Feb 23 (Reuters) - Most major Gulf stock markets fell on
Thursday, despite a small gain in oil prices, as minutes of the
Federal Reserve's last meeting kept investors cautious about how
much further U.S. interest rates could rise.
Minutes from the Jan. 31-Feb. 1 meeting released overnight
showed nearly all Federal Reserve policymakers rallied behind a
decision to further slow the pace of interest rate hikes at the
U.S. central bank's last policy meeting.
But they also indicated that curbing unacceptably high
inflation would be the "key factor" in how much further rates
need to rise.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark stock index fell 0.7% with
losses in almost all sectors. Al Rajhi Bank dropped
1.2% while state oil giant and index heavyweight Saudi Aramco lost more than 0.9% after JP Morgan cut its share
target price to 39 riyals from 40 riyals.
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical fell more than 2% after
reporting a 1.24 billion riyals ($330.54 million) loss in fiscal
year 2022 against a profit of 2.39 billion riyals ($637.10
million) in 2021.
In Abu Dhabi, the benchmark index slipped 0.8%,
led by a 1.3% slide in Alpha Dhabi .
Separately, state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Co
(ADNOC) said on Thursday it has set a price range for an initial
public offering (IPO) of its gas unit that could raise up to $2
billion and give ADNOC Gas an equity valuation of $47 billion to
$50.8 billion.
Dubai's main share index lost 0.6%, dragged down by
a 3.5%% decline in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and a 1.9% decrease in Dubai Islamic bank .
The benchmark stock index in Qatar declined 1.4%,
with almost all of its banking stocks in negative territory.
Qatar Islamic Bank dived more than 8% as the stock was
trading ex-dividend, while Qatar National Bank , the
Gulf's largest lender, was down 1%.
($1 = 3.7514 riyals)
(Reporting by Shamsuddin Mohd; Editing by Kim Coghill)
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