Mideast Stocks: Most Gulf markets gain on US rate cut hopes, but trade woes weigh

Mideast Stocks: Most Gulf markets gain on US rate cut hopes, but trade woes weigh

Most stock markets in the Gulf closed higher on Tuesday, propelled by higher expectations of U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate cuts and anticipation of third-quarter earnings reports, although gains were moderated by renewed U.S.-China trade tensions. 

Investors are awaiting Fed Chair Jerome Powell's speech at the NABE annual meeting later in the day for cues into the central bank's policy path. Traders expect a 99% and 94% chance of a 25-basis-point cut in October and December, respectively. 

Policy shifts in the U.S. often sway Gulf markets where most currencies are pegged to the dollar. 

Dubai's main share index jumped 1.4%, buoyed by a 3% gain in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties , and a 3.8% gain in top lender Emirates NBD.

The bank is in advanced talks to buy a stake in Indian private lender RBL Bank , Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two people familiar with the deal. 

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba's cloud business unit has launched its second data centre in Dubai, it said on Tuesday, nine years after its first.

Abu Dhabi's benchmark index inched 0.1% higher. 

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index finished flat. The market’s direction hinges on upcoming third-quarter results, Joseph Dahrieh, managing principal at Tickmill, said. "However, the continued downturn in oil prices, which have touched a five-month low, could weigh negatively on sentiment."

The Qatari index declined 0.8%, hit by a 2.2% fall in the Gulf's biggest lender, Qatar National Bank. 

Oil prices — a catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets — fell by over 2% as trade tensions flare between the U.S. and China, the world's two biggest economies, and after the International Energy Agency raised the prospect of increased supplies and weaker demand growth.

U.S. and China from Tuesday began charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war.

Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index finished 0.1% higher.