The euro slipped on Monday after German Chancellor Angela Merkel won a fourth term but faced a fractured parliament as support for the far-right surged, while Asian shares pulled back, weighed by concerns about China’s economy.The euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.1930, putting more distance between a 2-1/2-year high of $1.2092 reached on September 8, when a European Central Bank policy meeting left currency bulls optimistic the ECB would begin tapering its big stimulus programme.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan handed back earlier modest gains and was last down 0.35 percent with losses across the regions weighing.

In the Middle East, shares of Abu Dhabi-listed Dana Gas fell sharply on Sunday after news that a London court hearing on its maturing sukuk issue would resume.Escalating tensions between North Korea and the United States weighed on Gulf markets in general, dragging the Abu Dhabi index 0.3 percent lower.

The Dubai index fell 0.9 percent as 27 shares declined including Emaar Properties, which lost 1.6 percent. Only seven stocks rose.

The Saudi Arabian and Omani stock markets were closed for public holidays on Sunday.

In commodities, oil prices stood little changed on Monday, keeping most of their gains from the previous session to hold near their highest levels in months, as major producers meeting in Vienna said the market was well on its way towards rebalancing.London Brent crude for November delivery was down 3 cents at $56.83 a barrel by 0304 GMT, near the highest since March. U.S. crude for November delivery was down 8 cents at $50.58, having risen 0.2 percent on Friday.

Gold prices dropped on Monday, and hovered around one-month lows hit last week, weighed down by a firm U.S. dollar.

In other news, Oman's state budget deficit for the first seven months of 2017 was 2.59 billion rials ($6.7 billion) compared with 4.02 billion rials a year earlier, Finance Ministry data showed.

Egyptian prosecutors on Sunday said they had approved a decision to sieve a Romanian wheat shipment which had been rejected by the agriculture quarantine authority for containing poppy seeds.

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