Most major gulf stock markets rose in early trade on Tuesday, spurred by rising oil prices, with Dubai's index outperforming, buoyed by its property shares.
Oil rose on Tuesday, for the third time in four sessions, on expectations for rising fuel demand as the United States may expand its pandemic aid payments and a final Brexit deal is set to stabilise trade between Europe and Britain.
The Dubai index rose 0.8% as Damac Properties jumped 7.5% and Emaar Properties increased 1.4%.
In Saudi Arabia, the index gained 0.3%. Al Rajhi Bank was up 0.4%, while the world's fourth largest chemical maker Saudi Basic Industries rose 0.8%
Saudi Telecom, which said it would invest up to $500 million over five years in cloud services in partnership with eWTP Arabia Capital fund and Alibaba Cloud company, increased 0.8%.
Halwani Brothers Company jumped another 7.8% making it the top percentage gainer on the index. The food producer and distributor rose nearly 10% on Monday following a proposal by its board to raise capital through a bonus share issue and to distribute a 1.5 riyal-per-share cash dividend for 2020.
Abu Dhabi's index was up 0.2% with First Abu Dhabi Bank gaining 0.5% and Emirates Telecommunications Group edged 0.1% higher.
Agthia Group lost 0.2% after its board approved issuance of mandatory convertible bonds to General Holding Company (Senaat) as part of a deal to acquire the world's largest date processing and packaging company Al Foah.
The Qatari index fell 0.2%, with industrial and financial stocks weighing the most on the index. Industries Qatar was down 0.5%, while Commercial Bank shed 0.9%.
Ooredoo lost 0.9% a day after the telecoms company and Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings said they were exploring a deal to merge their Indonesian units.
(Reporting by Maqsood Alam in Bengaluru; editing by Barbara Lewis) ((Maqsood.Alam@thomsonreuters.com;))
