Oman's national bank in the black for second quarter

Markets Update: National Bank of Oman rises at the open as second quarter profit rises almost 14 per cent. In the UAE, markets were mixed, Abu Dhabi's index was up on Etisalat, while Dubai's was down slightly on low volume.

National Bank of Oman rose after the country's second biggest lender by market value said second quarter profit rose 13.8 per cent as lending increased and customer deposits rose.

Shares gained 0.3 per cent to 0.33 Omani rials on the Muscat bourse this morning. Oman's benchmark was little changed at 5991.07 points.

In the UAE, Abu Dhabi's index rose 0.2 per cent to 2731.59 points as investors bought shares in the country's largest telecom operator. Etisalat was up 0.9 per cent to Dh11.05 at on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange. The Dubai Financial Market General Index was down 0.2 per cent to 1544.77 points.

In Saudi Arabia, analysts are waiting to see how shares of Saudi Basic Industries Corp, will react after the world's largest petrochemical company said second quarter profit jumped 61 per cent to 8.1 billion riyals as production, sales volumes and price increased.

"The numbers are outstanding, its a record quarter for the company and its triggering a bullish sentiment towards petrochemicals," said Marwan Shurrab, the chief trader at Gulfmena Investments in Dubai. "But it remains to be seen how shares move as we are in the summer season, with low turnover and lack of liquidity," he added.

The Saudi bourse opens at 12:30pm Dubai time.

Elsewhere in the region, Kuwait's measure lost 1 per cent to 6102.60 points. Bahrain's measure was unchanged at 1318.60 points. Qatar's benchmark lost 0.2 per cent to 8465.02 points.