By Ateeq Shariff
June 15 (Reuters) - Stock markets in the Gulf ended lower on Sunday as Israel and Iran exchanged attacks, raising concerns about a potential broader Middle East conflict.
Israel said it had targeted Iran's nuclear facilities, ballistic missile factories and military commanders in strikes that started on Friday, in what it warned would be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran from building an atomic weapon.
Iran responded by launching attacks on Israel and calling off Sunday's nuclear talks that the United States said were the only way to halt Israel's bombing.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index .TASI finished 1% lower as stocks fell across the board, weighed down by a 1.5% fall in Al Rajhi Bank 1120.SE and a 3.1% decrease in the country's biggest lender Saudi National Bank 1180.SE.
However, oil giant Saudi Aramco 2222.SE advanced 1.8%.
Oil prices jumped on Friday and settled 7% higher as Israel and Iran traded air strikes, feeding investor worries that the combat could widely disrupt oil exports from the Middle East.
Israel late on Saturday attacked Iranian energy infrastructure including an offshore installation on the South Pars gas field which Iran shares with Qatar and is the source of most of the gas produced in Iran, stoking fears of potential disruption to the region's energy exports.
The Qatari benchmark .QSI declined 3.2% - its biggest intraday fall since April - with all its constituents in negative territory including the Gulf's biggest lender Qatar National Bank QNBK.QA, which concluded 4.2% lower.
Elsewhere, Qatar Gas Transport Nakilat QGTS.QA dropped 3.3%.
Among other fallers, Kuwait's bourse .BKP plummeted 4.6%, with Kuwait Finance House KFH.KW losing 3.7%.
Shares in Jazeera Airways JAZK.KW nosedived 18.4% as airlines avoided the airspace over most of the region.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index .EGX30 sank 4.6%, its biggest fall in about 14 months, dragged down by a 4.3% decline in Commercial International Bank COMI.CA and a 12.4% plunge in investment bank EFG Holding HRHO.CA.
SAUDI ARABIA | .TASI declined 1% to 10,732 |
QATAR | .QSI slid 3.2% to 10,287 |
EGYPT | .EGX30 down 4.6% to 31,016 |
BAHRAIN | .BAX lost 0.8% to 1,902 |
OMAN | .MSX30 fell 0.9% at 4,504 |
KUWAIT | .BKP decreased 3.9% to 8,507 |
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by Jan Harvey)
((AteeqUr.Shariff@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822788;))
