By Simeon Kerr The many daily flights between Dubai and Tehran are always busy. But these days the Iranians heading home after business and shopping trips are being joined by rising numbers of briefcase-toting western and Asian passengers. They are part of a new wave of foreign investors eager to investigate business opportunities in post-sanctions Iran, a potentially lucrative trade that Dubai, the commercial hub of the […]
Gold will extend declines this year as gains in equity markets reduce the need for haven assets and increased regulation hurts risk appetite, according to Morgan Stanley, which lowered its bullion forecasts. The 2014 target was cut 12 percent to $1,160 an ounce and the prediction for 2015 reduced 13 percent to $1,138, analysts Peter Richardson and Joel Crane wrote in a report today. Gold remains under […]
Dubai has initiated a series of bold new measures and incentives including fee waivers and reduced approval timeline for three and four star hotel projects to further stimulate the growth of its vibrant hospitality sector. His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, in his capacity as the Ruler of Dubai, on Monday pronounced a string of directives to this […]
Gulf Finance House EC (GFH) climbed to the highest in more than 22 months after the investment company said it signed an agreement with a group of British investors to sell 75 percent of its stake in Leeds United Plc. The shares gained 9.6 percent to 0.86 dirhams in Dubai, the highest close since March 2012. GFH will retain a 10 percent holding in the club after […]
Asian markets sprang higher on Tuesday as Japanese stocks rebounded and Chinese money rates eased, while the U.S. dollar got a fillip from a report the Federal Reserve would again trim its bond buying next week. A drop in the yen helped Tokyo’s Nikkei rally 1.5 percent and dragged up markets from Seoul to Singapore. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS swung round to […]
Dubai’s office spaces are witnessing an “uptick in activity” in the wake of the city’s winning Expo 2020 bid, with growing demand in Business Bay and Jebel Ali. According to Property Finder Group, job creation between 2013 and 2021 is estimated at over 277,000 and a number of major international corporates and start-ups are expected to establish their offices in Dubai in the years leading up to […]
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will court global business in Davos next week after winning an easing of some economic sanctions, but any trade bonanza depends on the long-term success of nuclear diplomacy. A U.S. stranglehold on Iran’s access to the international financial system, the uncertain future of talks on its nuclear program beyond a six-month initial deal, and vested interests in the Islamic Republic suspicious of Western […]
|By Asa Fitch| Iranian traders in Dubai are guardedly hopeful that business will rebound as sanctions relief begins to go into effect next week. The European Union and U.S. are set to give Iran access to some of its oil revenues abroad and allow for freer trade in energy products providing the Islamic Republic meets the terms of a six-month agreement stipulating monitoring of nuclear facilities and […]
Gold extended gains to a third session on Monday to hit its highest in a month after a surprisingly weak U.S. jobs report stoked expectations that the Federal Reserve could temper the pace of its stimulus wind-down. A weaker U.S. dollar also supported prices, although physical demand in China – the world’s biggest bullion consumer – dropped off due to the rally in prices. Spot gold was […]
By Abhinav Ramnarayan Debt capital markets bankers covering the Middle East say a bond issue by Dubai may be imminent as part of the emirate’s plan to refinance some of its existing debt. The emirate was one of the first issuers from the Gulf in 2013 with a dual tranche 10-year sukuk and 30-year conventional note, and may be one of the early issuers this year as […]
A deal between Iran and six major powers intended to pave the way to a solution to a long standoff over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions will come into force on January 20, the Iranian Foreign Ministry and the European Union said on Sunday. Shortly after the interim accord takes effect, an Iranian official added, Tehran and world powers will start negotiating a final settlement of their differences about […]
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index touched a four-month high as signs of improvement in the labor market support expectations the U.S. economy will be strong enough for the Federal Reserve to end bond purchases this year. The dollar remained higher versus most major peers before government data today forecast show initial claims for unemployment benefits fell. A report tomorrow may say U.S. employers continued to add positions […]
