19 June 2017
Asian stocks rose on Monday, shaking off Wall Street's uninspiring performance on Friday.MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.5 percent.

The dollar steadied against a basket of currencies on Monday after slipping on soft U.S. economic data, with investors awaiting comments by a top Federal Reserve official for clues on whether recent strength can be sustained.

Most major Gulf stock markets fell on Sunday because of weak oil prices, but hopes that Saudi Arabia will join MSCI's group of emerging markets, which would trigger billions of dollars of fund inflows, buoyed that market.The Saudi index rose 0.9 percent in thin trade as some stocks expected to be targets of incoming foreign funds rose, with Food maker Savola jumping 5.0 percent to 48.40 riyals, its highest finish since January 2016.

Oil prices dipped on Monday, weighed down by a continuing expansion in U.S. drilling that has helped to maintain high global supplies despite an OPEC-led initiative to cut production to tighten the market.

Gold slipped on Monday on a firm dollar.

In the latest news, a van hit pedestrians leaving a London mosque on Monday, killing at least one person and injuring several. British Prime Minister Theresa May said police had confirmed it was being treated as a potential terrorist attack and said she would chair an emergency response meeting later on Monday.

Remittances from expatriate Egyptians rose by 11.1 percent between the currency float in November and the end of April, the central bank said on Sunday.

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