Middle East Market Wrap 6 September: Egypt Extends Its Run to a Fourth Gain as the Gulf Splits After the US Jobs Surprise

By The Edge Research Team

The region’s first session after Friday’s United States payrolls surprise produced no verdict, only a split. Of the 7 headline market benchmarks that traded on Sunday, 4 rose and 3 fell, on our count, and the whole board sat inside a 1.03 percentage point range, on our calculation. Egypt’s EGX 30 led for a fourth consecutive session, up 0.72 percent to 56,676.16, Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share added 0.32 percent to 11,068.65, and Qatar’s QE Index was the weakest close at minus 0.31 percent, giving back Thursday’s gain. Abu Dhabi and Dubai trade Monday to Friday and were shut.

Saudi Arabia adds a second gain, with the large caps in front

The Tadawul All Share Index rose 35.74 points to 11,068.65, its second consecutive advance after Thursday’s 0.19 percent, a two session gain of 0.51 percent on our calculation. The MSCI Tadawul 30, the large cap gauge, did better at plus 0.38 percent to 1,488.06, while the Nomu Parallel Market fell 0.22 percent to 21,739.24, a reversal of Thursday, when the Nomu had led the Saudi table at plus 0.41 percent. The reads were taken after the Saudi Exchange’s Main Market status turned to Negotiated Deals Only.

Sunday was the Gulf’s first chance to price the American numbers. United States payrolls for August came in at 162,000 against a 53,000 consensus on Friday, per our US jobs report of 4 September, and market pricing moved to about 60 percent odds of a quarter point Federal Reserve rate increase at the 15 and 16 September meeting, per our US Market Wrap of 4 September, a session in which the S&P 500 lost 0.38 percent. A Fed hike would tend to be followed by the Gulf central banks that peg to the dollar, though the transmission is not uniform across the region, on our reading, and the Saudi board’s response was to rise anyway, with the dollar index at 99.157 on Friday’s close, up 0.25 percent.

Kuwait’s board diverges, and the escalation tally reaches 3 sessions

Boursa Kuwait’s All Share Index slipped 7.95 points, or 0.09 percent, to 8,839.98, a third consecutive decline. Over the 3 sessions since the escalation that began with the United States strikes on Iran on 1 September, the All Share has lost 0.72 percent on our calculation, 0.42 on 2 September, 0.21 on 3 September and 0.09 on Sunday, a decline that is shrinking each day. Inside the market the day split along the exchange’s own tiers: the Premier Market Index fell 0.20 percent to 9,227.19 and the BK Main 50, the market capitalisation weighted index of the 50 most liquid Main Market companies, selected by average daily traded value, fell 0.75 percent to 10,918.46, the largest loss of any index in today’s table, while the broader Main Market Index rose 0.46 percent to 9,176.35. Turnover was 125.5 million dinars across 32,319 trades. The exchange’s economic indicator board marked Kuwait’s export crude at 98.10 dollars a barrel, down 13 cents, a marking that reflects the previous session under the state oil company’s daily pricing.

Qatar gives back Thursday; Bahrain and Oman barely move

Qatar’s QE Index fell 30.38 points, or 0.31 percent, to 9,733.76, reversing Thursday’s 0.13 percent gain and leaving it 0.18 percent below its 2 September close, on our calculation. Bahrain’s All Share Index eased 1.27 points, or 0.07 percent, to 1,937.28, its second marginal decline in a row, on 79 trades worth 146,000 dinars. Muscat’s MSX 30 gained 3.255 points, or 0.04 percent, to 7,631.510, with 38 advancers against 14 decliners on the exchange’s count, and Amman’s ASE Index rose 0.36 percent to 4,075.85, the second strongest of the 7 headline benchmarks.

