Major Gulf stocks starts week in green as OPEC+ extends oil output cuts

Major Gulf stocks rose sharply on Sunday a day after OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers agreed to extend record oil production cuts until the end of July.

The benchmark index of Saudi Arabia, OPEC’s de facto leader, was up 0.9 percent in early trade, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 1 percent and oil behemoth Saudi Aramco was up 0.8 percent .

It was not clear whether Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait would extend beyond June their additional, voluntary cuts of 1.18 million bpd, which are not part of the deal.

In Dubai, the index rose 2.3 percent, led by a 5.4 percent rise in sharia-compliant lender Dubai Islamic Bank and a 3.1percent gain in Emaar Properties.

The Abu Dhabi index gained 1.3 percent, buoyed by a 2.4 percent increase in top lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.

The Qatari index climbed 1.4 percent, with most of the constituents of the index in positive territory. Qatar Islamic Bank rose 2.5 percentand petrochemicals maker Industries Qatar was up 2.9 percent.