Major stock markets in the Gulf rose sharply on Sunday a day after OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers agreed to extend record oil production cuts until the end of July, stretching an agreement that has helped crude prices double in the past two months.
OPEC and other producers led by Russia, a grouping known as OPEC+, demanded countries such as Nigeria and Iraq, which exceeded production quotas in May and June, compensate with extra cuts from July to September.
OPEC+ previously had planned to cut supply by 9.7 million barrels per day (bpd) in May and June and then taper that to 7.7 million bpd from July to December.
The benchmark index of Saudi Arabia, OPEC's de facto leader, was up 0.9% in early trade, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 1% and oil behemoth Saudi Aramco was up 0.8%.
It was not clear whether Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait would extend beyond June their additional, voluntary cuts of 1.18 million bpd, which are not part of the deal.
In Dubai, the index rose 2.3%, led by a 5.4% rise in sharia-compliant lender Dubai Islamic Bank and a 3.1% gain in Emaar Properties.
The Abu Dhabi index gained 1.3%, buoyed by a 2.4% increase in top lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.
The Qatari index climbed 1.4%, with most of the constituents of the index in positive territory. Qatar Islamic Bank rose 2.5% and petrochemicals maker Industries Qatar was up 2.9%.
(Reporting by Ateeq Shariff in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely) ((AteeqUr.Shariff@thomsonreuters.com; +918061822788;))
