Gulf Arab stock markets ended lower across the region on Wednesday amid worries about the economic outlook and profits.

UAE bourses plumbed fresh four-year depths while Qatar, which had resisted the downward trend in the region for much of the past two weeks, snapped its winning ways to end lower.

'The declines are in line with expectations but hopeful people who stayed on till the end are now liquidating,' said  Nadine Wehbe, senior market analyst at Orion, noting this had exacerbated losses.

Adding to sour investor confidence in the oil-exporting Gulf, crude fell toward $38 a barrel on Wednesday on expectations that deepening global recession would reduce oil demand.

Sharp falls in the world's stock markets and a stream of bearish economic data has kept oil prices near 4-1/2-year lows. Oman's index tumbled more than 6 percent.

Oman's industrial sector had benefited from exports to neighbouring Gulf countries but with the boom slowing down in those states, the sultanate's firms are feeling the pinch.

'People think what's happened can continue into next year so that's panicking the retail investors,' added Adel Nasr, local brokerage manager at United Securities in Muscat.

He said the lack of a large-scale presence by institutional investors made the declines worse.

A property price correction in Dubai, as well as tight credit conditions across the UAE, the second-largest Arab economy, continued to dampen investor sentiment there.

Dubai's index is the worst performer in the region this year, down more than 70 percent. 'In Dubai, the fundamentals are not looking good at the moment,' said Rami Sidani, head of investment for Mena at Schroders.

'We still have negative sentiment prevailing on the market, driven by worries about the real estate sector which has been the main driver of the economic boom.'

'There's a concentration of real estate and real-estate linked companies in market. We'll continue to see pressure until we get visibility on economic outlook in 2009.'-Reuters