Oil deal and IMF-Egypt loan agreement pushes Gulf stocks up
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Raven Ruma
- . June 8, 2020
- . Update: June 8, 2020 6:08 pm
MIDEAST STOCKS have shown positive growth after Sunday’s oil deal struck between the OPEC+ group members, who agreed to extent the record production cuts till the end of July. In a virtual meet, held on Saturday, the oil cartel took the decision in order to keep the oil prices up, as oversupply in the market coupled with slump in market demand led to the crashing of the oil prices earlier. The decision would not directly impact the consumers but the US oil producers. The pact helped crude prices to double inthe past two months by taking back almost 10% of global suppliesfrom the market. The move has put the oil industry on the recovery path, though a slow one. But the pace of the recovery would depend on how pandemic impacts the economies from now on.
After the OPEC+ deal landed smoothly, Saudi energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, in a press briefing on Monday, told reporters that the kingdom and its Gulf
allies Kuwait and United Arab Emirates would not be bearing extra production cut as they did in July. Saudi stock prices went up by 0.5%.
Despite global slump, Dubai property market and banking industry did well, which led to gain in Dubai’s stock market by 1.4%. Dubai experienced the surge mainly after it reported its biggest intraday gain in two months. Besides, the credit goes to the city’s blue-chip developer Emaar Properties which rose by 6.5% and Union Properties,which leapt 13%.
Outside Gulf nations, Egypt shares market gained confidence after the Friday meeting between Egyptian authorities and International Monetary Fund executives, which gave a green signal for a preliminary deal. In a press release, Ms. Uma Ramakrishnan, IMF mission chief for Egypt said that the organisation reached a staff-levelagreement with Egypt for a one-year, providing the country with $5.2 billion standby loanto help it combat the coronavirus pandemic. She added, “This agreement is subject to approval by the IMF’s Executive Board, which is expected to consider Egypt’s request in the coming weeks.”
As as consequence of the deal, Egypt’s blue-chip index jumped up by 0.3%.
- SAUDI ARABIA – gained 0.5% to 7,300 points
- ABU DHABI – eased 0.8% to 4,369 points
- DUBAI – rose 1.4% to 2,164 points
- QATAR – fell 0.4% to 9,316 points
- EGYPT – up 0.3% to 11,147 points
- BAHRAIN – added 0.6% to 1,277 points
- OMAN – was flat at 3,537 points
- KUWAIT – was up 1% at 5,563 points (Reuters)
