Saudi bourse leads Gulf rally as oil prices recover

[DUBAI] Stock markets in the energy-rich Gulf states made a strong rebound in opening trade Tuesday, led by the Saudi bourse which jumped 5.6 per cent, as oil prices bounced after heavy losses.

Energy giant Aramco, which dominates the Saudi Tadawul market, gained 5.5 per cent after a series of sessions in the red where it tumbled below the price where it listed last December.

Dubai Financial Market surged 5.5 per cent while its sister Abu Dhabi market rose 4.2 per cent, partly reversing steep declines.

Boursa Kuwait, where trading on its premier index was suspended for two days due to huge losses, rallied 6.6 per cent and the Qatar stock market rose 3.0 per cent.

The small bourses of Bahrain and Oman rose 1.2 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively.

All the Gulf stock markets sustained heavy losses in the past two days, dropping to multi-year lows after oil producers failed to reach an agreement on output cuts in an impasse that sent oil prices crashing.

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After Russia rejected calls from oil-exporting cartel Opec, which includes Saudi Arabia, for deeper output cuts to combat a coronavirus-fuelled slump in demand, Riyadh drove through massive price cuts in a bid to win market share.

As the confrontation flared, oil prices - the mainstay of public revenues in the Gulf states - posted the single biggest one-day loss in three decades on Monday with Brent crude sliding to US$33 a barrel.

But as Brent gained more than 7.0 per cent to around US$37 a barrel on Tuesday, energy and global stocks also rebounded in Asian trade, a day after global equities suffered their biggest losses in more than a decade.

AFP