JEDDAH: Most Gulf Arab markets rose on Wednesday in thin trade ahead of the Eid Al-Adha holidays. Kuwait’s bourse led gainers in volumes, with investors picking up banking and investment stocks.

Saudi Arabia’s TASI index rose 0.8 percent to 6,356 points. It was the fourth consecutive day of gains. Only three of the 15 sectors closed with a loss, namely the media and publishing sector which closed with a minor loss of 0.06 points, the building and construction sector which closed with a loss of 0.01 percent, and the hotel and tourism sector, which lost 0.07 percent.

On the positive side, sector gains ranged from 0.14 percent in the insurance sector to a gain of 1.18 percent in the banks and financial services sector. Overall market breadth was positive, with 86 advancers and 33 decliners, giving an AD ratio of 2.61.

“It is encouraging to see today’s moderate gain supported by a relatively aggressive liquidity of SR3.9 billion. As the last trading day before the week-long holiday, it is important to have closed the market on a high in anticipation of any global trends which may affect the market after the holiday,” said Jeddah-based Financial Transaction House in its daily market report.

Kuwait’s Gulf Bank rose 3.5 percent, Al-Ahli Bank gained 3.2 percent, and Kuwait Finance House climbed 1.9 percent.

“The index has bounced back strongly from the near-term lows of around 6,700 gaining ground in four of the last five sessions,” said a note from Shuaa Capital.

Market bellwether Zain, Kuwait’s largest mobile telecommunications provider, surged in early trading, a day after major shareholder Kharafi Group and a consortium of potential buyers named advisers in a deal to sell a 46 percent stake in the telecoms firm. The stock ended flat.

“The Zain story is not ending,” said a Kuwait-based analyst. “The stock reacted to the news flow, but due to the high levels of rumors, and the fact that the story has been stretched means that the impact on the stock is not so high.”

Kuwait’s KWSE index ended 0.9 percent higher at 6,934 points.

In the United Arab Emirates, both the Dubai benchmark (DFMGI) and the Abu Dhabi index (ADI) closed higher before the extended break. But volumes were low, and the markets lacked any major news until after the close.

Real estate stocks made gains in Dubai. Deyaar surged 4.4 percent, Emaar Properties rose 0.7 percent and Arabtec gained 1 percent.

“Today was just a bit of window-dressing into the holidays,” said Matthew Wakeman, EFG-Hermes managing director for cash and equity-linked trading.

“Volumes were very light and the selling of the last couple of weeks was overdone.” Bahrain’s BAX and Oman’s MSI were the only decliners on Wednesday, easing 0.4 and 0.1 percent respectively.

“The market is down mainly due to selling by foreign institutional investors,” said Adel Nasr, at United Securities in Muscat.