Most Gulf markets ended lower on Tuesday, with the Dubai index particularly hard hit by losses for top lender Emirates NBD.

Saudi Arabia's benchmark index closed 0.2% down after oil behemoth Saudi Aramco lost 0.4% and Saudi Telecom Company declined by 1%.

Saudi Aramco and petrochemicals company Saudi Basic Industries have decided to re-evaluate their $20 billion crude-oil-to-chemicals project and are now looking at integrating existing facilities instead. 

The decision comes as oil companies globally re-assess energy projects to conserve cash, with a collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic threatening to keep crude prices weak for a protracted period.

Shares in Saudi Basic Industries were down 0.5%.

Dubai's main share index retreated 1.3%, dragged down by a 3.2% fall Emirates NBD after a sharp decline in quarterly profit, hit by a rise in bad debt charges resulting from the COVID-19 crisis. 

Elsewhere, sharia-compliant lender Dubai Islamic Bank was down 1.7%.

The Abu Dhabi index slipped 0.4%, with largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank losing 0.7% and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank dropping by 2.9%.

In Qatar, the index edged up by 0.2%, helped by a 1.4% gain for Qatar Gas Transport Company (Nakilat) after it reported a nine-month net profit up 23.6% year on year. 

($1 = 3.6728 UAE dirham)

($1 = 3.6400 Qatar riyals)

(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru Editing by David Goodman) ((AteeqUr.Shariff@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822788;))