Egypt’s fourth straight advance, stronger in dollars

The EGX 30 opened at Thursday’s close of 56,270.32, which was also the session low, and ran to a high of 56,788.85 before closing at 56,676.16, a gain of 405.84 points. That is the fourth consecutive advance against our published closes, on our calculation, following gains on 1, 2 and 3 September, and it takes the index to 35.50 percent above its end 2025 level on the exchange’s own year to date figure. In dollar terms the exchange put the index up 0.86 percent, more than the pound gain, because the pound firmed: the Central Bank of Egypt’s rate for 6 September was 50.8086 pounds to buy a dollar and 50.9477 to sell, 0.14 percent firmer on the buy leg than Thursday’s 50.8780, on our calculation. Constituents of the EGX 30 traded 4.93 billion pounds, 32.65 percent of the day’s value, which implies total market turnover near 15.1 billion pounds, on our calculation.

The UAE, from Friday

Abu Dhabi and Dubai completed their week on Friday 4 September, a session no regional wrap covered. The FTSE ADX General Index closed at 9,977.36, up 0.50 percent, the FADX 15 at 10,527.74, up 0.67 percent, and the DFM General Index at 5,884.63, up 0.70 percent on the exchange’s own daily closing table. Both markets return on Monday.

Middle East equities, Sunday 6 September: the risers

Middle East equities, Sunday 6 September: the fallers

Closes for Sunday 6 September 2026, ranked by change and split across 2 tables for legibility on a phone. Every level except Qatar was read at the index’s own exchange with its closed session stamp; the Saudi rows were re-read after the Main Market status turned to Negotiated Deals Only. The Qatar level comes from a market terminal, the exchange’s own indices page having rendered zeros, and its 30.38 point fall reconciles exactly against our published 3 September close of 9,764.14. Every change reconciles against our own published closes of 3 September; the MSX percentage is the exchange’s own figure. The count of 4 of 7 rising uses one headline benchmark per trading market: the EGX 30, ASE Index, Tadawul All Share and MSX 30 rose; the Bahrain All Share, Kuwait All Share and QE Index fell. Abu Dhabi and Dubai did not trade on Sunday; their Friday 4 September closes are in the text.

Oil and gold, Friday 4 September

Friday 4 September 2026 levels, captured after the settlement windows and carried from our Commodities Wrap of 4 September 2026, for reference; the futures markets were closed at the 12:37 GMT capture and reopen for the week on Sunday evening. Changes are Thursday settlement to Friday snapshot. The vendor’s settlement field read at 12:37 GMT on 6 September carries the Friday settlements at 96.28, 91.30 and 4,477.20 dollars respectively, and the dollar index at 99.157, up 0.25 percent on Friday.

Why it matters: The region absorbed two shocks in 3 sessions, an exchange of strikes in which Kuwait’s army reported intercepting missiles and drones, and a United States jobs print that revived the case for a Fed hike, and the price response to both has been small and narrowing, on our reading. Kuwait’s cumulative loss since the escalation began is 0.72 percent, its daily declines have shrunk from 0.42 to 0.09 percent, and the Saudi board rose into a rate outlook that, through the peg, would mean dearer money, on our reading. The sharpest divergence is inside Kuwait, where the BK Main 50 lost 0.75 percent while the Main Market rose 0.46 percent: the selling on Sunday was concentrated in the most liquid Main Market names rather than the broad market, on our reading. Egypt is the region’s momentum trade, 4 gains in a row and a currency firming alongside them, a pattern consistent with inflow expectations rather than a local shock, though the price action alone does not establish it, on our reading.

Outlook: Monday brings Abu Dhabi and Dubai back to the board and the first regional session with Asia and Europe trading alongside. The Saudi file is domestic this week: the General Authority for Statistics publishes second quarter GDP on Tuesday 8 September, business confidence on Wednesday and July industrial production on Thursday, per our Week Ahead of 6 September. Outside the region the week’s decisive prints are the United States producer and consumer price indices on Thursday and Friday, which will settle the September Fed pricing that matters to the pegged Gulf currencies, on our reading. For Egypt, the test is whether a fifth gain arrives with the pound still firming.

Sources: Saudi Exchange, Boursa Kuwait, The Egyptian Exchange, Central Bank of Egypt, Bahrain Bourse, Muscat Stock Exchange, Amman Stock Exchange, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, Dubai Financial Market, The Edge.

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