Gulf stocks tumble in early trade , Saudi Arabia seen its lowest since 2017

Gulf stock markets plunged in early trade on Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s index opened down 6.3%, hitting its lowest since November 2017. Al Rajhi Bank and the country’s largest lender National Commercial Bank fell 6.6% and 7.1% respectively.

after the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil supply cut pact with Russia fell apart on Friday, sending Brent to its sharpest daily loss in more than 11 years.

Brent futures slid 9.4%, the biggest daily percentage fall since December 2008, to settle at $45.27 a barrel.

A three-year pact between OPEC and Russia ended in acrimony on Friday after Moscow refused to support deeper oil cuts to cope with the outbreak of coronavirus and OPEC responded by removing all limits on its own production.

OPEC was pushing for an additional 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of cuts until the end of 2020.

State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco was down 4.6% to 31.50 riyals ($8.50), trading for the first time below its initial public offering price of 32 riyals.

Th Dubai index declined 7.4%, its biggest intra-day fall since December 2014. Banking and real estate shares led the decline. Emirates NBD fell 8.7%, and the blue-chip developer Emaar Properties tumbled 8.2%.

Abu Dhabi’s index dropped 6.7%, its biggest intra-day percentage loss in more than 5 years. First Abu Dhabi Bank plunged 8.2% and Emirates Telecom lost 4.5%.

In Qatar, the index lost 3.7% as the Gulf’s largest lender Qatar National Bank and Industries Qatar fell 5.5% and 5.6% respectively.

Kuwait’s index dived 6.8% with financial shares weighing the most and National Bank of Kuwait sliding 7.3%.