DUBAI, May 31 (Reuters) - A rebound in Saudi Arabian petrochemical shares helped lift the index in early trade on Tuesday, while other Gulf bourses were weak.

Saudi's Yanbu National Petrochemicals (Yansab), a large cap petrochemical producer, jumped 5.2 percent after the company announced late on Monday that its board recommended a cash distribution of 1.5 riyals per share for the first half of the year, higher than the 1.0 riyals per share for first half of 2015. The total dividends in 2015 and 2014 were 2.0 and 3.0 riyals respectively.

"We expect the company to pay a dividend of 2.5 riyals per share in 2016E, and based on this the dividend yield is expected to be 6.3 percent," said a note by Saudi firm NCB Capital.

Saudi Basic Industries climbed 1.3 percent, after the company said on Monday it had signed an agreement with Shenhua Ningxia Coal Industry Group to build a petrochemical complex in China.

Yamamah Steel> , which was listd on the exchange this month, rose 3.2 percent after the company said it will pay a cash dividend of 1.5 riyals per share.

The index was up 0.6 percent after 45 minutes of trade.

Dubai's index fell 0.7 percent, poised to end the month down more than 5 percent, its first monthly drop since January of this year.

Builders Drake and Scull and Arabtec lost 0.7 and 1.4 percent respectively, while Emaar Properties was down 1.0 percent, heading for its second session of declines.

In Abu Dhabi blue-chip lender Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and First Gulf Bank were the main drag on the index which fell 0.7 percent. Each stock was down more than 1.0 percent.





(Reporting by Celine Aswad; Editing by Ralph Boulton) ((celine.aswad@thomsonreuters.com; +971 4 4536886; Reuters Messaging: celine.aswad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))