Stocks in Mideast Plunge as Producers Head Toward Oil-Price War

Stocks in the Middle East nosedived as the world’s biggest crude producers failed to agree on production cuts, kicking off a price war and sending oil into freefall.

The main benchmarks in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Kuwait declined between 5.3% and 6.4% within the first half hour of trading on Sunday, with banking shares losing the most.

Emirates NBD PJSC, Dubai’s biggest lender, fell as much as 9.6%, while First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC and National Bank of Kuwait SAKP dropped as much as 8.5% and 8.2%, respectively.

Oil prices plunged the most since 2008 on Friday on signs of a breakdown in the global producer alliance that helped engineer crude’s recovery from the worst crash in a generation.

The three equity indexes extend a retreat triggered by this year’s spread of the coronavirus, accumulating losses for the year of more than 13%.

Read more:

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• Global Oil Producers Face Brutal Reckoning After Epic OPEC+ Fail
• Aramco Slashes Crude Pricing, Starting Oil War as OPEC Flops
• Putin Dumps MBS to Start a War on America’s Shale Oil Industry

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