By Celine Aswad

DUBAI, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Real estate investment trusts were some of the top gainers on Saudi Arabia's stock exchange on Monday, a day before the listing of a new trust, but bourses in the region were generally sluggish, especially Qatar.

All four listed REITs were among the 10 most heavily traded shares in Riyadh, where the main index .TASI edged up 0.2 percent. Al Jazira Mawten REIT 4331.SE jumped 9.6 percent.

Jadwa REIT Haramain Fund 4332.SE rose 1.3 percent. The trust said it would distribute a cash dividend of 0.1 riyal per share for the 75-day period to June 30.

Maather REIT Fund 4334.SE will list on Tuesday. Analysts at NCB Capital estimated that based on its subscription price of 10 riyals per share, its dividend yield for 2017 would be 7.2 percent, and its subscription was covered 15.2 times, signalling strong investor appetite for real-estate-related securities.

Half of the 14 listed petrochemical shares advanced as Brent oil prices LCOc1 largely held onto Friday's big gains. Yanbu National Petrochemical 2290.SE rose 1.1 percent.

Qatar's index .QSI fell 0.8 percent in the market's lowest trading volume this year. Commercial Bank COMB.QA lost 1.7 percent, wiping out Sunday's 1.2 percent gain.

Dubai's index .DFMGI declined by 0.6 percent to close at the day's low. Builder Drake & Scull DSI.DU fell 1.8 percent; it said on Monday that it would seek shareholder approval to convert itself into a sharia-compliant company.

Union Properties UPRO.DU , which has been volatile since last week when it posted a big quarterly loss as it fixed accounting errors, fell 2.0 percent.

In Abu Dhabi, the index .ADI edged up 0.1 percent as Dana Gas DANA.AD soared 8.1 percent. Last week the company reported a 71 percent rise in second-quarter net profit as it slashed capital spending.

Egypt's index .EGX30 rose 0.6 percent as investment firm Qalaa Holdings CCAP.CA , the most heavily traded stock, surged 3.7 percent.

But Pioneers Holding PIOH.CA fell 1.2 percent despite reporting that first-half standalone net profit rose to 106.2 million Egyptian pounds ($6.0 million) from 71.1 million pounds a year earlier.



HIGHLIGHTS



SAUDI ARABIA



* The index .TASI rose 0.2 percent to 7,225 points.



DUBAI



* The index .DFMGI fell 0.6 percent to 3,595 points.



ABU DHABI



* The index .ADI edged up 0.1 percent to 4,495 points.



QATAR



* The index .QSI lost 0.8 percent to 9,065 points.



EGYPT



* The index .EGX30 rose 0.6 percent to 13,106 points.



KUWAIT



* The index .KWSE added 0.2 percent at 6,913 points.



BAHRAIN



* The index .BAX fell 0.2 percent to 1,310 points.



OMAN



* The index .MSI rose 0.6 percent to 4,944 points.

(Editing by Andrew Torchia; Editing by Dale Hudson) ((celine.aswad@thomsonreuters.com)(+971 5 6224 7653)(Reuters Messaging: celine.aswad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))