DUBAI (Bloomberg) -- Persian Gulf shares fell on speculation financial and real-estate firms will register profit declines in the fourth quarter as the region braces for an economic slowdown caused by the global financial crisis.

Emaar Properties PJSC’s, the region’s biggest publicly traded real-estate developer, plunged to the lowest in more than four years after its share buyback period expired on Wednesday. Dubai Islamic Bank PJSC, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest lender complying with Muslim banking rules, plunged to a five-year low after its Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook for the bank.
The Dubai Financial Market General Index declined 5 percent to 1,609.56, closing at the lowest level since September 2004. The measure is down 73 percent this year. Abu Dhabi’s gauge fell for a fifth day, retreating 3.5 percent. The Kuwait Stock Exchange Index dropped 0.4 percent.
“The real-estate and banking sectors have still some room to the downside,” said Hesham Bakry, head of Middle East and North Africa Institutional Sales at Al-Futtaim HC Securities in Dubai. “We will see the impact of the global financial crisis on the balance sheets in the coming results. I see some improvement coming from the middle of next year.”
Dubai is bracing for a slowdown of its once booming property industry after residential prices quadrupled in the past five years and the seizure of global credit markets hurt mortgage lending.
Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul fell 1.6 percent, while Oman’s Muscat Securities Market 30 Index lost 6.5 percent. Bahrain’s market slipped 0.5 percent and Qatar’s DSM 20 Index weakened 1.2 percent.
Emaar dropped 6.6 percent to 2.25, its lowest value since June 2004, after the Securities & Commodities Authority, the U.A.E’s market regulator, said it bought back 200,000 shares, or 0.003 percent of its equity capital. It had received approval to buy back as much as 10 percent of its stock.
Arabtec Holding PJSC, the U.A.E.’s biggest construction company, declined 8.9 percent to 3.47 dirhams, the lowest level in a month, after its shareholders approved a proposal to offer one bonus share for each existing share to double its capital to 1.2 billion dirhams ($326 million) from 598 million dirhams.
Dubai Islamic Bank tumbled 9.3 percent to 1.65 dirhams, the lowest level since November 2003, as S&P cut the lender’s rating to “negative” from “stable.”