PHOTO
- Asian shares drop sharply
- Saudi Arabia’s index rebounded on Monday
- Oil prices drop
- Dollar and gold add gains
Global markets
Asian shares dropped in early trading on Tuesday, tracking a retreat on Wall Street overnight.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 1.7 percent.
South Korea's KOSPI index dropped 2.2 percent with Samsung Electronics down 2.8 percent.
Overnight on Wall Street, major United States stock indexes skidded more than 1 percent, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq slumping over 2 percent.
Khoon Goh, Singapore-based head of Asia research for ANZ Banking Group, told Reuters that Concerns about a slowdown in China and the Asian region more broadly due to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods have spooked investors, sparking the largest monthly foreign outflows from Asia last month since August 2011.
Middle East markets
Saudi Arabia’s index rebounded on Monday as oil prices surged.
The Saudi index rose 0.8 percent, as Al-Rajhi Bank added 1.1 percent, while Samba Financial Group climbed 1.2 percent.
Dubai’s index dropped 0.5 percent as Emaar Properties shed 2.7 percent while DAMAC Properties lost 1.9 percent.
Abu Dhabi’s index fell 0.96 percent weighed down by the banking sector. Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank was 3.9 percent lower.
Qatar’s index edged up 0.2 percent. Qatar National Bank, the Middle East's largest lender, rose 1.5 percent.
Egypt's blue-chip index was up 0.8 percent, helped by a 5.4 percent rise in El Sewedy Electric and a 4.1 percent gain in Eastern Co.
Kuwait’s index edged 0.2 percent lower, Bahrain’s index retreated 0.3 percent and Oman’s index fell 0.5 percent.
Oil prices
Oil prices dropped on Tuesday after gaining in the previous session, as a sell-off in equities weighed on oil prices.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil futures were at $59.15 per barrel at 0214 GMT, down 78 cents, or 1.3 percent from their last settlement.
International benchmark Brent crude oil futures LCOc1 were at $69.47 per barrel, down 65 cents, or 0.9 percent, from their last close.
“Sky-high production in the U.S., coupled with incremental barrels coming from Saudi Arabia and Russia is starting to impact oil market balances. As such, crude oil inventories are starting to increase once again,” Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a note, according to a Reuters report.
Currencies
The dollar surged on Tuesday.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, traded at 97.60, close to its 16-month high of 97.69 hit on Monday.
“The dollar has broken out of a 17-month range on the back of safe-haven buying, led by falling equity prices as well as the heavy sell-offs in the euro and sterling,” Nick Twidale, chief operating officer at Rakuten Securities, told Reuters.
Precious metals
Gold prices gained on Tuesday, after a sell-off in equities.
Spot gold was up 0.2 percent at $1,202.99 per ounce at 0125 GMT, having touched their lowest since Oct. 11 at $1,199.72 earlier in the session.
U.S. gold futures were flat at $1,203.4 per ounce.
(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)
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