RIYADH: Equity markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council region remained lackluster on Thursday as investor apathy loomed large across all critical indices of the region. While Dubai Financial Market General Index closed highest among all indices at 28.69 points to 3,445.70, Tadawul All Share Index was the poorest performer losing 95.56 points to 10,412.16. FTSE ADX General Index, MSX 30 Index and Bahrain All Share Index closed up slightly at 10,010.64, 4,768.67 and 1,936.98, respectively. Qatar Exchange Index fell 78.20 points to 10,424.20, even as Boursa Kuwait Premier Market Index slipped 33 points to 8,201.47. “Kuwait and Qatari benchmarks declined today by 0.7 percent each while the rest of the markets in the GCC were flattish, with only Dubai seeing a noticeable gain of 0.8 percent,” Junaid Ansari, head of investment strategy and research at Kuwait-based Kamco Invest, told Arab News. “The decline in Kuwait was led mainly by the mid and small-cap Main Market Index, which dropped 2 percent while the Premier Market Index dropped by 0.4 percent,” Ansari added. Oil prices also remained contained on Thursday as Brent crude LCOc1 futures dipped 12 cents to $84.97 a barrel by 3:27 p.m. Riyadh time, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude CLc1 futures inched down 15 cents to $78.32 a barrel. Non-oil private sector growth in the UAE declined in January, registering a 12-month low, as weak global conditions weighed on export demand, revealed the latest S&P Global UAE Purchasing Managers’ Index report. The S&P Global UAE PMI fell to 54.1, slipping slightly from 54.2 in December and the lowest since January 2022. Dubai logistics firm Aramex announced a 27 percent decline in net profits to 165 million dirhams ($44.92 million) for the year 2022, even as its revenues fell 2 percent to 5.9 billion dirhams in the corresponding period. Closer to home, Saudi Arabia’s Industrial Production Index rose 7.3 percent year on year in December 2022, primarily driven by high production in mining and quarrying, and manufacturing activities, the General Authority for Statistics declared. Saudi British Bank posted a net profit rise of 52 percent in 2022 to SR4.87 billion ($1.3 billion) from SR3.20 billion a year earlier, driven by higher gross operating income mainly due to a rise in net special commission income. SABB’s earnings per share also increased to SR2.37 from SR1.56 during the period. But none of the corporate announcements or economic indicators could lift the investor sentiment in the Kingdom. “The Saudi index has lost around 4 percent over the last nine trading sessions, with the banking index being the biggest decliner falling 6.5 percent, followed by media and capital goods indices, which booked losses of around 4.7 percent and 4.4 percent, respectively,” pointed out Ansari. TASI’s total trading turnover of the benchmark index on Thursday was SR3.5 billion, marginally up from Wednesday’s SR3.41 billion.