Mid-East shares move lower, Russian oil output holds near record levels

Stocks across the Middle East traded lower on Sunday, following remarks from Saudi Arabia´s deputy crown prince that appeared to cast doubt on the likelihood that the world´s major oil producers would agree to freeze output when they met in Doha.

Saudi Arabia´s Tadawul All Share Index lost -1.56%, closing at 6,126.12 in Sunday trading, a five-week low.

Qatar´s QE Index was 1.20% lower at 10,251.97 and the Kuwait Stock Exchange´s weighted index another 1.07% to 355.97.

The losses came after West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures retreated by $1.35 on Friday after Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg his country would only freeze its output of crude oil if other major producers, specifically including Iran, did the same.

To take note of, in March Russian crude oil production reached its highest mark since the fall of the Soviet Union according to the country´s Energy Ministry´s CDU-TEK unit, Bloomberg also reported.

Output reached 10.912m barrels a day in January, edging slightly past the 10.91m hit in January.

Russian oil exports increased by 5.1% in March to reach 5.59m in comparison to where they stood one year ago.