Oman bourse biggest loser on eve of holy month

CLOSE OF PLAY: Oman's bourse ended two percent down at the end of Sunday. (Getty Images)

Oman's bourse was the Gulf's biggest loser for a third day, falling more than two percent, as selling by foreign institutions continued to dominate trading.

Most Gulf Arab stock markets fell ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The GCC is down due to political situation, declining oil prices and recent comments by the UAE Central Bank that oil could trade between $60 to $80, which created new pressure on the market," said Adel Nasr, local brokerage manager at United Securities in Muscat.

Real estate stocks led Dubai lower near the close amid ongoing concerns of a crackdown on corruption and speculation, with Emaar Properties, Union Properties and Deyaar all falling.

Emirates NBD and Arabtec had driven Dubai more than 1 percent higher in earlier trade with Arabtec surging by more than 9 percent at one stage on bargain hunting after a steady fall in the stock's value since the end of last month.

"Arabtec is one of the stocks that was highly oversold on low volumes which made it lie around at an attractive price," said Mohammed Alami, head of the international desk at Naeem Shares & Bonds. "The company is a good-performing company."

Industries Qatar boosted the main index after stock's attractive valuation and a newspaper report saying it would invest 21.3 billion riyals ($5.86 billion) into expansion and new projects by 2011 sent shares higher.

A late recovery on Saudi Arabia's index saw the market ending in positive territory after two days of lower closes.

Banks dragged Abu Dhabi lower and Kuwait and Bahrain also fell. (Reuters)

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