(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A rebound in global oil prices and decisions by state-controlled companies to pay cash bonuses to employees boosted Saudi Arabia's stock market yesterday, while other Gulf bourses were mixed in choppy trading.
Qatar Exchange gained 55.60 points, or 0.46 percent, as it closed at 12,117.70 points up from the previous closing of 12,062.10.
Among the top gainers were Commercial Bank, whose share was up 1.48 percent to QR68.50 and Qatar Islamic Bank added 2.76 percent to QR108 per share. Electricity & Water gained 1.56 percent to QR195.50 and QNB dropped by 2.02 percent to QR194.
The Saudi stock index rose 0.8 percent as petrochemicals firm Saudi Basic Industries, the kingdom's largest listed company, jumped 2.4 percent; other stocks in the sector also climbed. This followed announcements by large companies such as Saudi Electricity and Saudi Telecom that they would pay out hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses to their workers.
Other Gulf markets had closed when oil was still in the red and their performances were mixed.
Dubai's index fell 1.1 percent; the benchmark had surged 4.5 percent in the previous session.
Abu Dhabi's index edged down 0.6 percent as most blue chips pulled back. Oman's market was nearly flat, while Kuwait edged up 0.3 percent. Egypt's bourse edged up 0.5 percent as property developers continued to gain on hopes that Egyptians will use real estate as a hedge against the weakening pound.
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