aug 18 reuters  major stock markets in the gulf ended mixed on wednesday amid concerns about the economic impact of the ongoing spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus gcc stock markets performances were mixed as the global uncertainties about an economic slowdown and the worries about the covid19 expansion start taking over in the region said daniel takieddine senior market analyst at fxprimus among other decliners gulf union alahlia cooperative insurance 8120se slid 66 to become the heaviest faller on the index after it reported a quarterly net loss of 468 million riyals 1248 million the pandemic has returned to the front line as new shutdowns are feared and booster vaccine shots are being discussed more widely added takieddine on the other hand oil prices steadied after four days of declines with investors still worried about the outlook for fuel demand as the use of rail air and other forms of transport is constrained by surging covid19 cases worldwide in abu dhabi the index adi fell 05 dragged down by a 25 fall in emirates telecommunications group etisalat etisalatad on tuesday etisalat gained 24 after signing an agreement to take an additional stake in maroc telecom group for about 505 million dubais main share index dfmgi reversed early losses to close 09 higher boosted by a 17 rise in bluechip developer emaar properties emardu however dubaibased district cooling firm tabreed tabrdu retreated 1 extending losses from the previous session tabreed divested its stake in joint venture firm qatar cool through a sale to united development company udc udcdqa the company said in a statement on tuesday read more the qatari benchmark qsi lost 01 with qatar national bank qnbkqa the gulfs largest lender rising 1 outside the gulf egypts bluechip index egx30 fell 03 as most of the stocks on the index were in negative territory including fawry for banking technology and electronic fwryca which was down 34 reporting by ateeq shariff in bengaluru editing by hugh lawson