Most stock markets in the Gulf ended higher on Sunday in response to gains for oil prices and global shares on expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates less aggressively than previously anticipated.
Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index advanced 1.2%, having hit its lowest in six months in the previous session, led by a 0.2% gain in Dr Sulaiman Al-Habib Medical Services.
Crude prices, a key catalyst for the Gulf’s financial markets, gained 2.5% after a U.S. official told Reuters that an immediate Saudi oil output boost was not expected and as investors question whether OPEC has the room to ramp up crude production.
Separately, the kingdom said it would open its airspace to all carriers, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel, in a decision welcomed by U.S. President Joe Biden.
The Qatari index gained 0.9%, with Commercial Bank rising 3.2%, while the Gulf’s biggest lender Qatar National Bank finished 1.6% up.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index is trading around its lowest in nearly six years. On Sunday it edged up by 0.1%, helped by a 1.1% gain for top lender Commercial International Bank.
Egypt has come under financial pressure because of a sharp slide in foreign portfolio investor holdings and rising costs for key commodity imports, especially since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Headline inflation accelerated to 13.5% in May.
