Saudi Arabia's stock market edged down in early trade on Wednesday, while Egypt pulled back broadly as the country was again hit by fuel shortages.
The main Saudi stock index edged down 0.4 percent with a roughly equal split between gainers and losers.
Saudi Kayan Petrochemical dropped 2.2 percent and was the main drag after Brent crude oil dropped nearly 4 percent on Tuesday and fell further to US$56 per barrel on Wednesday.
Atheeb Telecom lost 3.2 percent after announcing that its accumulated losses amounted to 59.39 percent of its paid-up capital at the end of February, up from 58.65 percent a month earlier. Under bourse regulations, companies running a loss of more than 50 percent of capital are placed under tight monitoring.
Meanwhile, insurance firm Al Rajhi Company for Cooperative Insurance surged its daily 10 percent limit to 29.80 riyals after announcing a rights issue that would double its capital. The firm said it would offer shares to existing shareholders at their nominal price of 10.00 riyals.
Egypt's market fell 1.2 percent as all but a few stocks declined. Local newspaper Ahram Online reported fresh fuel shortages in the country; it said the petroleum ministry had promised to inject large amounts of petroleum products into the market to address the issue.
Orascom Construction briefly jumped to 110.45 pounds as it started trading in Cairo but then fell to 108.00 pounds, moving below its public offer price of 108.71 pounds (US$14.25).
On NASDAQ Dubai, where it is quoted in dollars and began trading on Monday, the stock was much weaker on Wednesday, tumbling 5.3 percent to US$13.35.
Egypt restricts foreign currency trading and has a parallel black market where the pound trades below the official rate. Some traders speculated that Egyptian investors who bought the stock for Egyptian pounds in its Cairo public offer, which raised the equivalent of US$185 million, might now be selling it in Dubai to obtain hard currency.
