Saudi Arabia’s stock market edged down in early trade on Wednesday, while Egypt pulled back broadly as the country was again hit by fuel shortages.

The main Saudi stock index edged down 0.4 per cent with a roughly equal split between gainers and losers.

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical dropped 2.2 per cent and was the main drag after Brent crude oil dropped nearly 4 per cent on Tuesday and fell further to $56 per barrel on Wednesday.

Atheeb Telecom lost 3.2 per cent after announcing that its accumulated losses amounted to 59.39 per cent of its paid-up capital at the end of February, up from 58.65 per cent a month earlier. Under bourse regulations, companies running a loss of more than 50 per cent of capital are placed under tight monitoring.

Meanwhile, insurance firm Al Rajhi Company for Cooperative Insurance surged its daily 10 per cent limit to 29.80 riyals after announcing a rights issue that would double its capital. The firm said it would offer shares to existing shareholders at their nominal price of 10.00 riyals.

Egypt’s market fell 1.2 per cent as all but a few stocks declined. Local newspaper Ahram Online reported fresh fuel shortages in the country; it said the petroleum ministry had promised to inject large amounts of petroleum products into the market to address the issue.

Orascom Construction briefly jumped to £110.45 as it started trading in Cairo but then fell to £108.00, moving below its public offer price of £108.71 ($14.25).

On NASDAQ Dubai, where it is quoted in dollars and began trading on Monday, the stock was much weaker on Wednesday, tumbling 5.3 per cent to $13.35.

Egypt restricts foreign currency trading and has a parallel black market where the pound trades below the official rate.

Some traders speculated that Egyptian investors, who bought the stock for Egyptian pounds in its Cairo public offer, which raised the equivalent of $185 million, might now be selling it in Dubai to obtain hard currency.

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