• Oil prices rose on higher Chinese demand
  • Stock markets closed mostly lower
  • UAE stocks traded higher on Thursday
  • Dollar drop, gold adds gains

Oil prices

Oil prices rose on Friday but overall declined for the week. Signs of surging demand in China, the world’s largest importer, boosted prices at the end of the week.

Brent crude futures rose 49 cents to settle at $79.78 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 47 cents to settle at $69.12 a barrel.

For the week, Brent fell 0.9 percent, while U.S. crude lost 3.1 percent. Both contracts have fallen around $7 a barrel below four-year highs reached in early October.

WTI’s discount to Brent widened to its most (maximum?) since June 8, hitting $11.00 a barrel.

Prices were also boosted as market participants took into consideration the United States sanctions on Iran that will start from November 4.

“OPEC and non-OPEC production increases have not quite equaled the loss in Iranian supply, giving the market concern about whether or not they will be able to fulfill the shortfall,” Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, told Reuters.

Global markets

Stock markets across the globe mostly dropped on Friday as concerns over economic growth in China and Europe weighed on stocks.

“There (are) a lot of cross-currents right now, with Italy, housing weakness, interest rates (rising) ...,” Michael Antonelli, managing director of institutional sales trading at Robert W. Baird in Milwaukee, told Reuters.

MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe shed 0.08 percent, and the pan-European 600 index lost 0.12 percent.

However, on Wall Street, strong earnings boosted shares.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 64.89 points, or 0.26 percent, to 25,444.34, the S&P 500 lost 1 point, or 0.04 percent, to 2,767.78 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 36.11 points, or 0.48 percent, to 7,449.03.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.13 percent higher.

Middle East markets

Dubai’s index added 0.6 percent as Damac Properties gained 3.6 percent and National Central Cooling (Tabreed) was up 2.4 percent. Neighbouring Abu Dhabi’s index also gained 0.6 percent.

Saudi Arabia’s index closed 0.1 percent lower. National Commercial Bank dropped 2.9 percent, while Saudi Basic Industries fell 0.8 percent. Saudi Telecom added 1.8 percent and Banque Saudi Fransi surged 3.0 percent.

Qatar’s index gained 0.4 percent with Doha Bank rising 1.8 percent. EFG Hermes raised its rating on the stock to 'neutral' from 'sell'.

Egypt’s index dropped 1.2 percent as Commercial International Bank lost 2.1 percent and investment bank EFG Hermes lost 4.1 percent.

Kuwait's index dropped 0.2 percent, Bahrain's index rose 0.8 percent and Oman's index edged 0.2 percent lower.

Currencies

The dollar index against a basket of six major currencies dropped 0.26 percent on Friday.

The Japanese yen weakened 0.28 percent versus the greenback at 112.50 per dollar.

Precious metals

Gold prices added gains on Friday as the dollar retreated and global stocks also dropped.

Spot gold was up 0.1 percent to $1,225.75 an ounce by 3:14 p.m. EDT (1914 GMT). U.S. gold futures settled down $1.4, or 0.11 percent, at $1,228.7.

(Writing by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@thomsonreuters.com)

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