• Oil gains on API report
  • Asian shares add gains
  • Tadawul drops 1.1 percent
  • Dollar steadies, gold prices rise

Oil prices

Oil prices rose on Wednesday after data from the American Petroleum Institute (API) released overnight showed that United States’ crude and gasoline stocks fell last week, while distillate stocks built.

Brent crude futures LCOc1 rose 43 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $62.81 a barrel by 0053 GMT.

WTI futures were up 47 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $57.87 a barrel.

The API numbers showed crude inventories fell by 7.2 million barrels in the week ended Sept. 6 to 421.9 million, compared with analysts’ expectations of a decrease of 2.7 million barrels.

Global markets

Asian shares rose early on Wednesday as hopes of easing U.S.-China trade tensions boosted investor sentiment.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.4 percent.

On Wall Street, the S&P 500 ended little changed as a rally in energy and industrial shares countered a drop in the technology and real-estate sectors with investors favouring value over growth, a Reuters report said.

“The sudden jump in value-oriented shares in the U.S. and elsewhere has all the hallmarks of position unwinding by major hedge funds,” Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities, told Reuters.

“Such unwinding could continue for a few days but will likely end by the Fed’s policy meeting.”

Middle East markets

Saudi Arabia’s index fell 1.1 percent on Tuesday. Al Rajhi Bank retreated 2 percent and petrochemical maker Saudi Basic Industries shed 2.8 percent.

In Dubai, the index rose 0.4 percent, with its largest listed developer Emaar Properties gaining 0.6 percent.

The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.4 percent with Aldar properties adding 1.8 percent.

Qatar's index traded 0.7 percent higher as Qatar National Bank added 1.2 percent.

Egypt’s blue-chip index EGX30 gained 0.5 percent, Kuwait’s premier market index edged up 0.1 percent while Oman’s index gained 0.3 percent and Bahrain’s index was closed for a public holiday.

Currencies

The dollar was mainly unchanged early on Wednesday.

The dollar index .DXY, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, steadied.

Precious metals

Gold prices edged higher on Wednesday.

Spot gold was up 0.4 percent at $1,491.60 per ounce, as of 0120 GMT.

U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,499.3 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. The content does not provide tax, legal or investment advice or opinion regarding the suitability, value or profitability of any particular security, portfolio or investment strategy. Read our full disclaimer policy here

© ZAWYA 2019