MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf shares fall after U.S. rate hike but Saudi buoyed by banks | Reuters

MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf shares fall after U.S. rate hike but Saudi buoyed by banks | Reuters:
"Stock markets in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar fell early on Thursday after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest rates and hinted at the risk of a faster pace of tightening next year, but Saudi Arabian banks bucked the market downtrend.

As expected, the central banks of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar followed with their own 25 basis point rate hikes while Oman, which has been raising its repo rate gradually in recent months, is expected to continue doing so.

But since market interest rates in the Gulf have recently been influenced more by oil price and their impact on banking system liquidity than by official policy rates, the latest increases may not have much negative impact on economies."

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