Oil prices advance as Saudi to cut output

London: Oil prices advanced Monday after Saudi Arabia announced plans to cut output in the face of global oversupplies and demanded that other producers followed suit.
Higher crude lifted shares across the commodities sector, helping London's FTSE 100 index featuring the likes of BP and Shell, to rise slightly overall.
In the eurozone, the Frankfurt and Paris stock markets dropped, weighed down in part by lingering concerns over Italy's high debt and ahead of Tuesday's EU-deadline for Rome to revise its 2019 budget.
The euro struck a 17-month low at $1.1240 on Monday, hit also by Brexit clouds which weighed on the pound as well.
"Continued uncertainty over the pathway for Brexit is providing greater downside for sterling," noted Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG trading group.
"Meanwhile, a Saudi... output cut for December has helped boost ailing oil prices."
Oil prices have shed about one fifth of their value over the past month on oversupplies and signs of a softer-than-expected impact from US sanctions on Iranian crude exports.
In trading on Monday, benchmark oil contract Brent North Sea crude gained almost a dollar.
"In the short term this (output cut) is a positive for oil, but we must question the impact longer term unless it’s the sign of more to come from Opec," said Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.
"Saudi Arabia cannot act alone though — realistically it needs to pull together — allies, and critically Russia, to curb production if it wants prices to hold. The language from Russia suggests it is not ready to follow the Saudis yet."
Last week, higher US energy stockpiles drove WTI crude to its longest losing streak in more than 30 years, while Brent dropped below $70 a barrel for the first time since April.
Elsewhere on Monday, Shanghai stocks rebounded ahead of key Chinese economic releases due this week.