Gulf bourses split on Monday as Kuwait jumps 1%, Muscat slides
Kuwait's index closed up 1% on Monday while Saudi Arabia and Muscat finished lower.
· Last verified: 3 Nov 2026 (Qatar News Agency (QNA), Bahrain News Agency (BNA))
Summary
- Kuwait's index closed up 1% on Monday while Saudi Arabia and Muscat finished lower.
- Qatar and Bahrain posted modest gains, leaving the region's six markets without a common direction.
- The split shows regional bourses pricing local sector flows rather than a single external driver.
The latest
Kuwait's all-share index led Gulf markets on Monday with a gain of 83.37 points, or 1%, closing at 8,430.34 points, according to Qatar News Agency. Muscat moved the other way, shedding 39.6 points to 7,222.44. Saudi Arabia's main index also slipped, while Qatar and Bahrain closed marginally higher, leaving the region's trading session without a single direction.
Details
- Kuwait, the gainer: Qatar News Agency reported that Boursa Kuwait ended the session with its general index up 83.37 points, a 1% rise that took it to 8,430.34 points. It was the strongest percentage move among the Gulf bourses reported for the day.
- Saudi Arabia, marginally down: The Saudi main index closed 6.72 points lower at 9,876.13 points, according to the agency, keeping it below the 9,900 mark. Turnover reached 3.4 billion Saudi riyals, the largest trading value disclosed for any of the Gulf markets in the session.
- Muscat, the sharpest drop: The MSX 30 index fell 39.6 points, or 0.55%, to 7,222.44 points, down from 7,262.07 at the previous close, Qatar News Agency said. That made Oman the weakest performer of the day in percentage terms.
- Qatar's close: The Qatar Stock Exchange index added 23.35 points, equal to 0.24%, to finish at 9,614.07 points. The gain was modest enough to leave the index short of the 9,700 level it would need to close the gap with Saudi Arabia's benchmark.
- Bahrain's breakdown: Bahrain News Agency reported the all-share index closed at 1,814.66 points, up a single point, attributing the rise to gains in the financial sector. The Bahrain Islamic index closed at 822.60 points, up 4.41 points from its previous close.
- Bahrain volumes: Traded volume on the Bahrain bourse reached 3,431,783 shares with a total value of 687,193 Bahraini dinars, executed through 137 transactions, according to Bahrain News Agency. The number of deals underlines how thin activity was relative to the larger regional markets.
- The spread: Across the five indices reported, the moves ranged from a 1% gain in Kuwait to a 0.55% decline in Muscat, with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain clustered within a quarter of a percentage point of flat. No market recorded a move large enough to suggest a shared regional shock.
- Sector detail: Bahrain was the only market for which a specific sector driver was identified, with the financial sector named as the reason for the index's rise. The agencies did not break down the sectors behind the moves in Riyadh, Kuwait City, Muscat or Doha.
Between the lines
The size of the moves is as telling as their direction. With four of the five indices finishing within 0.25% of unchanged and only Bahrain's gain traced to a named sector, the session reads as local positioning rather than a region-wide repricing. A common external driver would normally push the Gulf's correlated energy-weighted markets the same way.
What's next
Tuesday's closes will show whether Kuwait's 1% advance extends or reverses, and whether Muscat recovers the 39.6 points it lost. Watch Saudi turnover for a move away from the 3.4 billion riyal level.