Stock markets in Gulf end mixed, oil near six-week low
By Ateeq Shariff
July 24 (Reuters) -Stock markets in the Gulf ended mixed on Wednesday as corporate earnings failed to cheer investors amid a retreat in crude prices.
Oil prices - a catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets - traded around their lowest level in six weeks, as the northern hemisphere gets deeper into summer with limited signs of the expected fuel consumption surge the period usually sees.
Prices also suffered due to continued concern that the economic slowdown in China, the world's biggest crude importer, would weaken global oil demand.
Dubai's main share index .DFMGI gained 0.3%, led by an 11.8% surge in Dubai's Parkin PARKIN.DU, which oversees public parking operations in the Emirates, ahead of its earnings announcement on Friday.
Among other gainers, Mashreqbank MASB.DU, which is scheduled to report its second-quarter earnings on Thursday, advanced 5.5%.
In Abu Dhabi, the index .FTFADGI added 0.3%, with the country's biggest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank FAB.AD rising 0.3% ahead of its earnings announcement on Wednesday.
Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank ADIB.AD closed 0.7% higher. Post trading hours, the lender reported quarterly net profit of 1.58 billion dirhams ($430 million), a 29% increase year-on-year.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index .TASI ended flat.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco 2222.SE dropped 0.4%, while Saudi Telecom Company 7010.SE gained 0.6% after reporting quarterly net profit of 3.03 billion riyals ($808 million), up from 3.01 billion riyals a year earlier.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index .EGX30 fell 0.4%, hit by a 2.6% decline in E-Finance For Digital and Financial Investments EFIH.CA.
Egyptian economic growth will be slightly slower this year than thought in April following a $8 billion agreement signed with the International Monetary Fund in March, a Reuters poll showed on Monday.
SAUDI ARABIA | .TASI was flat at 12,101 |
ABU DHABI | .FTFADGI rose 0.3% to 9,263 |
DUBAI | .DFMGI was up 0.3% to 4,229 |
QATAR | .QSI closed flat at 10,137 |
EGYPT | .EGX30 lost 0.4% to 29,091 |
BAHRAIN | .BAX eased 0.1% to 1,978 |
OMAN | .MSX30 added 0.1% to 4,654 |
KUWAIT | .BKP gained 0.4% to 7,803 |
($1 = 3.6729 UAE dirham)
($1 = 3.7513 riyals)
Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Potter
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