Fuel rationing could be coming to Europe — and that’s before it goes cold turkey from Russian gas: Europe faces a “systemic” shortage of diesel due to sanctions on Russia that could force governments to ration fuel, three of the world’s largest energy traders have warned, according to the Financial Times. The heads of Vitol, Gunvor and Trafigura said that western sanctions on Moscow could remove as much as 3 mn barrels of oil and petroleum products from the market, producing a global supply crunch and potentially necessitating drastic measures in Europe, which imports half of its diesel from Russia.

Saudi Arabia’s Nahdi, the country’s biggest retail pharma chain, surged in its trading debut after raising almost USD 1.4 bn in the country’s biggest IPO since oil giant Aramco, Bloomberg reported. Shares surged 21% to an intraday high of SAR 158.40, up from their SAR 131 IPO price, before settling 14% higher at SAR 150. The IPO comes as equities in the oil producer outperform other emerging markets, which are seeing heavy outflows due to the Ukraine crisis.

The neverending debacle that is Evergrande: Lenders to Evergrande Property Services — China Evergrande’s property services unit — have claimed c.USD 2.1 bn in cash, according to a filing (pdf) to the Hong Kong stock exchange by the unit. The move is set to reduce the value of the failing developer’s bonds even further, says the Financial Times. The deposits had been pledged as security for lenders, the developer wrote in the filing, adding that it is now investigating the incident and “assessing its implications.” The developer’s bonds had already been trading at a fraction of their USD 20 bn initial face value following its default last year. The exchange halted trading in the developer and its subsidiaries following the news.

THE CLOSING BELL-

The EGX30 rose 1.3% at yesterday’s close on turnover of EGP 2.0 bn (52.5% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is down 2.4% YTD.

In the green: Fawry (+5.4%), ADIB Egypt (+4.5%) and CIB (+3.1%).

In the red: Orascom Development Egypt (-7.5%), CIRA (-4.2%) and GB Auto (-3.1%).

It’s green as far as the eye can see this morning: Asian markets are comfortably in positive territory this morning and futures suggest all major European and North American indexes will follow suit at the opening bell.