March 6 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi's stock index fell sharply onWednesday, hurt by a slide in First Abu Dhabi Bank
FAB.AD
,while Qatar was pulled down by Industries Qatar
IQCD.QA
, afterboth shares went ex-dividend.
The Abu Dhabi index
.ADI
fell 2 percent, declining for thefifth straight session with First Abu Dhabi Bank
FAB.AD
, thecountry's largest lender, slumping 4.5 percent.
The bank announced a cash dividend of 0.74 dirhams lastmonth.
Qatar's index
.QSI
fell 0.9 percent as market heavyweightIndustries Qatar
IQCD.QA
slid 4.6 percent and MesaieedPetrochemical
MPHC.QA
lost 2.1 percent.
The Saudi index
.TASI
dipped 0.2 percent with NationalCommercial Bank
1180.SE
sliding 0.4 percent and Saudi BasicIndustries
2010.SE
shedding 0.3 percent.
Saudi Pharmaceutical Industries And Medical Appliances
2070.SE
fell 0.4 percent after its full-year net profitdropped to 100.8 million riyals ($26.88 million) from 148.5million riyals a year earlier.
But Abdullah Abdul Mohsin Al Khodari Sons
1330.SE
gained3.3 percent after it called for a shareholder meeting to discusscapital restructuring through a number of options includingdissolution of the firm.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nFWN20S0QK
The Dubai index
.DFMGI
was down 0.3 percent with Tabreed
TABR.DU
decreasing 2.4 percent and Amlak Finance
AMLK.DU
falling 1.9 percent.
Dubai property prices have been slipping from their mid-2014peak and were partly behind the index's worst performance inlocal currency terms compared with other major global marketslast year.
Although Dubai stocks have rallied this year, led by strongfourth-quarter results at real estate companies, an expectedfurther fall in property prices is capping gains.
($1 = 3.7502 riyals)
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in BengaluruEditing by Andrew Heavens) ((AteeqUr.Shariff@thomsonreuters.com; +918067497129;))
