• Asian shares rebound tracking a rise on Wall Street
  • Dubai’s index jumps 1.1 percent
  • Oil prices regain some ground
  • Dollar strengthens, gold retreats

Global markets

Asian shares rebounded on Wednesday after a sell-off during the month, as a surge on Wall Street overnight boosted investor sentiment in Asian markets.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.75 percent, but it was still on track to fall roughly 11 percent this month. Wall Street’s three stock indexes jumped more than 1 percent on Tuesday.

“The recent slide in equities had gone to such an extent that it was bound to invite buyers, such as in the Japanese stock market,” Masahiro Ichikawa, senior strategist at Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management in Tokyo, told Reuters.

Middle East markets

Dubai’s index added 1.1 percent as a rise in banking and real estate shares lifted the index.

Emirates NBD’s shares rose 2.2 percent as the bank announced a net profit of 2.64 billion dirhams ($718.8 million) in Q3 2018, compared to 2.28 billion dirhams for the same period last year, representing a 15.8 percent increase.

Saudi Arabia’s index fell 0.2 percent as Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corp dropped 0.5 percent and shares in Arab National Bank slid 2.4 percent. Petrochemical firm National Industrialization Company (Tasnee) fell 3.2 percent.

Herfy Food Services outperformed the index, rising 6.4 percent and marking its biggest intra-day gain since Jan. 2016 after an increase in its third-quarter profit.

Abu Dhabi's index lost 0.3 percent, hurt by a 1.3 percent slide in First Abu Dhabi Bank and a 8.6 percent plunge in Gulf Pharmaceutical Industries.

Egypt’s index gained 0.6 percent, with Eastern Co adding 3.2 percent and Citadel Capital rising 5.8 percent.

Qatar’s index dropped 0.3 percent, Kuwait’s index edged up 0.2 percent while Oman’s index edged down 0.2 percent and Bahrain’s index also dropped 0.2 percent.

Oil prices

Oil prices surged on Wednesday after dropping in the previous session, but gains were limited by trade tensions between the United States and China.

Brent crude futures had gained 52 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $76.43 a barrel by 0310 GMT. They fell 1.8 percent on Tuesday, at one point touching their lowest since August 24 at$75.09 a barrel.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures advanced 29 cents, or 0.4 percent, to $66.47 a barrel on Wednesday. They dropped 1.3 percent the day before, after hitting their weakest since August 17 at $65.33 a barrel.

“There are two downward pressures on global oil demand growth. One is high oil prices, and in many countries they’re directly related to consumer prices. The second one is global economic growth momentum slowing down,” IEA chief Fatih Birol said on Tuesday at an energy conference in Singapore, according to a Reuters report.

Currencies

The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was trading at 16 month-highs.

The dollar strengthened to a three-week high versus the Japanese yen trade at 113.21, having gained 0.6 percent the previous day.

Precious metals

On Wednesday gold prices dropped on a strengthening dollar.

Spot gold was down 0.2 percent at $1,220.59 an ounce at 0108 GMT, having touched its lowest since October 18 at$1,219.37 in the previous session.

U.S. gold futures fell 0.3 percent to $1,222.20 anounce.

(Writing by Gerard Aoun; Editing by Mily Chakrabarty)

(gerard.aoun@thomsonreuters.com)

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