Doha's index rose for a third day, bolstered by Qatar National Bank's above-forecast 35 percent surge in second-quarter profit. The lender's shares rose 0.8 percent and Qatar Islamic Bank added 1.1 percent.
"We had quite bad results last year, so banks should see a good rise in earnings year-on-year, with provisioning coming down and assets and loans continuing to do well," said Robert Pramberger, acting head of asset management at Doha's The First Investor.
National Leasing Holding Company rose 6.1 percent after its first-half net profit nearly quadrupled.
"Results so far have been slightly better than expected and that's good for the market because trading volumes are really low," added Pramberger. "We believe Q2 will be better than Q1 as the economy rebounds from 2009. This momentum has continued into Q2, but will be more limited in the third and fourth quarters."
Global equities slipped, giving up Tuesday's gains, following fresh signs of a faltering US economic recovery, weighing on some Middle East markets as investors worldwide become more risk averse.
"Global market sentiment and increasing concerns over a double-dip global recession and the sustainability of Chinese growth engine will be more critical to regional markets than Q2 results," said Jithesh Gopi, head of research at SICO bank.
Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) lost 3.7 percent, having gained 6.3 percent in the previous two days.
The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) fell 1.13 percent to 6,056 points, its first decline for three days as volumes slipped to a six-month low.
The sector activity for the day was widely negative with all sectors closing with losses except the Building and Construction Sector with a minor gain of 0.17 percent,
the Financial Transaction House (FTH) said in its daily market commentary. The sector losses ranged from 0.41 percent by the Banking and Financial Services sector to 2.47 percent by the Petrochemical Industries Sector. The overall market breadth also remained strongly negative with only 23 advancers against 113 decliners giving it an AD ratio of 0.20.
Oman hit a two-week high as Bank Muscat rose 0.8 percent and Oman Cement gained 0.9 percent.
"We witnessed very strong buying from local asset managers as we get a clearer view of what Q2 results might be like - people believe the bank sector will post very good numbers," Adel Nasr, United Securities brokerage manager. "Oman Cement saw strong buying from institutions - they are the main drivers for the market - it's not retailers, traders or foreign funds."
Emaar Properties dipped 2.5 percent as Dubai's index fell for a first day in three.
Analysts are unsure what impact second-quarter earnings will have on the Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses, with both in negative territory for the year.
"Q2 consensus forecasts are quite conservative because of the general economic conditions, so there's a chance some companies could outperform," said Hesham Bakry, Prime Emirates senior relationship manager. "But it's hard to tell whether Q2 numbers will affect stocks, because results are often in the market before they're made public."
- With input from agencies
