Qatar’s benchmark rose as Qatar Telecom supported the benchmark with a 4.5 percent gain. Investors picked up the stock after the firm said it would increase capital through issuing new shares.

It will give two new shares for every five held to existing shareholders, it said in a bourse statement.

Industries Qatar also supported, rising 0.4 percent. The benchmark added 0.1 percent, trimming 2012 losses to 1.3 percent.

Islamic lender Masraf Al Rayan ended flat after the bank on Wednesday said it made a 353.5 million riyals ($97.09 million) first quarter net profit, up from 328 million riyals in the year-earlier period.

In the UAE, Dubai’s benchmark fell 0.5 percent to 1,652 points and remains stuck in a sideways trend as it consolidates gains from an early-year surge. It is up 22.1 percent in 2012. 

“Dubai’s index is moving flat between the current key support of 1,590 and the key resistance of 1,710 levels,” said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of technical analysis at Cairo’s Beltone Financial.

“A rise above this resistance means another move toward the strong resistance of 1,770.”

National Central Cooling fell 4.2 percent and mortgage lender Tamweel dropped 4 percent.

Investors are waiting for bellwether Emaar Properties to post first quarter earnings, expected on Sunday. The stock ended 0.9 percent lower.

“There’s not a huge excitement in Q1 numbers because they’ve been mostly in-line with expectations, which is reassuring rather than exciting,” said Julian Bruce, EFG-Hermes director of institutional equity sales.

Investors also booked profits in contractor Arabtec, which slipped 0.6 percent after sharp gains amid new contract wins.

Elsewhere in the UAE, Abu Dhabi’s benchmark declined 0.2 percent, halting a three-day rally. Abu Dhabi National Energy was the main drag, dropping 3.8 percent.

In Egypt, investment bank EFG Hermes jumped 8.9 percent after a newspaper reported that it had finalized talks to sell a 60-percent stake to Qatar’s QInvest.

Independent Egyptian newspaper Shorouk said the planned partnership between the two companies would include securities brokerage, asset management and investment banking operations, but not EFG Hermes Private Equity.

In a statement, EFG said the negotiations, which were still under way, “will result in the creation of the largest investment bank in the Arab World, Africa, Turkey, South and South East Asia.”

It was possible that QInvest would take a majority stake in the new bank, it said.

Egypt’s main share index gained 0.5 0.2 percent.

Elsewhere, Oman’s bourse made its largest one-day loss in four weeks, extending declines from last week’s nine-month peak as profit-taking accelerates. 

The index ended 1.3 percent lower in its sixth straight decline and biggest one-day drop since March 28.

Oman Investment and Finance shed 1.8 percent, Ahli Bank slipped 1.4 percent and National Bank of Oman eased 1.3 percent.

“The market is coming down in thin volumes — it is clearly pricing in earnings, which were mixed,” said Kanaga Sundar, Gulf Baader Capital Markets head of research in Muscat.

“It’s more of retail and high net worth individual money that’s going out, while institutional are staying invested.”

Oman International Bank fell 5.3 percent, with investors selling the stock after a long-awaited merger with Europe’s biggest bank HSBC was confirmed. Elsewhere, Kuwait Finance House dropped 1.4 percent. Its first-quarter profit fell to 20 million dinars from 22.6 million dinars in the same period of last year, it said on Thursday.