Gulf stock markets closed mixed Tuesday amid protracted eurozone debt crisis and on concern that global economic growth is faltering and after US lawmakers charged with reducing the deficit failed to agree on cuts. Saudi Arabia's stock benchmark Tadawul All Share Index dropped 0.82 percent to close at 6,103.08 points and Oman's MSM30 Index declined 0.5 percent. However, Qatar's QE Index rose 0.3 percent and Kuwait's SE Price Index advanced 0.2 percent, while Bahrain's benchmark was unchanged. In Cairo, trading was halted on the Egyptian stock exchange after its broader index plunged over 5 percent Tuesday as escalating protests and deadly violence in the capital thrust the nation into its worst political crisis since the ouster of former president Hosni Mubarak. The move by the Egyptian Exchange came after the plunge on the EGX100 triggered a temporary suspension in trade — a safety mechanism set up by market authorities in the weeks after the uprising that pushed Mubarak from power in mid-February. The Dow was down 8.67 points (Some banks and brokerages based in the United Arab Emirates are cutting costs after the global credit crisis weakened trading and lending, crimped investment banking and spurred loan defaults. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 39.09 points, or 0.34 percent, to 11,508.22. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index shed 2.37 points, or 0.20 percent, to 1,190.61. But the Nasdaq Composite Index inched up just 0.97 of a point, or 0.04 percent, to 2,524.11. The S&P, which had already fallen through a key support level of 1,200, fell to around 1,181 before recovering in an effort to stay above 1,187 – the next technical support for the index, which represents a 61.8 percent retracement of the 2011 high-to-low. In the European stock market, the FTSEurofirst 300 index ended down 0.6 percent at 914.19. An index of world stocks, measured by MSCI, shed 0.1 percent. The euro climbed to $1.3522 after the International Monetary Fund beefed up its lending instruments and unveiled a new six-month liquidity line. By doing this, the IMF was offering “a short-term liquidity window” to countries at risk from the euro-zone crisis. Oil prices edged higher Tuesday as traders reacted to weaker-US growth data and new economic sanctions on Iran. New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in January, nudged up five cents to $96.97 a barrel. Brent North Sea crude for January advanced 86 cents to $107.74 in late London deals.
