• Oil prices rise with limited gains
  • Asian shares drop  following gains on Tuesday
  • Kuwait’s index outperforms the region
  • Dollar steadies, gold prices edge up

Oil prices

Oil prices rose again on Wednesday on tightening supplies, however future demand concerns kept the gains in check.

OPEC issued a list of oil production cuts by its members and other major producers for six months starting January 1, to boost confidence in its oil supply reduction pact.

Oil prices have also been boosted by lower supply from Venezuela, as the U.S. introduced petroleum export sanctions against state-owned Venezuelan energy firm PDVSA.

Brent was up by 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, at $68.14 by 0311 GMT. U.S. crude futures added 9 cents, or 0.2 percent.

Gains were limited amid growing fears over the impact of a global economic slowdown on demand.

“We seem to have reached a state of equilibrium after the recent headline-driven choppy trading and we need to see some new impetus for price direction,” Jeff Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA in Singapore, told Reuters.

Global markets

Asian shares dropped on Wednesday following gains made in the previous session.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.1 percent while Japan’s Nikkei average lost 0.6 percent.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained 0.72 percent while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.71 percent.

“While the markets now got out of the extreme nervousness about the U.S. yield curve, there is no denying that U.S. data has been soft of late, hardly dispelling worries about the outlook,” Hirokazu Kabeya, chief global strategist at Daiwa Securities, told Reuters.

Middle East markets

Saudi Arabia’s index edged up 0.1 percent on Tuesday as Al Tayyar Group’s shares gained 10 percent.

Dubai’s index dropped 0.7 percent as Emaar Properties lost 2.1 percent and its unit Emaar Malls dropped 1.7 percent.

The Abu Dhabi index added 0.2 percent with Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and Union National Bank both gaining 1.3 percent.

Qatar's index slipped 0.1 percent, led by a 1.6 percent decline in Qatar National Bank.

Egypt’s blue-chip index EGX30 edged 0.2 percent lower as Commercial International Bank slipped 0.8 percent and Qalaa Holdings was down 2.2 percent.

Kuwait’s premier market index dropped 0.7 percent, Bahrain’s index dropped 0.6 percent on Oman’s index fell 1.9 percent.

Currencies

The dollar was mainly unchanged early on Wednesday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was steady at 96.765 after edging up nearly 0.2 percent overnight.

Precious metals

Gold prices edged up on Wednesday.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent at $1,317.14 per ounce as of 0126 GMT, after registering its biggest one-day percentage decline since March 14 in the previous session.

U.S. gold futures were also up about 0.1 percent at $1,316.80 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

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