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Most major Gulf markets traded in positive territory on Wednesday after the Eid holiday, taking their cue from global equity markets which rose after Washington delayed tariffs on some Chinese imports.
President Donald Trump backed off his plan to impose 10% tariffs on Sept. 1 on remaining Chinese imports, delaying duties on cellphones, laptops and many other consumer goods in the hopes of blunting their impact on U.S. holiday sales.
Among individual markets, Dubai's index rose 0.4% as most of its real estate stocks traded higher, with blue-chip developer Emaar Properties gaining 1.1%.
Damac Properties advanced 1.6% after the owner and operator of the only Trump-branded golf club in the Middle East reported 50.6 million dirhams in net profit for the second quarter, beating an EFG-Hermes forecast of 37 million dirhams.
In Qatar, the index advanced 0.5%, led by a 1.5% rise in the Gulf's largest lender Qatar National Bank and a 0.9% gain in Qatar Islamic Bank.
In Abu Dhabi, the index edged up 0.1%, with Emirates Telecommunications Group rising 0.7%.
Capping the gains was Waha Capital, which plunged 5.9% after it swung to second-quarter loss.
Saudi Arabia's stock market is to resume trading on Sunday after its Eid break.
(Reporting by Maqsood Alam and Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru Editing by David Holmes)
© Reuters News 2019