Shares in Saudi Arabia rose to a 12-month high on Sunday, following an agreement by non-Opec oil producers to cut output.
And while the UAE markets remained closed on Sunday for the Prophet’s birthday, all other Arabian Gulf bourses finished in positive territory.
Under the new agreement, struck at Opec’s headquarters in Vienna on Saturday, Russia and other non-Opec producers agreed to cut daily output by 558,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The deal came less than two weeks after Opec agreed to cut daily output by 1.2 million bpd.
The Tadawul closed up by 1.1 per cent at 7,197.87, its highest close since December last year, with investors also buoyed by the prospect of higher spending in the government’s budget for next year.
“Our forecast is that the end of year deficit will be 10 per cent of GDP, compared with the IMF’s prediction of 13 per cent,” said Nayal Khan, the head of institutional equities sales trading at Saudi Fransi Capital in Riyadh. “We suspect the government will loosen the purse strings next year to buoy business confidence.”
Sabic led gains in the kingdom, with the petrochemicals giant’s shares closing up by 2.2 per cent at 96.87 Saudi riyals. Kayan Petrochemical and Alinma Bank were among the other main gainers.
The Qatar Exchange closed up by 1.3 per cent thanks to gains by Industries Qatar and Ezdan Holding.
jeverington@thenational.ae
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