Shares in the energy-dependent Gulf plunged to multi-year lows Sunday after OPEC’s failure to agree on a coronavirus action plan prompted fears of an all-out oil price war.

OPEC and its allies failed to clinch a deal on production cuts that would have offered support to energy markets, sending prices tumbling to four-year lows on Friday.

The OPEC+ meeting was expected to agree to deeper cuts of 1.5 million barrels per day to counter the effects of the novel coronavirus, but Moscow refused to tighten supply.

Fears of a price war were stoked as Saudi Arabia — the world’s top exporter — quickly responded by making significant cuts to its oil price.

All the seven bourses in the Gulf were in the red amid a panic sell-off over fears that energy prices, the mainstay of public revenues in the region, could collapse.

The Saudi stock market, the largest in the region, dived by 8.3 per cent at close on Sunday, the first day of the trading week. It was the lowest closing since November 2017.

Shares in oil giant Saudi Aramco dropped below their IPO price of 32 riyals ($8.5) for the first time, losing some 9.1 per cent to 30.00 riyals.

The world’s biggest company launched on the bourse to much fanfare in December in a record-breaking initial public offering, but since then its market value has slipped from the IPO value of $1.71 trillion to $1.6 trillion.

The slide on the Saudi market also came amid accounts of high level arrests among the ruling family that sent shockwaves around economic circles in the region.

Multiple sources told AFP that Saudi authorities have detained three princes, including King Salman’s brother and nephew, for allegedly plotting a coup, in a move that signals Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s tightening grip on power.

The Dubai Financial Market shed 7.9 per cent to its worst closing in six years, while its sister market in Abu Dhabi fell 5.4 per cent and Qatar Stock Exchange dropped 2.9 per cent, the lowest since mid-2018.