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On Sunday, a basket of major Gulf bourses had wrapped up the session sharply higher with Saudi’s benchmark index hitting a fresh 15-year peak, mostly driven by an upsurge in oil prices, a key catalyst for Gulf investors’ morale, however, Egyptian bourses had beaten a hasty retreat following a harsh sell-off wave on a majority of its 29 blue-chip stocks. In the matter of the fact, Sunday’s steep rise in major Gulf bourses had been almost entirely catalysed by more than a 5 per cent weekly gain in both US WTI and Brent Crude Oil prices last week, as a surprising supply lag from OPEC+ members with Libya leading the contour of failing to meet output quotas alongside concerns of Russia-Ukraine row, bode well for crude oil contracts’ prices, eventually helping petrochemical stocks.
Major Gulf bourses end higher
Citing statistics, in the day’s Gulf market wind-down, Saudi’s benchmark index added 0.3 per cent, extending its latest leg of blistering rally while hitting a fresh 15-year peak, as Saudi Arabian Mining Company advanced 3.4 per cent and SABIC jumped 1.2 per cent.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt’s blue-chip index tottered 1.5 per cent, while a majority of its 29 stocks had witnessed a mass-scale slaughter, as investors’ caution rose significantly over recent past. Elsewhere in the Gulf, Qatar added 0.9 per cent with petrochemical firm Industries Qatar and Qatar Islamic Bank gaining 1.6 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively, while Oman shed 0.6 per cent, mostly wounded by a 6.6 per cent downward slide in Bank Dhofar.
Besides, Bahrain rounded off the session 0.6 per cent higher, Kuwait closed out the session nearly flatlined.