DUBAI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Banking shares dragged Saudi Arabian stocks lower in early trade on Sunday while markets in the rest of the region moved little as investors readied for third-quarter corporate earnings announcements.

The Saudi stock index .TASI fell 0.5 percent in the first 75 minutes as the banking index .TBFSI dropped 0.9 percent.

The central bank has told commercial banks to postpone for a month receiving payments on consumer loans to customers whose incomes have been hit by cuts to public sector allowances, the Okaz newspaper reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.

Central bank officials were not available to comment.

Telecommunications firm Zain Saudi 7030.SE fell 2.7 percent, continuing a pull-back after surging early last week on hopes it would benefit from deregulation of the sector.

Retailer Jarir Marketing 4190.SE climbed 3.1 percent after it reported a net profit of 220 million riyals ($58.7 million) for the three months to Sept. 30, up from 218.5 million riyals a year earlier. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted 200.6 million riyals.

Dairy company Almarai 2280.SE gained 1.4 percent after reporting a 10 percent increase in third-quarter net profit to 654.6 million riyals. Analysts had forecast 627.8 million.

Dubai's index .DFMGI was flat. The most heavily traded stock, DXBE Entertainments DXBE.DU , climbed 1.3 percent before it opens theme park facilities at the end of this month.

Abu Dhabi's index .ADI dropped 0.5 percent as Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank ADIB.AD sank 1.4 percent, while Qatar .QSI was flat amid a 3.1 percent slide in Qatar Islamic Insurance QIIC.QA .

In Egypt, the index .EGX30 rose 0.5 percent after a senior International Monetary Fund official said the IMF's initial loan payment to Egypt would be about $2.5 billion and that he hoped to secure board approval for a $12 billion loan programme within the next month. ID:nL2N1CD14N

El Saeed Contracting and Real Estate UEGC.CA jumped 4.7 percent to 0.90 Egyptian pounds after it said it was buying 17 million treasury shares at 0.96 pounds per share.

Investment firm Qalaa Holdings CCAP.CA dropped 4.8 percent after reporting a sharply wider quarterly net loss. ID:nFWN1C901Y

(Reporting by Andrew Torchia; editing by John Stonestreet) ((andrew.torchia@thomsonreuters.com)(+9715 6681 7277)(Reu