jan 24 reuters  major stock markets in the gulf opened higher on tuesday as easing recession fears and expectations of a lessaggressive rate hike from the us federal reserve improved risk appetite the us fed will end its tightening cycle after a 25basispoint hike at each of its next two policy meetings and then likely hold interest rates steady for at least the rest of the year according to most economists in a reuters poll most gulf currencies are pegged to the us dollar while qatar saudi arabia and the united arab emirates usually mirror any monetary policy change in the worlds largest economy dubais main share index dfmgi gained 03 strengthened by banking stocks as islamic lender dubai islamic bank disbdu rose 14 while real estate heavyweight emaar properties emardu added 05 saudi arabias benchmark stock index tasi edged 02 higher supported by energy shares and financials as oil behemoth and index heavyweight saudi aramco 2222se and the worlds largest islamic lender al rajhi bank 1120se gained 05 each crude price  a key catalyst for gulfs financial markets  drifted lower on tuesday easing from last weeks gains on expectations of fuel demand recovery in the worlds top importer china the benchmark stock index qsi in qatar opened 02 higher supported by petrochemical and banking shares as petrochemical maker industries qatar iqcdqa and islamic lender qatar islamic bank qisbqa jumped 07 and 05 respectively among other stocks aamal company ahcsqa rose 46 after the firms unit won a contract worth 12 billion qatari riyals 32967 million with kahramaa abu dhabis benchmark index ftfadgi hiked 02 on course to break a foursession losing streak as real estate developer aldar properties aldarad jumped 13 and adnocs retail unit adnoc distribution adnocdistad gained 09 separately overall growth in the six gcc economies was forecast to average 33 and 28 this year and next respectively the jan 923 poll showed down from 42 and 33 in the previous poll reporting by mohd edrees in bengaluru editing by sherry jacobphillips