DUBAI: Real estate-related shares led Dubai's stock market higher on Monday while heavy profit-taking, fueled by weak economic data, continued to weigh on Egypt.

The Dubai stock index climbed 1.2 percent to 3,711 points, buoyed in part by last week's poor US jobs data, which appeared to reduce chances that the US Federal Reserve would hike interest rates anytime soon.

Gulf economies will probably imitate US monetary policy because of their currency pegs, and a delay to tightening is positive for the interest rate-sensitive real estate firms which are weighted heavily in Dubai.

Union Properties climbed 7.9 percent, Deyar rose 4.4 percent and the biggest property firm, Emaar, added 1.7 percent.

DAMAC, which surged 8.0 percent on Sunday after saying it would consider taking an equity stake in a project to build a 50-story mixed-use tower in central London — its entry into Britain's property market — added a further 6.6 percent.

Egypt's index, which tumbled 3.2 percent on Sunday as a three-week spate of heavy profit-taking continued, fell a further 1.2 percent to 8,508 points on Monday.

The Egyptian index has plunged 15 percent from February's multi-year peak and is down 4.7 percent year-to-date, though it is still up 25 percent from the end of 2013.

One reason for the pull-back has been disappointing economic data; the nonoil private sector shrank in March for the third month in a row, though at a slower pace than the previous month's contraction, a purchasing managers' survey showed on Sunday.

Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding was the most heavily traded stock on Monday after shareholders approved proposals including plans for the company to expand into new sectors such as power, transport and logistics. The stock ended flat at 1.04 Egyptian pounds.