JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s main stock index, which has been in an uptrend since the Kingdom’s regulator said in July it would open the market to direct foreign investment early next year, added just 0.04 percent on Monday. The index rose to 11,117 points.

The advance of Saudi Arabia’s bourse slowed, said analysts.

Both banks and petrochemicals, the two major sectors which had led growth in the last few weeks, pulled back.

The financial sector index slipped 0.1 percent and the petrochemicals benchmark edged down 0.4 percent.

In the petrochemical sector, Sahara Petrochemical Co. fell 0.7 percent after saying on Sunday that its affiliate, Saudi Ethylene and Polyethylene Co. (SEPC), would shut a ethylene and propylene plant for planned maintenance.

The impact on Sahara would be worth SR3.8 million ($1 million) in lost profit, Sahara said in a bourse filing. Another SEPC shareholder, National Industrialization Co. (Tasnee), slipped 0.5 percent.

Shares in Saudi Arabian Mining Co. (Maaden), on the other hand, rose 0.9 percent after the company said its joint aluminum smelter with US-based Alcoa started commercial operations.

Property firms, led by Dubai’s Emaar Properties which has said it will float its malls unit in September, helped lift stock markets in the UAE.

Dubai’s main index rose 1.5 percent as Emaar, the emirate’s biggest listed developer, jumped 4.5 percent to AED11.65, a fresh six-year high; trading volume in the stock was the highest since April 2010. However, Emaar closed well off its intra-day peak of AED12.00.

The stock had already soared 8.8 percent on Sunday after the an-nouncement of the initial public offer, which will be one of the largest equity sales in the Middle East since 2008, underlining Dubai’s recovery from a credit crisis that forced many state-linked developers to stall projects.

The firm had initially revealed in March its intention to sell up to 25 percent of the unit in an offer likely to raise 8 to 9 billion dirhams ($2.18-$2.45 billion). It will use proceeds from the sale to pay a special dividend to its shareholders.