Saudi Arabia's stock market rose on Wednesday in response to a surge in oil prices but most of the Gulf was sluggish because of profit-taking. Egypt rallied for a third straight day after the central bank devalued the currency.
In the early afternoon, Qatar said oil producers would meet in Doha on April 17 to discuss a proposal to freeze output, lifting Brent crude back above $39 a barrel.
The Saudi stock index closed 1.2 percent higher as the petrochemical sector jumped 2.4 percent in active trade.
Zain Saudi rose 3.6 percent after sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that its Kuwaiti parent Zain was narrowing the field of potential bidders for 7,000 towers owned by the Saudi firm.
Banks underperformed after Moody's revised its outlook for Saudi Arabia's banking system to negative from stable, saying low oil prices and lower government spending would weigh on the sector as credit risk started to rise.
National Commercial Bank edged up 0.5 percent while Banque Saudi Fransi fell 1.2 percent. "Banks will continue to remain exposed to event risk stemming from high single party exposures," Moody's said.
Other Gulf markets closed earlier than Saudi Arabia and did not experience as much of the oil price surge as investors continued to take profits from strong gains since mid-February.
Dubai's index fell 0.7 percent as blue chips dropped, with Emaar Properties losing 2.6 percent.
Dubai Investments dropped 4.6 percent after proposing a 12 percent cash dividend for 2015; for 2014, it had paid a dividend of 12 percent cash and 6 percent bonus shares.
But eight of Dubai's 10 most heavily traded shares rose with Arabtec, the most active, gaining 3.9 percent.
Abu Dhabi's index fell 1.3 percent as First Gulf Bank slid 3.8 percent after dropping more than 9 percent on Tuesday, when it went ex-dividend. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank fell 3.9 percent.
National Bank of Abu Dhabi outperformed, falling only 1.3 percent, after it announced a 2015 dividend of 0.45 dirham per share, raising this from an original proposal of 0.40 dirham after pressure from shareholders.
Qatar rose 0.9 percent as Qatar National Bank gained 2.0 percent, although Barwa Real Estate slid 5.5 percent as it went ex-dividend.
Kuwait's index dropped 0.3 percent but logistics firm Agility gained 1.1 percent after saying it would be interested in bidding to manage Kuwait's airport and ports if plans to privatise them go ahead.
Egypt's index rose 1.3 percent to 7,229 points, gaining for a third straight day after a devaluation designed to end an endemic foreign exchange shortage. It confirmed a break of technical resistance at this year's peak of 7,114 points. Its next barrier is the October peaks around 7,700 pounds.
Sherif Salem, portfolio manager at Abu Dhabi's Invest AD, said the vast majority of Egyptian stock purchases since the devaluation had been by local investors.
But net purchases by foreign investors have increased to several million dollars a day from an almost even balance between buying and selling before the devaluation, he added.
"Those who aren't in Egypt won't necessarily rush back but it's now on their radar again and they will be watching and monitoring it," he said.
Salem said there was a good chance that the devaluation would mark the beginning of the end of the hard currency shortage and the start of a long-term rally in stocks, though this would depend on the success of other steps, such as efforts to attract foreign investment with callable dollar options.
"We are seeing positive action for the first time. Before we were seeing positive words and defensive action."
Real estate stocks were strong again on bets that foreign money would enter the sector; Palm Hills Development climbed 1.6 percent. Interest spread to smaller stocks such as El Saeed Contracting and Real Estate Investment, up 6.7 percent.
Ral estate developer SODIC soared 9.9 percent after reporting a consolidated net profit of 321.3 million Egyptian pounds ($35.9 million) for 2015, up from 154.3 million pounds a year earlier.
Blue chip lender Commercial International Bank fell 1.5 percent.
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