Saudi shares extended their losses on Sunday, weakened by disappointing corporate results, volatility in energy markets and the expectation that the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates next week.
Most Gulf currencies are pegged to the dollar, and Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates generally copy any change in monetary policy in the United States.
The benchmark in Saudi Arabia fell 0.7%, led by a 2% decline in SABIC Industries shares after the company reported a lower quarterly profit. against 5.6 billion riyals a year ago.
Another petrochemical maker Nama Chemicals, posted a quarterly loss of 5.4 million riyals compared to a profit of 4.9 million riyals a year ago.
The Saudi National Bank, unable to recoup losses from the last three sessions, stabilized at 3.3%, wiping 8.9 billion riyals off the company’s market capitalization
The petrochemical company reported a more-than-23% drop in its third-quarter profit to 1.6 billion Qatari riyals ($439.56 million) on Thursday.
The Qatari stock market remains exposed to corrections as natural gas prices could suffer a volatile week, according to Daniel Takieddine, CEO of MENA BDSwiss.
“The latter could be affected by the lack of processing capacity in Europe and higher-than-expected temperatures on the continent,” he said. Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index added 0.3%, holding gains for a fifth straight session.
Egypt aims to give income tax breaks to companies of as much as 55% for some, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Tuesday.
Alexandria Container And Cargo Handling Shares rose 7.3% after a 9.1% surge in the previous session.
Earlier, the company recorded 669.20 million Egyptian pounds ($28.12 million) during the first quarter of fiscal year, a yearly increase of 98.97% from 336.33 million Egyptian pounds