(Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s stock market ended lower on Sunday in response to Friday’s fall in oil prices, while the Egyptian index extended loses on profit-taking.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index (.TASI) fell 0.1%, extending losses from the previous session, weighed down by a 0.9% fall in oil giant Saudi Aramco (2222.SE).
Oil prices – a key catalyst for the Gulf’s financial markets – settled 1% lower on Friday due to macroeconomic concerns and profit-taking.
Saudi Arabia is expected to tap the international debt markets to finance a projected budget deficit in 2023-2024, the finance ministry said, against a backdrop of lower oil prices and the country’s extended oil production cuts.
In Qatar, the index (.QSI) dropped 0.4%, hit by a 1% fall in the Gulf’s biggest lender Qatar National Bank (QNBK.QA).
The Qatar bourse had been temporarily suspended from trading to rectify a technical glitch which occurred in the market’s index calculation system at 9:24 a.m. (0624 GMT).
After resolving the fault, the pre-opening session recommenced at 10:15 AM, lasting for 15 minutes, followed by continuous trading from 10:30 AM until the end of the trading session.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index (.EGX30) finished 0.6% lower, as most of the stocks on the index were in negative territory including Fawry for Banking Tehnology and Electronic payment (FWRY.CA), which was down 7.2%.
| SAUDI ARABIA | (.TASI) fell 0.1% to 11,040 |
| QATAR | (.QSI) lost 0.4% to 10,216 |
| EGYPT | (.EGX30) down 0.6% to 11,337 |
| BAHRAIN | (.BAX) eased 0.1% to 1,937 |
| OMAN | (.MSX30) added 0.4% to 4,699 |
| KUWAIT | (.BKP) was up 0.4% to 7,552 |
