(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Stock markets in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait continued uptrends yesterday, attracting regional investors' money away from the UAE, which pulled back.
The Saudi index rose 0.5%, climbing for a fifth straight day.
It has been buoyed by hopes for better conditions in the non-oil sector this year as government austerity measures slow.
Builder Khodari, which has been strong in the past week on expectations for a partial recovery of the Saudi construction market, gained 2.6%.
Mouwasat Medical Services, which jumped 3.5% on Tuesday after its board recommended a higher cash dividend for 2016, added a further 3.7% to 147.50 riyals.
HSBC raised its target for the stock to 152 riyals from 144, with a 'buy rating.
The petrochemical sector was firm with industry leader Saudi Basic Industries climbing 1.6%.
Kuwait's index, which has surged nearly 19% this month as idle local and regional funds have poured into the market to catch its momentum, rose 1.1% in heavy trade.
Activity focused on real estate companies; Abyaar Real Estate jumped 6.9%.
The fireworks in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait left Dubai and Abu Dhabi neglected.
Dubai's index slipped 1.1% to 3,679 points, failing a test of technical resistance on its January peak of 3,737 points.
Abu Dhabi sank 1.6%. Real estate firm Deyaar dropped 5.0% after its fourth-quarter profit more than halved.
Builder Drake & Scull was another big loser, falling 4.9% in volatile trade.
The most heavily traded Dubai stock, speculative favourite GFH Financial, plunged 9.7% to 2.43 dirhams after opening sharply higher.
The company's Bahrain-listed shares soared 9.5% to $0.695, however, moving to a slight premium to the Dubai-listed shares from a sizeable discount.
Dubai Islamic Bank added 0.5% after posting a 58.4% increase in fourth-quarter net profit to 1.37bn dirhams ($373mn), well above analysts' average forecast of 850.4mn dirhams.
Elsewhere in the Gulf, the Kuwait index climbed 1.1% to 6,819 points, the Oman index edged down 0.03% to 5,765 points and the Bahrain index surged 1.8% to 1,300 points.
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