• Asian shares extend gains following last week’s jump in global markets
  • Abu Dhabi and Egypt’s indices outperform the region
  • Oil prices rise on tightening supply
  • Dollar steadies, gold holds near one-week lows

Global markets

Asian shares rose again on Tuesday, tracking a rise on Wall Street overnight, and extending gains from a jump in global markets last week.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.4 percent and hovered near its four-month high marked on Friday. MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe reached a two-month high.

Overnight on Wall Street, the S&P 500 gained, with technology and industrials the biggest winners as investors braced for another big week of fourth-quarter corporate earnings reports.

Data from the United States was helping markets, as U.S. job growth surged in January, with employers hiring the most workers in 11 months, the Labor Department said.

Hiroshi Nakamura, senior manager of investment planning at Mitsui Life Insurance, told Reuters that financial markets’ positive reaction to the U.S. data is diminishing with time, but hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal “will continue to support markets until the two sides come to formal decisions”.

Middle East markets

Abu Dhabi’s index added 1 percent as First Abu Dhabi Bank jumped 2.3 percent to 15.34 dirhams. The bank had last week proposed an increase in its foreign ownership limit to 40 percent from 25 percent.

In Dubai, the index fell 0.4 percent on a drop in property stocks. Emaar Properties shed 1.7 percent while its units Emaar Malls and Emaar Development were down 2.7 percent and 2 percent respectively. Damac Properties dropped 2.3 percent.

Saudi Arabia's main index shed 0.1 percent, also weighed down by its real estate stocks with property developer Jabal Omar Development dropping 1.6 percent and Saudi Real Estate Co decreased 1.6 percent.

Qatar's index rose 0.4 percent as Qatar Gas Transport (Nakilat) surged 4.6 percent.

Egypt's blue-chip index rose 0.9 percent, boosted by a 3.1 percent gain in the country's biggest lender Commercial International Bank.

Oil prices

Oil prices rose early on Tuesday on tightening supply.

Prices surged on Friday as General Electric Co’s Baker Hughes energy services firm reported that United States’ energy firms cut the number of operating oil rigs for a fourth week in the past five, bringing the count to the lowest in eight months.

Sanctions imposed by the United States on Venezuelan exports to the U.S. as well as a list of oil production cuts issued by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) have been supporting prices this year.

International Brent crude oil futures were at $62.72 a barrel, also up 21 cents or 0.4 percent, after closing down 0.4 percent in the previous session.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were at $54.77 per barrel at 0223 GMT, up 21 cents or 0.4 percent.

Analysts told Reuters that U.S. sanctions on Venezuela had focused market attention on tighter global supplies.

“Fresh U.S. sanctions on the country could see 0.5-1 percent of global supply curtailed,” Vivek Dhar, mining and energy analyst, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, told Reuters.

Currencies

The dollar steadied against its peers on Tuesday.

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was barely changed at 95.824.

Precious metals

Gold prices held near one-week lows on Tuesday.

Spot gold was steady at $1,313.95 per ounce at 0349 GMT. Prices in the last session fell to their lowest since Jan. 29 at $1,308.20.

U.S. gold futures dipped 0.1 percent to $1,318.40 an ounce.

(Reporting by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@refinitiv.com)


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