12 December 2016

 Oil prices rose by 4 percent to their highest level since 2015 early on Monday after OPEC and other producers over the weekend reached their first deal since 2001 to jointly reduce output in order to rein in oversupply and prop up the market.

Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil prices, soared to $57.89 per barrel in overnight trading between Sunday and Monday, the highest level since July 2015.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was broadly flat after posting its biggest weekly rise in nearly three months last week.

Despite the bounce in some Asian stocks, broad investor sentiment remained cautious.

Stock markets in Saudi Arabia and Qatar posted broad-based gains on Sunday after OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers a day earlier reached their first deal since 2001.

Gold prices edged lower on Monday amid a broad rise in risk appetite with spot gold hitting its lowest since February 5 at $1,153.93 an ounce and was down 0.3 percent.

The dollar inched lower on Monday but didn't stray far from recent highs ahead of a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting.

In the latest news, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan convened a security meeting of government ministers and senior bureaucrats on Sunday, presidential sources said, a day after a twin bombing in Istanbul killed more than 30 people.

Italian President Sergio Mattarella asked Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni on Sunday to try to form a new government, giving him a mandate to lead Italy out of a political crisis.

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