Most of the Gulf’s major equities closed lower today, Thursday, after the minutes of the last Federal Reserve meeting broadcast reports of a monetary tightening trend, while the Saudi Arabian market recouped its early session losses and closed flat. changes, and the Egyptian index continued to rise for the sixth day on Monday, respectively.
The minutes of the Fed meeting, released last night, showed that although officials agreed that the central bank should slow down the pace of interest rate hikes, they have focused on curbing inflation.
The Saudi Arabian stock index stabilized at the close as losses in energy and financial stocks were offset by gains in real estate stocks.
Index-weighted Saudi Aramco was down 0.5%, while Rital Urban Development Company was up about 1%.
In Abu Dhabi, the main index fell 0.3%, with First Bank of Abu Dhabi, the country’s largest bank, falling 0.6% and the fertilizer industry’s share falling 2.4%.
Mubadala Investment Company, Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, and UAE-based holding company Alpha Abu Dhabi announced today a joint venture to invest in private lending opportunities with an investment of up to nine billion dirhams ($2.45 billion). Alpha Abu Dhabi fell 0.6%.
On the other hand, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said today that it will allocate AED55 billion to encourage investment in low-carbon solutions, new energy sources and technologies to reduce emissions from its operations by 2030.
The main Dubai stock index fell 0.4% due to losses in real estate and financial companies, as Emaar Properties shed 1.4% and Emirates NBD Bank fell 0.4%.
Qatar’s core stock index jumped 2.8% and ended the week up 4.3%.
Outside the Gulf region, Egypt’s leading stock index closed up 2.9%, the highest level since August 2018, while the Commercial International Bank of Egypt’s share jumped 2.5%.