In line with global shares as worries about higher interest rates and a tightened lockdown in Shanghai deepened investors' fears the global economy is headed for a slowdown.

Shanghai authorities were tightening the city-wide COVID lockdown they imposed more than a month ago, prolonging into late May an ordeal that China's capital Beijing was desperate to avoid by turning mass testing into an almost daily routine.

Dubai's main share index declined 2%, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties falling 2.7% and top lender Emirates NBD retreating 2.3%. In Abu Dhabi, the index dropped 0.7%, hit by a 2.2% fall in the United Arab Emirates' largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.

The Qatari benchmark lost 0.3%. Oil prices, a key catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets, see-sawed after the Group of Seven nations committed on Sunday to banning or phasing out imports of Russian oil over time, before falling. Saudi Arabia's benchmark index gave up early gains to close flat. Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index dropped 1.8%, weighed down by a 4.2% slide in Commercial International Bank Egypt.

Egypt's economy remains exposed to the tensions in Europe. Speculation that Russian President Vladimir Putin might declare war on Ukraine in order to call up reserves during his speech at "Victory Day" celebrations also hurt market sentiment.

Putin has so far characterised Russia's actions in Ukraine as a "special military operation", not a war.

SAUDI ARABIA was flat at 13,815 ABU DHABI fell 0.7% to 10,004 DUBAI dropped 2% to 3,622 QATAR eased 0.3% to 13,513 EGYPT lost 1.8% to 10,907 BAHRAIN down 0.7% to 2,028 OMAN rose 0.5% to 4,174 KUWAIT declined 0.3% to 9,335

(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)