The majority of stocks in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries declined on Wednesday, with the exception of Qatar and the Sultanate of Oman. In the Abu Dhabi market, the index fell 0.196% to 8,982.21 points, while the Dubai market index lost 0.74% to 3,979.18 points. Emaar Properties declined by 1.16%, Dubai Islamic by 0.7%, and Emirates NBD by 1.5%. The Saudi index lost for the third day in a row, falling 1.05% to 11,651.81 points, with trades amounting to 10.38 billion riyals. National Saudi Bank shares lost 1.5% of their value, while ACWA Power shares lost 4.3%. On the other hand, the shares of the Saudi Manpower Solutions Company (Smasco) rose by 20.7% to 9.05 riyals on its first appearance on the stock exchange.
In Kuwait, the general market index fell 0.08% to 7,037.22 points, with 224.2 million shares traded through 13,749 cash transactions worth 56.9 million dinars. Bahrain’s general index fell 0.07% to 2,037.84 points, with 1.927 million shares traded at a total value of 344,290 dinars through 82 transactions. The Qatar Stock Exchange index rose 0.15% to 9,645.87 points, with 179.976 million shares traded with a value of 538.111 million riyals.
In the Sultanate of Oman, the Muscat Stock Exchange “30” index rose 0.09% to 4,700.54 points, with trading value reaching 3.314 million riyals. Outside of the Gulf region, the leading stock index in Egypt continued to gain for the third session in a row, rising by 0.2% to 26,133.39 points, supported by a rise in Talaat Mostafa shares by 1.9% and Orascom Construction shares by 3.4%.