Most major Gulf bourses were sluggish in holiday-thinned trade on Wednesday with Saudi Arabia leading the losses on financials, while Egypt retreated on a blue-chip sell-off.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index declined 0.9 percent, driven down by a 1.8 percent fall in Al Rajhi Bank and a 3 percent slide in National Commercial Bank.

State-owned Aramco dropped a further 0.6 percent to 35.2 riyals ($9.38) despite Goldman Sachs saying that it may stabilise its shares by purchasing additional shares on the market.

The stabilisation period will end on Jan. 9, but so far no transactions have been executed.

Gulf Union Cooperative Insurance gained earlier in the session, then went into reverse and closed 1.5 percent down. On Wednesday, the insurer signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Al Ahlia for Cooperative Insurance to evaluate a merger. Al Ahlia climbed 3.1 percent.

Egypt's blue-chip index EGX30 fell 0.4 percent, weighed down by Commercial International Bank which was down 0.8 percent and Eastern Company which ended 4 percent lower.

Exchange data on Wednesday showed that Egyptians were net sellers of the stocks.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, major markets moved little and trade was thin in the absence of foreign investors during the Christmas holidays.

In Dubai, the index closed down 0.2 percent with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and Emirates NBD Bank losing 1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively.

The Abu Dhabi index rose 0.4 percent as the country's largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank added 0.5 percent and United Arab Bank soared 13.1 percent, its biggest gain since March.

The Qatari index edged up 0.1 percent led by Qatar National Bank and Commercial Bank, as the duo were up 0.7 percent.