DUBAI: Saudi Arabia's stock market fell in early trade on Wednesday as oil remained weak and property developer Talaat Moustafa Group weighed on Egypt after being told to pay more cash to the government.
Brent crude fell towards $53 a barrel as U.S. crude inventories were forecast to have surged for the tenth straight week to a new record high.
The main Saudi index was down 1.3 percent and petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries, down 2.2 percent, was one of the main drags.
Ex-dividend stocks such as Advanced Petrochemicals Co and Saudi Cement, which dropped 3.6 and 3.4 percent respectively, also dragged down the market.
However, Savola Group rose 0.6 percent after announcing it has obtained all necessary approvals for the sale of its packaging unit and its subsidiaries to Takween Advanced Industries and would book the gain in the current quarter.
Egypt's bourse edged down 0.4 percent, largely because of major property developer Talaat Moustafa Group (TMG) which fell 1.3 percent.
The Cairo government on Tuesday officially announced that it had settled a dispute with the company over the land plot for its Madinaty project, but the deal involves TMG paying extra cash and giving the state a higher percentage of the completed buildings.
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