* Saudi cements gains as investors confidence remains uplifted

* Dar Al Arkan soared by 10 pct daily limit on Q3 net income beat

* Al Othaim jumps on better than expected Q3 results

* Duabis DXBE pulls back, ends 3 day winning streak

* Egypt slips on profit taking

By Celine Aswad

DUBAI, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Major stock markets in the Gulf rose on Sunday with Saudi Arabia outperforming it peers, continuing to climb on the back of upbeat investor sentiment following the mammoth international bond sale at the end of last week. Egypt's index slipped on profit taking.

Riyadh's index .TASI added a further 1.6 percent, taking its gains since Wednesday to 5.1 percent as a little over 80 percent of the traded shares rose.

Banks continued their climb with Saudi Hollandi Bank 1040.SE gaining 3.4 percent. At the end of last week bank shares rallied after the kingdom conducted a $17.5 billion international bond sale with success.

Investor optimism has been buoyed despite some weak quarterly results. About three-quarters of Saudi's listed companies have so far reported, with generally lower earnings and a few companies missing analysts' estimates by a wide margin

"There has been a string of positive events that have helped revive optimism towards Saudi shares, namely because of the successful bond sale, payment by government to construction sector and relatively supportive oil prices," said Kunal Damle, head of brokerage institutional sales at SICO Bahrain.

Valuations at current levels will encourage investors further, another factor Damle believes is underlying the market rally over the last two sessions. The banking sub-index .TBFSI is trading at a price-to-earnings of 8 times, according to Thomson Reuters data, a discount to its five year average.

Dar Al Arkan 4300.SE , the most traded stock on Sunday, soared by their 10 percent daily limit after it reported a 21.4 percent rise in third-quarter net profit to 112.5 million riyals ($30.0 million), double the forecast by analysts at NCB Capital.

The company attributed the rise to higher revenues from property sales and lower operating expenses, such as payroll and consultancy fees.

Analysts at NCB Capital said the surprise came from higher than expected land sales of 570 million riyals versus their estimate of 390 million riyals.

Supermarket operator Al Othaim 4001.SE jumped 4.5 percent after the company reported a better than expected third-quarter net income of 36.64 million riyals, higher than NCB Capital's estimate of 29.3 million riyals.

Analysts at NCB said in a note lower than expected operating expense and higher income from its associate were the key drivers for the earning's coming ahead of their forecast.



UAE, EGYPT

Dubai's main index .DFMGI added 0.5 percent as the largest listed developer Emaar Properties EMAR.DU , which has yet to publish its third-quarter net income, rose 2.6 percent.

But DXB Entertainments DXBE.DU , pared gains and fell 0.6 percent ending its three session of strong gains. Its shares have outperformed over the last several days in anticipation of the opening of its theme park at the end of the month.

Blue chips lent the main support to Abu Dhabi's index .ADI , which added 0.1 percent. Aldar Properties ALDR.AD advanced 1.1 percent and National Bank of Abu Dhabi NBAD.AD , which announced on Sunday its shareholders and those of First Gulf Bank FGB.AD will both meet on Dec. 7 to approve the merging of the two, climbed 2.3 percent. ID:nD5N1AH02K

Egypt's index of the 30 most valuable shares .EGX30 dipped 0.04 percent as two-thirds of the stocks declined as some of the best performing shares on Thursday gave back some gains. Orascom Telecom OTMT.CA , the most traded share, pulled back 3.6 percent.



SUNDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS



SAUDI ARABIA

* The index .TASI gained 1.5 percent to 5,740 points.



DUBAI

* The index .DFMGI rose 0.5 percent to 3,355 points.



ABU DHABI

* The index .ADI added 0.1 percent to 4,299 points.



EGYPT

* The index .EGX30 dipped 0.04 percent to 8,274 points.



QATAR

* The index .QSI fell 0.04 percent to 10,434 points.



KUWAIT

* The index .KSWE rose 0.2 percent to 5,330 points.



OMAN

* The index .MSI declined 0.4 percent to 5,538 points.



BAHRAIN

* The index .BAX fell 0.4 percent to 1,152 points. (Editing by Andrew Torchia and Toby Chopra) ((celine.aswad@thomsonreuters.com; +971562247653; Reuters Messaging: celine.aswad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))