Bahrain's Interior Ministry said it is banning citizens from traveling to Iran and Iraq due to current security tensions.

The head of the IEA's oil division said that of a roughly 400 mln-barrel release plan about half has already entered the market and the remainder will be released later.

China A-share indices rebounded from early lows; Shanghai Composite briefly fell 0.6% before recovering. At midday the Shanghai Composite was down 0.04%, the Shenzhen Composite up 0.96% and ChiNext up 2.15%. Electronic components stocks rallied: Shengye Electric hit limit-up, Dali Kaipu and Zhongjing Electronics also reached daily limits; Fenghua Hi-Tech, Dongshan Precision, Pengding Holdings, Baoding Technology and Huidian were among top gainers. The CPO sector, after an initial drop, quickly rallied with Hengtong Optical-Electric and Yihua shares at limit-up and Alaide, Yuanjie Technology and Guangku Technology rising over 10%. AIPC names opened higher and extended gains: Leishen Technology surged over 20%, Yingli shares rose more than 10%, Chunqiu Electronics hit limit-up, while Huiwei Intelligent, Xinhai Technology and iSoftStone were strong performers.