sectors with Estithmar Holding and Masraf Al Rayan gaining 2.1% and 2.7% respectively while Qatar National Bank (QNB) added 0.9%.

QNB, the Gulf’s largest lender by assets, reported a 7% rise in first-quarter net profit, after market trading hours.

In Kuwait, the benchmark index was down for a fifth consecutive session and fell 0.2% to 7,859, the lowest in three months with industry, communications, consumer staples and consumer discretionary sectors in the red.

Agility Public Warehousing dropped 5.9% and Mobile Telecommunications slipped 2%.

Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index rebounded after a previous session of losses, gaining 1.3% with all sectors in positive territory.

Qatar leads Gulf markets higher; Kuwait slips

Talaat Mostafa rose 2.5% and Alexandria Container surged 11.9%.

Meanwhile, Egypt’s annual urban consumer price inflation rate slowed to 33.3% in March from 35.7% in February, data from statistics agency CAPMAS showed on Monday.

Gulf markets and Egypt stock exchange will be closed for the rest of the week and reopen on Sunday April 14

========================================= SAUDI ARABIA     Closed KUWAIT           was down 0.2% to 7,859 QATAR            rose 0.1% to 9,924 EGYPT            gained 1.3% to 28,504 BAHRAIN          added 0.1% to 2,022 OMAN             was up 0.2% to 4,697 ABU DHABI        Closed DUBAI            Closed=========================================