JEDDAH/DUBAI: Most Gulf Arab bourses edged lower yesterday in thin trading after investors had their feathers ruffled by a sharp decline in the previous session in Saudi Arabia, the region’s largest bourse.

Markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi both fell around 1 percent, led lower by banks and real estate stocks. “I think the markets were reacting to what happened in Saudi Arabia yesterday (Saturday),” said Shawkut Raslan, head of brokerage at Prime Emirates.

The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) fell nearly 3 percent on Saturday, itself tracking a decline in world stocks in the previous session, Raslan said, which came on the back of resurgent worries over the fallout from the global recession. The index edged higher 69.98 points or 1.19 percent to 5,941.54.

There was an overall positive contribution from all sectors, with the Hotel & Tourism sector closing with the biggest gains, up 2.89 percent, while the Media sector had the lowest gains, up only 0.20 percent, the Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily commentary about the stock market.

Banking and Petrochemical sectors both had moderate gains, up 1.05 percent and 1.62 percent respectively. Overall market breadth has become strongly positive once again, with 103 advancers to 18 decliners giving an AD ratio of 5.72. However these gains were not supported by a strong liquidity, which came in at only SR7.2 billion.

However, the index continues to be technically supported by the 200 days simple moving average at 5,806 and the 20 days average at 5,661, the FTH said in its report.

Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas fell 1.14 percent, having dipped by as much as 3 percent after unveiling a big gas investment and posting a quarterly loss on Friday.

The firm said it would play a key role in a $8 billion gas project in Iraq’s Kurdistan in a bloc including Austria’s OMB and Hungary’s MOL. “Investors will be looking closely at the Dana Gas’s Iraqi field deal with OMV of Austria and Hungarian company MOL to see how the figures change analysts’ valuations of the Iraqi fields,” Matthew Wakeman, director of cash and equity linked trading at EFG-Hermes, said in a research note.

Kuwait’s main index ended slightly higher as investors were undecided on the outcome of the Gulf Arab state’s parliamentary election and the bourse suspended 26 companies for not reporting first-quarter earnings on time.

The new Parliament will have to vote on a $5 billion economic stimulus package seen as crucial to helping the financial sector overcome the global financial crisis.

“It’s a very quiet market,” said Jassem Al-Zeraei, head of institutional sales at NBK Capital.

“Investors are being cautious for now ... We will get a sense during the coming weeks if (the election results) will have a healthy or negative impact.”

The benchmark Abu Dhabi index fell 0.96 percent to 2,565 points, having closed lower in two out of last week’s five trading sessions.

The Dubai index slipped 1.07 percent to 1,617 points, ending lower for the third trading session in a row.

The Muscat index closed down 0.69 percent at 5,336 points, led lower by banking stocks. Bank Muscat fell 2.08 percent. National Bank of Oman lost 1.25 percent, while Bank Sohar declined 0.63 percent.

Doha’s benchmark ended 1.15 percent lower at 6,465 points.

The main Kuwaiti index ended 0.38 percent higher at 7,659 points.

The Bahrain index ended 1.13 percent higher at 1,656 points.

— With input from agencies