Major Middle East markets mostly lower

Major Middle Eastern stock markets were mostly lower on Sunday with petrochemical shares dragging down Saudi Arabia, but Qatar's bourse climbed on the back of determined buying by local institutional investors. The Saudi index fell 1.0 percent as 12 of 14 petrochemical producers slid, after Brent oil, which two weeks ago was trading around $70 a barrel, fell more than 3 percent on Friday to $62.79, its lowest since late December.
Al Tayyar Travel closed 1.7 percent lower after tumbling 8 percent at one stage. It reported annual net profit shrank to 497 million riyals ($132.5 million) from 814 million riyals; fourth-quarter profit was 17 million riyals, far below NCB Capital's prediction of 113 million riyals for the quarter. Al Rajhi Bank edged up 0.2 percent, however, after Saudi Arabia's second-largest lender by assets reported a 19.8 percent rise in its fourth-quarter net profit, broadly in line with analysts' forecasts.
Other Gulf bourses reacted less strongly to the turmoil in global equity and oil markets at the end of last week, and Dubai's index closed only 0.2 percent lower. Emaar Properties fell 1.2 percent after the company said it made a net profit of $1.55 billion in 2017; last week, Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar said it made $1.8 billion, but the company clarified that his figure was before depreciation. Emaar is expected to formally release annual earnings in coming days.
Abu Dhabi's index fell 0.3 percent but Abu Dhabi National Energy Co surged 3.5 percent, continuing to gain after its announcement on Thursday that it swung into the black last year. Qatar outperformed the rest of the region by a large margin, rising 1.7 percent in active trade. Exchange data showed that while foreign investors were net sellers of stocks, Qatari institutions were net buyers by a ratio of more than two to one in value terms.
Barwa Real Estate climbed 3.8 percent. It reported a rise in annual net profit to 1.71 billion riyals ($470 million) from 1.61 billion riyals and kept its dividend unchanged, despite a slump in Qatar's real estate market; in the first nine months of last year, profit had dropped.