Major stock markets in the Middle East closed higher on Sunday, tracking Friday's rally in global equities as investors welcomed talk of renewed diplomacy after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, while strong corporate earnings added a further boost to Saudi shares.
EU countries agreed to freeze European assets of Russia President Vladimir Putin and his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and the White House announced plans for U.S. sanctions.
Saudi Arabia's benchmark index (.TASI) rose as much as 2.2% during the day before closing at about 1%.
Sahara International Petrochemical Company and Saudi Arabian Mining (Ma'aden)(1211.SE) supported the Saudi index most, rising 6.7% and 4.7% respectively after they reported robust profits for the last year.
Ma'aden also announced an issue of one bonus share for each share, taking share capital of the miner to 24.61 billion riyals ($6.56 billion).
Egyptian blue-chip index (.EGX30) surged 2.6% after three consecutive days of declines as all but one index closed in green.
The country's largest lender Commercial International Bank Egypt (COMI.CA) and Cleopatra Hospitals (CLHO.CA) were the biggest boost to the index, adding 3% and 11.4%, respectively.
Egypt, often the world's top wheat importer, is working on a plan to buy wheat from other regions rather than Russia and Ukraine. Around 50% and 30% of Egypt's wheat imports in 2021 were from those two countries respectively.
The Qatari index was up 0.2% as Qatar Gas Transport (QGTS.QA) gained 2.2% and Qatar National Bank (QNBK.QA) lost 1.2%.
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