Gulf stock markets rose yesterday as several Saudi companies beat first-quarter earnings estimates and oil prices held up better than feared after the failure of Sunday’s Doha meeting to agree on an output freeze. 
The Saudi stock index climbed 1.7% as Saudi Basic Industries, the biggest petrochemical producer, gained 2.3%. 
Sabic reported a 13.2% drop in net profit to 3.41bn riyals ($909.4mn) after analysts had on average forecast 2.84bn riyals. 
In addition, its acting chief executive told Reuters Sabic was seeking acquisitions to strengthen its fertiliser business and could announce purchases in the chemicals and polymers sectors by the end of the third quarter, while it might sell some Asian or US assets. 
The Saudi construction sector has also been hit hard by low oil prices, but major builder Khodari rose 1.6%. Its profit plunged 70.6% to 4.11mn riyals but beat the estimate of EFG Hermes, which had forecast a loss of 6.25mn riyals. 
Mouwasat Medical Services jumped 6.7% after posting a 27.2% rise in profit to 71.1mn riyals, beating an average forecast of 60.7mn riyals. 
Jarir Marketing Co rose 1.8% even though it said it was cutting its first-quarter cash dividend to 1.75 riyals per share from 2.25 riyals. 
Dubai’s index added 1.1%, helped by a 1.4% rise in Emaar Properties after chairman Mohammed Alabbar told reporters that its performance in the first quarter looked good because of better-than-expected sales and cost-cutting. The company has not yet announced first-quarter earnings. 
But Dubai Parks and Resorts fell 0.7% to 1.38 dirhams after announcing details of a 1.68bn dirham ($457.4mn) rights issue to finance the development of its Six Flags-branded theme park. The company will issue shares at 1.0 dirham each. 
Abu Dhabi rose 1.0%. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank soared 9.5% in unusually heavy trade after Bloomberg reported it planned to open its shares to 25% foreign ownership. After the close, the bank said it had no plans for such a change. 
In Egypt, the index surged 2.6% to 7,864 points in active trade, breaking above technical resistance on the October peak of 7,716 points. Exchange data showed foreign investors were again net buyers. Juhayna Food Industries gained 2.4%, continuing to rise after it reported on Sunday a first-quarter net profit of 80.4mn Egyptian pounds ($9.05mn) versus 65.2mn pounds in the same period last year.