JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All-Share Index lost steam in the final hour of trade and closed 0.02 percent up at 5,694 points, 60 points off the day’s high.

The index was up 1.1 percent for the week on firmer crude oil prices and third-quarter corporate earnings that were generally in line with analysts’ expectations.

Yanbu National Petrochemical (Yansab), a unit of Saudi Basic Industries, dropped 2.3 percent on Thursday, after trading as much as 3.3 percent higher earlier in the day.

It reported third-quarter net profit of SR607.6 million ($162.1 million), more than double the year-earlier figure. The result was broadly in line with the SR624.7 million average forecast of analysts.

But Saudi Kayan Petrochemical, another SABIC affiliate, closed up 4.1 percent after it swung to a net profit of SR156.32 million from a year-earlier loss of SR13.81 million; SICO Bahrain had forecast a profit of SR105.00 million and NCB Capital, a profit of SR95.00 million.

Analysts attributed Kayan’s results to higher-than-expected sales and gross margins.

Shares in SABIC rose 0.6 percent.

Some banks gained after they reported earnings. Arab National Bank rose 1.6 percent despite a 5.6 percent slide in net profit that was broadly in line with analysts’ forecasts. Bank Aljazira climbed 3.0 percent after it reported a 3 percent decline in net income.

But Saudi British Bank fell 0.9 percent after saying third-quarter profit fell 12.7 percent to SR995 million; analysts had predicted SR1.14 billion.

It cited a rise in impairment charges for credit losses as the Saudi economy weakened because of low oil prices.

Dubai’s index continued to slide, dropping 0.6 percent after Asian shares pulled back on weak Chinese economic data and US Federal Reserve minutes suggested interest rates were likely to rise in December.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 1.2 percent.

Emaar Properties, Dubai’s top real estate firm, fell 1.3 percent.

Qatar’s main index slipped 0.1 percent with a little over half of traded shares declining. Qatar National Bank , which reported a rise in net profit for the last quarter earlier this week, pulled back 0.3 percent.