Asian shares fell to a near four-month low on Tuesday, though the dollar rebounded after overnight weakness on disappointing U.S. services sector data that raised concerns about stuttering growth in the world’s largest economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.3 percent, heading for a fifth straight day of losses. Japan’s Nikkei index shed 0.6 percent, adding to a 2.4 percent slide on Monday, […]
Nakheel PJSC’s plan to pay more than $1 billion of bank debt early may herald further gains for the Dubai real-estate developer’s Islamic bonds. Mashreq Capital DIFC Ltd. and Quantum Investment Bank Ltd. said Nakheel’s payments might help extend a rally that cut its sukuk yield by 215 basis points in the past 12 months to a record 6.58 percent Jan. 3, according to data compiled by […]
Dubai developer Nakheel plans to repay up to 4 billion dirhams ($1.1 billion) of bank debt due in 2015 this year, with around 2.35 billion dirhams earmarked for payment in the first quarter of this year, its chairman said on Saturday. Nakheel was taken over by the government as part of a $16 billion rescue plan completed in 2011, following the bursting of a real estate bubble […]
Dubai Group LLC, the investment company that has been seeking payment relief on loans for the past three years, repaid a $300 million syndicated facility led by Citigroup Inc., two people with knowledge of the matter said. Some of the lenders will exit talks on Dubai Group’s $6 billion debt pile, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The Islamic […]
India’s diversified equity mutual funds rose in 2013 but underperformed the broader markets for the first time in five years, as returns were dampened by the losses in the mid- and small-cap shares as well as financial companies. These funds gained 4.8 percent on average in 2013, according to data from fund tracker Lipper, delivering lesser annual returns than the benchmark BSE Sensex after 2008. The Sensex […]
The Bombay Bullion Association, a traders’ group, plans to buy a stake in the Multi Commodity Exchange of India Ltd. after the regulator declared its founder unfit to run the nation’s biggest commodity bourse. The association plans to buy 5 percent of MCX via a consortium led by the Universal Commodity Exchange Ltd., another Mumbai-based bourse, from Financial Technologies (India) Ltd., Mohit Kamboj, president of the group […]
Hedge funds got less bullish on gold for the seventh time in eight weeks as signs of accelerating U.S. economic and tame inflation growth drive prices to the worst annual drop in more than three decades. The net-long position in gold fell 12 percent to 28,702 futures and options in the week ended Dec. 24, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Short holdings gained 1.1 percent […]
Gold fell for the first time in five days, heading for its biggest annual loss in three decades as investor holdings extended their decline to the lowest since 2009. Silver retreated for the first time in more than a week. Bullion for immediate delivery slid as much as 0.5 percent to $1,206.81 an ounce and was at $1,207.69 by 2:23 p.m. in Singapore. Prices climbed to $1,219.28 […]
Dana Gas, the energy producer that restructured debt last year due to delayed payments, rose the most in eight years after it received $53 million from Egypt, stoking bets of better cashflow. The stock surged almost 15 percent, the most since December 2005, to 86 fils at the close in Abu Dhabi. More than 311 million shares were traded, almost nine times the three-month average daily volume. […]
The Index tower on Dubai’s answer to Wall Street has 23 floors of empty offices out of the 25 it opened in 2011. A few hundred feet away, buildings controlled by the Dubai International Financial Centre are almost full. The difference is ownership. The office space in the Index on Sheikh Zayed Road was sold in pieces to nine different investors under a system known as strata […]
After suffering steep declines in trade starting in 2012, seaborne transfer of goods between Iran and Dubai is picking up again, highlighting the U.A.E.’s delicate balancing act in maintaining important commercial ties and satisfying its Western allies. A combination of economic factors in Iran — attributed to tough international sanctions over its contested nuclear activities — resulted in a decrease in trade with the U.A.E. from $24 […]
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) could soon unveil a major change in monetary policy to explicitly make managing consumer inflation, rather than wholesale prices, its main objective. The shift would be a significant one in a country that’s long struggled to contain retail prices. It is expected as part of a deep review of monetary policy that RBI Raghuram Rajan ordered, after his September appointment, to […]
