june 18 reuters  qatars stock market ended lower on sunday as comments from two us federal reserve officials curtailed investor optimism that the central bank is nearing the end of its aggressive interest rate hikes fed governor christopher waller said at an economics conference that core inflation is not coming down like i thought it would which probably would require more tightening  most gulf currencies are pegged to the dollar and any monetary policy change in the united states is usually mimicked by saudi arabia the united arab emirates and qatar the qatari stock index qsi dropped 01 extending its losses to a second session with gulfs biggest lender qatar national bank qnbkqa falling 02 and qatar islamic bank qisbqa shedding 11 among the losers lesha bank qfbqqa and dukhan bank dubkqa lost 11 and 13 respectively saudi arabias benchmark index tasi added marginally as losses in energy and financial sectors countered gains in most of the sectors dr sulaiman alhabib medical services 4013se climbed 25 and mouwasat medical services 4002se surged 61 however riyad bank 1010se and the worlds largest islamic bank by assets al rajhi bank 1120se lost 21 and 07 respectively outside the gulf egypts bluechip index egx30 continued its foursession winning streak and ended 08 higher with most sectors higher the index was lifted by a 5 jump in eastern co eastca and 45 rise in el sewedy electric swdyca  separately the international finance corporation ifc will act as a consultant for egypts ambitious ipo program the countys prime minister said on sunday