(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Qatar Exchange index was down 24.96 points or 0.21 percent as it closed yesterday at 11,891.46 points down from the previous closing of 11,916.42.
Among the top losers were Commercial Bank of Qatar whose shares dropped 1.33 percent to QR66.60 and National Leasing fell 0.05 percent to QR20.14 per share. Ooredoo lost 1.02 percent to QR116.20 and Doha Bank dropped 0.70 percent to QR56.60.
Gulf soft as oil slips; poor results weigh on Saudi
Meanwhile, most Gulf equity markets pulled back as oil prices slipped again and negative fourth-quarter earnings weighed on Saudi Arabia's bourse.
Brent crude fell back below $50 a barrel on concern that the global economic outlook was darkening and after Iraq announced record oil production. Saudi Arabia's main index slid 0.6 percent as petrochemicals giant Saudi Basic Industries fell 1.9 percent and Savola Group, the kingdom's biggest food maker, dropped 2.3 percent.
Savola reported a 23 percent decline in fourth-quarter profit on Sunday. It made SR434.4m ($115.8m) in the period. Shares in Saudi Industrial Investment Group tumbled 3.6 percent after its fourth-quarter profit plunged 58 percent because of the fall in oil prices.
Meanwhile, Almarai added 2.1 percent after reporting a 15 percent rise in quarterly profit, in line with analysts' estimates.
Dubai's index slipped 0.2 percent as property and construction stocks fell while banks and other sectors did well. Dubai Islamic Bank's (DIB) 2.2 percent gain was the main support. Two other Dubai lenders, Emirates NBD and Mashreq, reported strong quarterly results on Sunday and investors may be betting that DIB, whose board will review earnings on January 25, will follow suit.
Air Arabia jumped 2.4 percent after announcing plans to launch a flight to Urumqi and become, it said, the first low-cost airline from the Middle East and Africa to enter the Chinese market.
Dubai-listed shares in Bahrain's Gulf Finance House (GFH) dropped 3.4 percent and topped trading volume on the emirate's bourse after surging their daily 15 percent limit in the previous session. GFH said on Monday that it had no information to disclose that could explain the share price movement.
Property-related stocks such as Emaar Properties, which lost 1.8 percent, came under pressure after consultancy JLL said in a report on Sunday that Dubai's markets for residential real estate and hotel properties were peaking as lower oil prices dampened sentiment. Abu Dhabi's index edged up 0.3 percent as blue chips Etisalat and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank added 0.5 and 3.4 percent respectively.
Egypt's index added 0.7 percent to 9,599 points as it rose above major technical resistance at 9,572-79 points, the peaks in November and December, with which it had struggled in the last two sessions.
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