MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf moves little, Saudi cement shares lose steam after budget | ZAWYA MENA Edition

MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf moves little, Saudi cement shares lose steam after budget | ZAWYA MENA Edition:

"Gulf stock markets moved little on Wednesday as Saudi Arabian cement shares lost steam after the release of the 2018 state budget, and Qatar's market pulled back after a leap on Tuesday.

The Saudi index edged up 0.2 percent as cement shares, which had surged in the days before the release of the budget as investors anticipated an increase in infrastructure spending, ran into profit-taking. Yanbu Cement fell 1.8 percent.

The budget was seen positively by the market; the government said it planned to increase total spending to a record 978 billion riyals ($261 billion) in 2018, from 890 billion riyals in the original 2017 budget plan and 926 billion riyals of actual spending this year. King Salman formally announced the target date for eliminating the budget deficit would be pushed back to 2023 from 2020. "



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