(Reuters) – Most Gulf stock markets opened lower on Wednesday due to lacklustre corporate earnings, although the Saudi index rose on strong gains by Al Rajhi Bank.
Dubai’s main share index dropped 1%, dragged down by an 8.6% slide in top lender Emirates NBD (ENBD), on course to post its biggest intraday fall in nearly five years.
ENBD reported fourth-quarter net profit of 4 billion dirhams ($1.09 billion), marginally lower than a year earlier. The lender also missed analysts’ estimates.
The Abu Dhabi index fell 0.3%, hit by a 1.7% decline in Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, following a drop in the lender’s full-year net profit.
The Sharia-compliant lender reported a net profit of 1.47 billion dirhams, down from 1.50 billion dirhams a year ago.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index, however, gained 0.3%, helped by a 3.3% rise in Al Rajhi Bank after the lender reported an 18.7% surge in its net profit to 19.72 billion riyals ($5.26 billion) for 2024.
In a separate bourse filing, Al Rajhi Bank also proposed second-half cash dividend of 1.46 riyal per share, up from 1.15 riyal a year earlier.
Elsewhere, Saudi Telecom Company added 0.7%, a day after the firm said it won a contract worth 32.64 billion riyals from a government entity to build, operate and provide telecommunications infrastructure services.
In Qatar, the index lost 0.4%, with Qatar Gas Transport (Nakilat) falling 2.4%, on lower annual dividend.
Nakilat – the world’s largest shipper of liquefied natural gas (LNG) – recorded a net profit of 1.64 billion riyals ($449.89 million), compared to 1.56 billion riyals year ago.
($1 = 3.7508 riyals)
($1 = 3.6726 UAE dirham)
($1 = 3.6453 Qatar riyals)
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)
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