Most stock markets in the Gulf ended lower on Sunday as investors focus in on the prospects of more Federal Reserve interest rate hikes as the U.S. closes in on a deal to raise its debt ceiling.
Most Gulf Cooperation Council countries, including Saudi, have their currencies pegged to the dollar and generally follow the Fed's policy moves, exposing the region relatively directly to any monetary tightening there.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI) lost 0.4%, with Al Rajhi Bank (1120.SE) declining 1% and Dr Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Services (4013.SE) finishing 1.4% lower.
However, oil giant Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) added 0.2%.
Prices of oil - a key catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets - ticked up on Friday as U.S. officials appeared close to striking a debt-ceiling deal, and as the market weighed conflicting messages about oil supply from Russia and Saudi Arabia ahead of the next OPEC+ policy meeting.
In Qatar, the index (.QSI) eased 0.3%, hit by a 2.6% slide in telecoms firm Ooredoo (ORDS.QA).
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index (.EGX30) gained 0.5%, led by an 11.3% jump in Edita Food Industries (EFID.CA).
On the other hand, Egypt has deferred payments for its large wheat purchases, in some cases by months, according to a government official and traders, as the country grapples with a shortage of hard currency.
Egypt is one of the world's biggest wheat importers and uses the purchases to make heavily subsidised bread available to tens of millions of people. Any changes to its system of subsidies are politically very sensitive.
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