Higher crude prices won't give Big Oil its swagger back: Although the recent recovery of Brent crude prices is helping the world’s top oil and gas producers compensate for their 2020 losses, Big Oil is unlikely to reap benefits. After taking on debt last year to keep up with the financial strain of maintaining dividend payouts in 2020, oil majors such as ExxonMobil and Total are now directing surplus revenues to pay down their pandemic-induced debts, Bloomberg reports. Major oil companies now “have limited appeal as long-term investments because they can’t demonstrate that they can deliver cashflow on a sustainable basis and return it on a sustainable basis,” JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s head of EMEA oil and gas Christyan Malek tells the business information service.

MARKET WATCH- Western economies are poised for a consumer-led rebound from covid as vaccinations gradually restore normalcy, says the Wall Street Journal. Vaccinated people could return with force to shops and hotels, releasing savings they had amassed during the pandemic — which Moody’s Analytics estimates exceeds USD 5.4 tn worldwide.

The EGX30 ended today’s session flat on turnover of EGP 892 mn (31.5% below the 90-day average). Regional investors were net buyers. The index is down 2.2% YTD.

In the green: Orascom Development (+4.1%), Qalaa Holdings (+3.0%) and SODIC (+2.6%).

In the red: AMOC (-1.3%), MM Group (-1.1%) and Fawry (-0.9%).

Asian markets are in the green in early trading this morning. European shares look set to fall when markets open in the coming hours, while futures show US stocks opening in the green later today.