Mideast Stocks: Saudi bourse gains as oil prices rise, Qatar extends losses

Mideast Stocks: Saudi bourse gains as oil prices rise, Qatar extends losses

Stock markets in the Gulf ended mixed on Tuesday with the Saudi index snapping a three-session losing streak as oil prices rose after the kingdom denied talks of an output increase.

Crude prices - a key catalyst for the Gulf's financial markets - rose after top exporter Saudi Arabia said OPEC+ was sticking with output cuts and could take further steps to balance the market.

That offset pressure from global recession worries and concern about China's rising COVID-19 cases.

Saudi Arabian Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman on Monday was also quoted by state news agency SPA as denying a Wall Street Journal report that said OPEC was considering boosting output.

The benchmark index in Saudi Arabia rose 0.3%, helped by a 3.6% gain in Banque Saudi Fransi and a 0.9% increase in oil giant Saudi Aramco.

In Qatar, the index fell 0.2%, extending losses for a sixth consecutive session and hit by a 2% fall in Qatar Islamic Bank.

Qatari stocks continued to see sharp decreases while natural gas prices remained highly volatile, Robert Woolfe, COO at Emporium Capital, said.

Meanwhile, QatarEnergy has signed a 27-year deal to supply China's Sinopec with liquefied natural gas in the longest such LNG agreement to date, as volatility drives