Major Gulf equities were mostly flat to lower early on Thursday, pressured by lacklustre corporate earnings and a more cautious U.S. Federal Reserve stance on monetary easing, after it held interest rates steady and offered little indication of when borrowing costs might be lowered. 

The prospect of U.S. rates staying higher for longer clouded investor sentiment across Gulf markets, where monetary policy tends to track the Fed due to currency pegs.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index eased 0.4%, dragged down by broad-based sectoral declines as a string of underwhelming earnings weighed on sentiment.

Shares of Yamama Cement fell more than 1% after its second-quarter earnings missed expectations, while Nayifat Finance dropped 2.4% following a nearly 60% year-on-year plunge in Q2 profit.

National Gas and Industrialization Co and Saudi Telecom each shed 1.6% as their shares began trading ex-dividend.

Meanwhile, flash estimates from the General Authority for Statistics showed Saudi Arabia’s real GDP rose 3.9% in the second quarter compared with a year earlier, supported by growth in the non-oil sector as the kingdom continues efforts to diversify its economy.

Dubai's main share index slid 0.5%, pulling back from a near two-decade peak in the previous session, led by a 3% fall in Mashreqbank after posting a 17% year-on-year decline in second-quarter earnings.

Tecom Group was down 1.5% ahead of the release of its quarterly earnings later in the day.

The Abu Dhabi index was little changed and Qatar’s benchmark also held steady as investors refrained from placing bigger bets ahead of key earnings announcements.

Qatari telecoms firm Ooredoo outperformed, gaining 1.6% after reporting positive second-quarter results and holding its full-year guidance steady.

(Reporting by Amna Mariyam in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Heavens)