DUBAI  - Saudi stocks slipped further in early trade on Wednesday from more than two-year highs earlier in the week, while Dubai's market also fell.

After closing lower on Tuesday, the Saudi index dipped 0.5 percent, with market heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries the biggest drag, falling 0.6 percent. Another blue-chip stock, Samba Financial Group tumbled 1.8 percent.

After huge inflows in anticipation of the upgrade of Saudi stocks to emerging markets indexes, analysts said investors have begun to view some of the banks and petrochemical stocks as expensive.

L'azurde Company for Jewelry surged 2.0 percent after it agreed with Tamkeen Industrial & Trading Company the price and final terms for the pair to buy a competitor, Izdiad Commercial Company of Arabia.

Dubai stocks edged down 0.6 percent. The most active stock in early trade was contractor Drake & Scull, which plunged 9.4 percent, its lowest since May 2017.

It follows a statement from the company that at an annual shareholders meeting some shareholders proposed either increasing the company's capital by 500 million dirhams ($136 million) by issuing new shares or up to 1 billion dirhams of convertible bonds.

Qatar's index rose 0.6 percent. Qatar's Barwa Real Estate was up 3.1 percent in early trade after it said it would seek shareholder approval to raise the non-Qatari ownership ceiling to 49 percent from 25 percent.

Shares in Qatari drilling rig provider Gulf International Services tumbled 5.1 percent in early trade after the company reported first-quarter net profit of 9.5 million riyals, down from 15.1 million riyals in the year earlier period.

The Abu Dhabi index was flat, with Abu Dhabi National Energy Co the most heavily traded stock. It was down 1.5 percent in early trade.

($1 = 3.6724 UAE dirham)

(Reporting by Tom Arnold and Andrew Torchia; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)