Mideast Stocks: Egypt outperforms Mideast markets; Aramco’s Q2 profit slides

Mideast Stocks: Egypt outperforms Mideast markets; Aramco’s Q2 profit slides

The Egyptian bourse rose sharply on Sunday, extending gains for a fifth straight session as most of its constituents were in positive territory, while the Saudi index ended higher helped by its financial shares.Saudi Arabia's benchmark index rose 0.4%, led by a 0.8% gain in Al Rajhi Bank and a 1.5% increase in Banque Saudi Fransi .Elsewhere, state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco 2222.SE added 0.3% despite reporting a steep decline in second-quarter earnings.Aramco reported a net profit of 24.6 billion riyals ($6.56 billion) in second-quarter, down from 92.6 billion riyals a year earlier. But the company stuck with plans to pay $75 billion in dividends this year and CEO Amin Nasser said global oil demand was recovering.Egypt's blue-chip index closed up 1.3%, with 22 of the 30 stocks in the index