Saudi Arabia and most other major Gulf stock markets rose in early trade on Thursday, buoyed by the sharp rebound on Wall Street overnight and Brent oil's recovery from below $50 a barrel.

Saudi Arabia's index rose 0.8 percent in the first 75 minutes with all 14 petrochemical stocks rising; Saudi Basic Industries increased 0.4 percent.

Riyad Bank  climbed for a fourth straight day, adding 1.5 percent. The stock has been buoyed by news of merger discussions with National Commercial Bank, the kingdom's biggest lender by assets, which edged up 0.1 percent.

Saudi British Bank increased 2.8 percent after its board proposed a higher dividend of 1.0 riyal per share for the second half of the year, after 0.96 riyal for the first half. Samba Financial Group gained 1.5 percent after proposing a dividend of 1.0 riyal for the same period.

Saudi Cable Co, which jumped its 10 percent daily limit in the last session, added a further 4.9 percent; it reached a final settlement deal with creditors on 313.6 million riyals ($83.60 million) of loans.

The Dubai index was up 0.5 percent with developer Emaar Properties climbing 2.6 percent and DAMAC Properties increasing 4.1 percent.

Construction firm Arabtec gained 2.2 percent after saying its unit was awarded a construction contract by Dubai Properties for 222 million dirhams($60.4 million).

Qatar's index rose 0.5 percent with United Development adding 3.1 percent in heavy trade. on Wednesday, the firm said it finalised a sale agreement with an unnamed strategic Qatari investor for a plot at The Pearl Qatar project, for which it is master developer.

Abu Dhabi's index was down 0.4 percent with First Abu Dhabi Bank, the largest lender in the United Arab Emirates, dropping 1.0 percent.

(Reporting by Shakeel Ahmad and Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrew Torchia) ((shakeel.ahmad.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net;))