DUBAI, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Egypt's stock market fell on Tuesday, ending a six-day winning streak that took the blue-chip index to an all-time high, while Gulf bourses traded narrowly but a couple of petrochemical shares boosted Saudi Arabia.
The Egyptian index
.EGX30
dropped 0.5 percent to 13,931 points. A purchasing managers' survey published on Tuesday showed non-oil private sector activity fell at its sharpest pace for three months in September, but analysts attributed the index's pull-back mostly to natural profit-taking.
"After hitting 14,100 points on Monday, it is normal to see such an adjustment on Tuesday - the market remains on a positive trend," said Ibrahim Nimr, head of technical analysis at Naeem brokerage in Cairo.
Investment bank EFG Hermes
HRHO.CA
fell 5.0 percent, losing 7.3 percent in the past two days. Alexandria Flour Mills
AFMC.CA
jumped 10 percent as the company announced changes to its board.
Gulf stock markets ignored a further pull-back of oil prices overnight and the Riyadh index
.TASI
rose 0.3 percent.
Advanced Petrochemical Co
2330.SE
gained 1.4 percent after posting a 10 percent year-on-year rise in third-quarter net profit to 208 million riyals ($55.5 million). Another petrochemical maker, PetroRabigh
2380.SE
, gained 2.2 percent.
Sharia-compliant insurer SABB Takaful
8080.SE
dropped 3.6 percent after the financial regulator temporarily stopped the company from issuing or renewing insurance or savings products, citing unspecified weaknesses in its internal controls.
Banking shares dragged Qatar's index
.QSI
0.2 percent lower; Qatar First Bank
QFBQ.QA
, Qatar National Bank
QNBK.QA
and Masraf Al Rayan
MARK.QA
were all weak with the latter down 1.3 percent.
A number of banks in the United Arab Emirates are in talks with international counterparts to sell down their Qatari bank loan exposure as the Gulf's diplomatic crisis drags on without resolution, banking sources told Reuters.
ID:nL8N1MD5ZS
In Kuwait, the main index
.KWSE
finished 0.2 lower but the blue chip index
.KW15
rose 0.4 percent as blue chips continued to see buying after last week's news that index compiler FTSE was upgrading Kuwait to secondary emerging market status.
The Dubai index
.DFMGI
rose 0.3 percent as Emaar Properties
EMAR.DU
gained 0.5 percent. Reuters quoted sources as saying its local real estate development business, which is preparing for an initial public offer of shares, was expected to be valued at 24 billion dirhams ($6.5 billion).
In Abu Dhabi, the index
.ADI
added 0.3 percent as shares of most of the biggest companies rose; First Abu Dhabi Bank
FAB.AD
gained 0.5 percent while Aldar Properties
ALDR.AD
climbed 0.9 percent.
HIGHLIGHTS
SAUDI ARABIA
* The index
.TASI
rose 0.3 percent to 7,244 points.
DUBAI
* The index
.DFMGI
added 0.3 percent to 3,570 points.
ABU DHABI
* The index
.ADI
rose 0.3 percent to 4,441 points.
QATAR
* The index
.QSI
fell 0.2 percent to 8,285 points.
EGYPT
* The index
.EGX30
fell 0.5 percent to 13,931 points.
KUWAIT
* The index
.KWSE
lost 0.2 percent to 6,665 points.
OMAN
* The index
.MSI
rose 0.8 percent to 5,225 points.
BAHRAIN
* The index
.BAX
dropped 0.4 percent to 1,278 points.
(Editing by Andrew Torchia) ((aziz.elyaakoubi@thomsonreuters.com; +971552994086)(;))
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