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Major stock markets in the Gulf region were mixed early on Tuesday, with Aramco’s quarterly earnings boosting the Saudi index, while Qatari and Abu Dhabi stocks followed oil prices lower.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark rose 0.5%, buoyed by a 4% rise in oil major Aramco after its first-quarter earnings topped market expectations, although the index was down 19% from last year.
Net income rose 3.75% from the fourth quarter, and the company said it would pay a first-quarter dividend of $19.5 billion.
Among other gainers, Saudi Arabian National Shipping Lines rose 2.6 percent after reporting a sharp jump in quarterly profit.
Dubai’s main stock index rose 0.4 percent, with budget carrier Air Arabia up more than 2 percent in a day after reporting a jump in quarterly profit.
In the first quarter of this year, passenger traffic at Dubai’s main airport rose 55.8% from a year earlier to 95.6% of pre-pandemic levels in 2019, operator Dubai Airports said on Tuesday.
In Abu Dhabi, the index fell 0.2%, hit by a 1.3% drop in Alpha Dhabi Holding.
Oil prices – the main catalyst for financial markets in the Gulf region – fell, giving up some of the strong gains made in the previous two sessions, as the market remained cautious ahead of the release of U.S. inflation data for April, which will be key to the Federal Reserve’s next interest rate decision.
In Qatar, the index fell 0.1%, on track to snap a nine-day winning streak, weighed down by a 1.2% drop in Qatar National Bank, the Gulf region’s largest lender.
($1 = 3.7501 Rials)
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff, Bangalore)
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