Saudi Arabia’s stock market closed lower on Sunday, snapping a four-session winning streak due to soft oil prices, while Egypt’s index reached a fresh all-time high.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index eased 0.1%, dragged lower by a 0.6% fall in Al Rajhi Bank and a 0.6% decrease in oil major Saudi Aramco .
Oil prices – a catalyst for the Gulf’s financial markets – managed small gains on Friday but were headed for a weekly loss of nearly 3% after the IEA forecast a growing glut and U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to meet again to discuss Ukraine.
In Qatar, the index fell 0.1%, with Qatar Islamic Bank losing 1%.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index advanced 0.6%, led by a 5.1% gain in Egypt Aluminum .
Egypt raised prices on a wide range of fuel products on Friday, the country’s official gazette said, marking the second increase this year, in line with government policies to reduce subsidies and ease a budget deficit.
Saudi Arabia
fell 0.1% to 11,691
Qatar
eased 0.1% to 10,837
Egypt
was up 0.6% to 37,910
Bahrain
rose 0.2% to 1,977
Oman
gained 0.7% to 5,327
Kuwait
added 0.4% to 9,452
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by David Holmes)
