Most of the major Gulf bourses declined in early trading on Sunday in a simulation of global stock losses on Friday after US President Donald Trump renewed his threat to impose tariffs on China, weakening risk appetite.

The Saudi index suffered the biggest loss, in the wake of the Finance Minister warning of "strict measures" to tackle the Corona virus.

Trump's threat to impose new tariffs as punishment for China over its handling of the outbreak of the Corona Virus has hurt investor sentiment.

The Saudi stock index fell 5.7%, due to the decline in Al-Rajhi Bank 5.6% and the oil giant Aramco 5.7%. The shares of Saudi Electricity Company decreased by 5.4% after exacerbating the quarterly losses.

The index of the largest bourse in the region fell earlier in the trading session today by more than 6.5%, following a collective decline in the shares of 199 companies.

Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan said late Saturday that "the sustainability of public finances requires taking strict measures that may be painful", in order to face the economic downturn due to the outbreak of the Corona virus and the collapse of oil prices.

According to Al-Jadaan, his country may borrow about sixty billion dollars to cover the huge budget deficit.

The Saudi "Jadwa Investment" company said on Thursday that it expects the kingdom to record a record budget deficit for 2020 of $ 112 billion.

Last April, the International Monetary Fund expected the economy of the kingdom, the region's largest, to shrink by 2.3%, while Capital Economics Research said the contraction would be at least 5%.

On Friday, Moody's lowered the outlook for Saudi Arabia from "stable" to "negative", due to the collapse in oil prices, which increases the Kingdom's financial risks as well as doubts about the government's ability to compensate for oil revenue losses and debt stability in the medium term.

In other markets
 in Dubai, the emirate's stock index fell 2.3%, with Emaar Properties losing 3.3% and Emirates NBD 2.3%.

On Thursday, Moody's downgraded the outlook for Dubai's largest listed real estate company, Emaar Properties, and its Emaar Malls unit from stable to negative, due to the Corona virus pandemic. Emaar Malls fell 3.9%.

Last month, Standard & Poor's put the two companies under credit scrutiny with a negative outlook.

Abu Dhabi’s index fell 1.5%, as the country's largest bank, First Abu Dhabi, lost 1.7%, and Etisalat lost 1.8%.

The Qatar index fell 0.6%. Qatar Islamic Bank shares lost 1.4% and Rayyan Bank 1.1%.