Stock News: Gulf Bourses Pull Back After Oil Tumbles

Gulf bourses pulled back in quiet, early trade on Thursday after a fresh tumble by the oil price encouraged further profit-taking from strong gains posted in the last few weeks.

Brent oil is back around $55 per barrel after a loss of as much as three per cent on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Asian equities are lower because of concern over the Greek debt negotiations.

Many Gulf markets had already started pulling back in the last couple of days. Dubai’s index was down a further 0.6 per cent after nearly an hour of trade on Thursday while Abu Dhabi was off 0.03 per cent.

Air Arabia dropped 1.2 per cent ahead of a board meeting which will be held after trading hours to approve earnings that are expected to benefit from lower oil prices.

Abu Dhabi’s Aldar Properties slipped 0.4 per cent even though the company posted an estimate-beating 61 per cent rise in fourth-quarter net profit and proposed a dividend of Dhs0.09 per share for 2014, up from Dhs0.07 for 2013.

Qatar’s index slipped 0.7 per cent on broad-based profit-taking, with Industries Qatar down by a similar margin. However, Barwa Real Estate gained one per cent after sharp losses in the previous two days.