DUBAI, April 20 (Reuters) - Profit-taking and weak first-quarter earnings weighed on Gulf stock markets on Thursday, with Saudi Arabia's index pulled lower by petrochemical shares after oil prices fell sharply, but Dubai's Union Properties and Abu Dhabi's TAQA bucked the trend.
Dubai's index
.DFMGI
lost 1.0 percent as financially troubled builder Arabtec
ARTC.DU
, which had jumped almost 11 percent on Wednesday after shareholders approved its capital restructuring plan, retreated 4.4 percent.
Union Properties
UPRO.DU
, however, leapt 5.8 percent to close at 1.03 dirhams in its heaviest trade since Jan. 23 and accounted for almost half of trading volume on the exchange. It ended off its intra-day high of 1.12 dirhams, failing to conclusively break chart resistance at the end-February peak of 1.07.
Fund managers and traders said the reason for the jump was not clear but it could be related to positive corporate news that had not yet been disclosed.
"Shares of UPP moved against the grain, and if it was just market participants taking a contrarian view on the stock, it would happen gradually. The volume spike in today's session suggests it's a company-specific event," one fund manager said.
Elsewhere, Abu Dhabi National Energy Co
TAQA.AD
surged 7.1 percent in very heavy trade after its chief operating officer told Reuters it might sell some oil and gas interests in North America to raise capital for core businesses.
Profit-taking in other shares, however, pulled the Abu Dhabi index
.ADI
down 0.2 percent. First Abu Dhabi Bank
NBAD.AD
fell 0.5 percent after trading as much as 1.4 percent higher earlier in the day.
The lender, which was formed on April 1 by the merger of National Bank of Abu Dhabi and First Gulf Bank, announced a 12.4 percent rise in combined "pro-forma" first quarter net profit to 2.93 billion dirhams ($798 million).
That was aided by a 145.5 percent jump in "other non-interest" income while loan impairment charges slipped 3.9 percent.
The Saudi index
.TASI
lost 0.7 percent as almost two-thirds of listed petrochemical shares fell, with heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries
2010.SE
dropping 1.3 percent.
Most Saudi banking shares also fell, with Saudi Investment Bank
1030.SE
the worst performer, down 1.6 percent. All Saudi banks have now reported first-quarter earnings; while results were mixed, most beat analysts' expectations.
The Saudi index was the worst performer in the Gulf for the week, down 2.5 percent.
In Doha, Gulf International Services
GISS.QA
dropped 5.0 percent after it reported an 81 percent slide in first-quarter profit to 15 million riyals ($4.1 million), far below QNB Financial's forecast of 452 million riyals and Alphamena's estimate of 378 million riyals.
The Qatari stock index
.QSI
fell 0.5 percent and was down 2.0 percent for the week.
In Egypt, the index
.EGX30
edged up 0.1 percent in very low volume as Orascom Construction
ORAS.CA
jumped 5.1 percent on news a major U.S. nitrogen fertiliser plant which it built had started operations.
Declining shares, however, outnumbered advancing ones by 124 to 46.
THURSDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS
SAUDI ARABIA
* The index
.TASI
lost 0.7 percent to 6,899 points.
DUBAI
* The index
.DFMGI
fell 1.0 percent to 3,470 points.
ABU DHABI
* The index
.ADI
edged down 0.2 percent at 4,522 points.
QATAR
* The index
.QSI
lost 0.5 percent to 10,242 points.
EGYPT
* The index
.EGX30
edged up 0.1 percent to 12,906 points.
KUWAIT
* The index
.KWSE
added 0.4 percent to 6,814 points.
OMAN
* The index
.MSI
slipped 0.7 percent to 5,474 points.
BAHRAIN
* The index
.BAX
was down 0.4 percent at 1,334 points. (Editing by Andrew Torchia and Mark Potter) ((celine.aswad@thomsonreuters.com)(+9715 6224 7653)(Reuters Messaging: celine.aswad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))