Most Gulf bourses decline due to regional tensions
Most Gulf stock markets fell in early trading on Monday, as escalating regional conflict outweighed cautious optimism about diplomatic progress at the United Nations meetings this week.
Energy markets remained tense after new verbal threats exchanged between Washington and Tehran escalated due to drone and missile attacks launched by the Houthis over the weekend, which targeted Riyadh and Saudi Aramco's Yanbu energy hub.
Gulf bourses had closed Sunday's trading with mixed losses, a day after the Houthis announced they had targeted sites in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, with missiles and drones, as caution spread to Gulf financial markets.
Bloomberg data showed that the main Saudi index fell by about 0.26%, pressured by a 0.6% decline in the shares of oil giant Aramco, and a 0.5% drop in the shares of Saudi National Bank, the kingdom's largest bank by assets.
In Qatar, the main stock exchange index fell 1.12%, affected by a 3.7% drop in the shares of petrochemical producer Industries Qatar.
Oman's stock market index fell by 0.30%, the UAE's general market index by 0.49%, Bahrain by 0.21%, Kuwait by 0.67%, and Jordan by 0.22%, according to Bloomberg data.
In Cairo, the Egyptian Exchange's EGX-30 index fell by 0.22%, while the EGX-100 index dropped by 0.18%.
المصدر: Open sources
