By Ateeq Shariff
Most bourses in the Gulf ended higher on Sunday, a day after the OPEC+ group of oil producers agreed to extend record production cuts until the end of July, with Egyptian shares boosted by a preliminary deal on a standby IMF loan for the country.
Saturday's deal between OPEC and other producers led by Russia prolongs a pact that has helped crude prices to double in the past two months by withdrawing almost 10% of global supplies from the market.
Dubai's main share index jumped 4.6%, its biggest intraday gain since April 7, led by a 9.5% surge for Dubai Islamic Bank and a 6.1% increase in Emaar Properties.
In Saudi Arabia, OPEC's de facto leader, the index was up 0.8%, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 1% and petrochemicals group Saudi Basic Industries up 1.1%.
Oil giant Saudi Aramco, meanwhile, gained 0.6%.
It was not clear whether Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait would extend their additional voluntary oil production cuts of 1.18 million bpd, which are not part of the OPEC+ deal.
The Abu Dhabi index gained 2.4%, boosted by a 4.2% jump for the country's largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.
Outside the Gulf, Egypt's blue-chip index surged 4.6% after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on Friday that it had reached a staff-level agreement with Egypt for a one-year $5.2 billion standby loan to help the country to contend with the coronavirus pandemic.
The agreement will be finalised by the IMF's executive board.
SAUDI ARABIA rose 0.8% to 7,268 points
ABU DHABI gained 2.4% to 4,405 points
DUBAI leapt 4.6% to 2,133 points
QATAR added 1.1% to 9,349 points
EGYPT up 4.6% to 11,109 points
BAHRAIN lost 0.4% to 1,270 points
OMAN was up 0.6% to 3,538 points
KUWAIT rose 0.9% to 5,507 points
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman)
