Mideast Stocks: Gulf stocks fall after Fed minutes, Qatar weighed by ex-dividend stocks

Mideast Stocks: Gulf stocks fall after Fed minutes, Qatar weighed by ex-dividend stocks

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