Saudi Arabia's stock market edged up in early trade on Tuesday, although weak petrochemicals offset the gains in other sectors. Egypt continued rising, supported by property stocks.

The main Saudi benchmark climbed 0.2 per cent on the back of Mecca developer Jabal Omar, which is expected to post quarterly earnings in coming weeks. The stock rose 1.9 per cent in active trade.

Saudi British Bank, which will register shareholders for a dividend payout on Thursday, climbed 0.9 per cent. Alinma Bank, which has gone ex-dividend, fell 0.4 per cent.

Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) fell 1.1 per cent after specialist news agency Polymerupdate reported, citing a source, that the firm's methanol plant was operating at 80 per cent of production capacity.

Telecommunications firm Mobily fell 1.0 per cent after surging 21 per cent in the previous three sessions on hopes that it will recover after a shock 2014 earnings revision.

Egypt's bourse rose 0.8 per cent with most stocks in the black. Property developer SODIC jumped 2.7 per cent said announcing it had acquired 100 feddans (42 hectares) of land on the country's Mediterranean north coast to build the company's first coastal development.

Another developer, Talaat Moustafa, climbed 0.8 per cent after posting a 2014 net profit of 681.8 million pounds ($89.42 million), up from 585.185 million pounds a year earlier.

Telecom Egypt fell 1.3 per cent, having reported a 31.4 per cent slump in profit for 2014.

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