The main index in Saudi Arabia fell 0.6 percent, affected by the decline in the share of Al Rajhi Bank by 1.6 percent, and the share of the Retal Urban Development Company by 0.8 percent.
The historic low unemployment rate in the US and rising wages are likely to keep the Federal Reserve on track to raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point next month, as risks of a financial crisis recede and inflation fears remain high.
Most Gulf currencies are pegged to the dollar, and Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE usually track the United States in any change in monetary policy.
After the Saudi market reached its peak this year, it could record some price corrections as traders move to secure their gains, Daniel Taqi El-Din, CEO of the Middle East and North Africa region at BD Suisse, told Reuters.
He added that “strong fundamentals” could lead the index to recovery later.
In Qatar, the index fell 0.2 percent, affected by a 1.8 percent decline in the Commercial Bank’s share.
Qatar National Bank, the Gulf’s largest bank by assets, rose 0.3 percent after announcing higher first-quarter profits.
The Abu Dhabi index also rose 0.4 percent.
Outside the Gulf region, the Egyptian blue-chip index rose 0.6 percent, supported by a jump of more than five percent in shares of El Sewedy Electric.
Data from the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics showed, on Monday, that urban inflation rose to 32.7 percent in March on an annual basis, which is slightly lower than the highest record rate recorded so far, and slightly more than inflation in February, which recorded 31.9 percent.
Taqi El-Din said that the rise in inflation less than expected supported the Egyptian stock market, but indicated that the level is still high and that this contributed to raising the fears of international investors, which means that they could “maintain the selling trend.”
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