OPEC Secretary-General Abdullah al-Badri waits for the start of a meeting of OPEC oil ministers at OPEC's headquarters in Vienna November 27, 2014. Gulf oil producers led by Saudi Arabia are expected to press the case on Thursday for not yet cutting OPEC output, despite calls from some members of the group to bolster sagging prices by removing surplus crude from the market. REUTERS
Share prices in Gulf Arab states dived Sunday on the first day of trading since OPEC decided to maintain crude output, sending crude prices to five-year lows, traders said.
All the seven bourses of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states had been closed for the Friday-Saturday weekend after the OPEC decision late Thursday.
Dubai Financial Market shed more than 5.0 percent minutes after the opening and was trading at 4,273.0 points. All stocks in the index were in the red.
The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange was trading down 1.0 percent at 4,753.0 points.
Kuwait Stock Exchange had dipped 2.0 percent to 6,846.50 points, while Muscat Stock market had lost 1.8 percent.
Qatar Exchange slumped 4.0 percent below the 13,000-point mark less than five minutes after opening.
The Saudi bourse, the largest Arab capital market, opens later.
OPEC on Thursday maintained its output ceiling unchanged despite sliding crude prices.
The decision was received positively by global stock markets because a drop in oil prices is expected to stimulate the economies. On the contrary, a drop in oil prices will reflect negatively on GCC budgets which generate about 90 percent of its revenues from oil.
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