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- Asian shares rise on Trump-Xi meeting
- Oil prices surge close to 2 percent
- Dubai’s index adds 1.2 percent
- Dollar gains, gold prices drop
Global markets
Asian shares rose in early trading on Monday on easing trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Donald Trump, met on Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka and agreed to resume trade talks. They also agreed to hold off from any further extension of tariffs.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.4%, as Chinese blue chips climbed 2.1% to their highest since late April.
“The Trump-Xi G20 meeting looks to be a modest win for China and a positive for risk assets short term, but well within the range of expected outcomes,” Westpac economist Richard Franulovich, told Reuters.
“Fed cut expectations are likely to see a sustained trimming, though more so for their meeting on July 31 than over the next year,” he added. “A 50 basis point rate cut seems very unlikely.”
Oil prices
Oil prices jumped close to 2 percent in early trading on Monday as market participants await a meeting of the organization of the petroleum exporting countries, Russia and other producers that starts later in the day.
OPEC and other producers look set to extend oil supply cuts until at least until the end of 2019.
Front-month Brent crude futures for September touched an intraday high of $66.14 a barrel and were up $1.12, or 1.7%, at $65.86 a barrel by 1252 GMT.
U.S. crude futures for August rose $1.10, or 1.9%, to $59.57 a barrel after earlier hitting a peak of $60.10, the highest in over five weeks.
According to a Reuters report, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday he had agreed with Saudi Arabia to extend existing output cuts of 1.2 million barrels per day (bpd) by six to nine months.
Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih said the deal would most likely be extended by nine months and no deeper reductions were needed, the Reuters report added.
Middle East markets
Saudi Arabia’s index rose 0.3 percent on Sunday as Zain Saudi Arabia’s shares rose 4.2%, and Etihad Etisalat Company’s shares gained 1.9%.
Dubai's index rose 1.2%, lifted by the largest lender in the emirate, Emirates NBD, rising 4.1%.
The Abu Dhabi index shed 0.2%, dragged down by financials. Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank was down 0.9% and First Abu Dhabi Bank, the largest bank in the United Arab Emirates, slipped 0.7%.
Qatar's index rose 0.1%, with Commercial Bank up 1.7% and Qatar National Bank up 1.0%.
The Egyptian stock exchange was closed for a holiday.
Kuwait’s premier market index added 0.3 percent, Bahrain’s index edged up 0.2 percent while Oman’s index fell 0.2 percent.
Currencies
The dollar rose early on Monday.
The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, a dded 0.22% to 96.337
Precious metals
Gold prices dropped as the dollar strengthened.
Spot gold was down 1.1% at $1,393.16 per ounce as of 0109 GMT, after falling to its lowest level since June 21 at $1,390.83.
U.S. gold futures slipped 1.1% to $1,398.50 an ounce.
Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Michael Fahy)
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