Gulf stocks fall after Fed minutes, Qatar weighed by ex-dividend stocks | Reuters
Most major Gulf stock markets fell on Thursday, despite a small gain in oil prices, as minutes of the Federal Reserve's last meeting kept investors cautious about how much further U.S. interest rates could rise.
Minutes from the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting released overnight showed nearly all Federal Reserve policymakers rallied behind a decision to further slow the pace of interest rate hikes at the U.S. central bank's last policy meeting.
But they also indicated that curbing unacceptably high inflation would be the "key factor" in how much further rates need to rise.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index (.TASI) fell 0.7% with losses in almost all sectors. Al Rajhi Bank (1120.SE) dropped 1.2% while state oil giant and index heavyweight Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) lost more than 0.9% after JP Morgan cut its share target price to 39 riyals from 40 riyals.
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical (2350.SE) fell more than 2% after reporting a 1.24 billion riyals ($330.54 million) loss in fiscal year 2022 against a profit of 2.39 billion riyals ($637.10 million) in 2021.
In Abu Dhabi, the benchmark index (.FTFADGI) slipped 0.8%, led by a 1.3% slide in Alpha Dhabi (ALPHADHABI.AD).
Separately, state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) said on Thursday it has set a price range for an initial public offering (IPO) of its gas unit that could raise up to $2 billion and give ADNOC Gas an equity valuation of $47 billion to $50.8 billion.
Dubai's main share index (.DFMGI) lost 0.6%, dragged down by a 3.5%% decline in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties (EMAR.DU) and a 1.9% decrease in Dubai Islamic bank (DISB.DU).
The benchmark stock index (.QSI) in Qatar declined 1.4%, with almost all of its banking stocks in negative territory. Qatar Islamic Bank (QISB.QA) dived more than 8% as the stock was trading ex-dividend, while Qatar National Bank (QNBK.QA), the Gulf's largest lender, was down 1%.
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