Major Gulf stock markets rebounded in early trade on Tuesday as robust financial results outweighed pessimism over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in China.
Oil prices fell for a sixth session on Tuesday on concern the spread of the virus could weaken economic growth and demand for oil. But Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said the market impact was "primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations ... despite its very limited impact on global oil demand."
In Abu Dhabi, the index rose 0.6% as the biggest bank in the United Arab Emirates, First Abu Dhabi Bank FAB , advanced 0.8% after posting a 5% increase in fourth-quarter profit. Emirates Telecom Group was up 0.9%.
Dubai's index edged up 0.1% after four days of declines. Dubai Islamic Bank gained 0.4% and National Central Cooling Co (Tabreed) jumped 5.3%.
Tabreed reported fiscal-year profit rose more than 10% rise to 472.5 million dirhams ($128.65 million) and proposed a cash dividend of 10.5 fils per share for the year 2019.
Saudi Arabia's index was up 0.3% after five sessions of losses. National Commercial Bank and Saudi Basic Industries 2010 both rose 0.6%.
Walaa Cooperative Insurance increased 3.4% after its shareholders approve a merger with Metlife AIG ANB.
Saudi Aramco slipped 0.3% to 34.15 riyals.
In Qatar, the index gained 0.2%, after four sessions of losses.
The Gulf's largest bank, Qatar National Bank, was up 0.5% and Qatar International Islamic Bank, which is slated to report annual results on Tuesday, added 0.4%.
($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham)
(Reporting by Maqsood Alam in Bengaluru, editing by Larry King) ((Maqsood.Alam@thomsonreuters.com;))
