Stocks slid while oil prices shot up on Monday, after Russia bloodlessly seized a part of Ukraine, escalating tensions between Russia and the West to a level not seen since the end of the Cold War. U.S. stock futures fell 0.7 percent from a record high hit on Friday while Japan’s Nikkei average tumbled 1.3 percent. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.6 percent. […]
Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. (TAQA) and partners will pay $1.6 billion in cash and assumed debt to buy two hydroelectric power plants in India from Jaiprakash Power Ventures Ltd. (JPVL) in a deal expected to close this year. The state-controlled utility known as Taqa will manage and operate the facilities, it said in an e-mailed statement today. The assets have an enterprise value of $1.6 billion, […]
The new Savills World Cities Live-Work Index reveals that it now costs an average of just under $72,000-a-year per employee to rent residential and office space in Dubai, a thumping 41 per cent increase on a year ago, making the city the world’s seventh most expensive. However, the survey noted that this surge in rents came from ‘a relatively low base’ and that ‘the high costs in […]
The rupee is trading lower at 61.88/89 versus Friday’s close of 61.75/76. It fell to 61.95 in early trades. Global risk aversion on geopolitical tensions in Ukraine weighing on most Asian currencies. China manufacturing PMI hits a seven-month low, further hurting risk currency sentiment. India’s December GDP came in at a below expected 4.7 percent, data released after market hours on Friday showed. The Japanese yen rose […]
Gold gained more than 1 percent on Monday on escalating geopolitical tensions as Ukraine mobilised for war after Russia bloodlessly seized Crimea, an isolated Black Sea peninsula where Moscow has a naval base. The Group of Seven major industrialised nations condemned Russia’s intrusion into Ukraine and cancelled preparations for the G8 summit, that includes Russia, scheduled for Sochi in June, the White House said. Cash and U.S. […]
In a rude jolt to growing virtual currency frenzy in India, bitcoins worth hundreds of millions of rupees held by some Indians have vanished with collapse of Japan-based Mt Gox, which was the world’s largest bitcoin exchange so far. Having filed for bankruptcy, Mt Gox has admitted to have lost 7.5 million bitcoins of its customers and 100,000 of its own, which together are estimated to be […]
|By Ole Sloth Hansen |February was a strong month for commodities, with the broad-based DJ-UBS Commodity index returning more than 5 percent. This was more than the S&P 500 Index, which reached even a new record high thereby moving in the opposite direction of bond yields and the macro data. Some of the major themes and factors behind this performance were: • Adverse weather in Brazil and […]
Siemens has been awarded a contract valued at QAR 920 million ($253 million) by the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (KAHRAMAA) for the further expansion of Qatar’s power supply system. The contract includes the construction of nine turnkey substations for Phase 11 of KAHRAMAA’s Qatar Power Transmission System Expansion project. The utility provider’s expansion project aims to ensure stable power supply to all sectors including households, […]
Dubai is considering listing some of its largest and most valuable state-controlled companies such as the Emirates airline in a move that could raise billions of pounds in revenue. Mohammed al-Shaibani, Dubai’s finance chief, revealed that some of the state-owned companies could also be partially floated on the London Stock Exchange and signalled that the emirate views the UK as a strategic location for future investment. “We […]
Qatar Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker said the airline’s expansion into India will depend on whether the government will further open the nation’s skies after elections due by May. In January, India’s aviation ministry lifted a ban on Airbus Group NV (AIR)’s A380 from entering the country and allowed airlines to fly the double-decker planes to four airports, including New Delhi and Mumbai. Authorities […]
China’s credit-market gauges are triggering alarm bells, as banks grow cautious in lending to each other while investors prefer the safest government bonds. The spread between the two-year sovereign yield and the similar-maturity interest-rate swap, a gauge of financial stress, reached 121 basis points on Feb. 19, the widest in Bloomberg data going back to 2007. Two days later, the cost to lock in the three-month Shanghai […]
Middle East fund managers remain bullish on most of the region’s major equity markets, but some are shifting money from the United Arab Emirates to less richly valued markets, a Reuters survey shows. The survey of 15 leading investment managers, conducted over the past 10 days, found 53 percent – a four-month high – expected to raise their equity allocations to the Middle East over the next […]
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress called for immediate sanctions against Russia and an emergency aid package for Ukraine as the crisis in eastern Europe escalated Saturday. The day after President Obama said Russia would face “costs” for intervening in Ukraine, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the president needs to articulate what those costs are — and immediately impose them. “None of us should be under any illusion […]
|By TAP Staff|UAE’s leading home-grown building materials company Danube Buildmart has rebranded itself as Danube Home and announced former Miss India and Bollywood actress Juhi Chawla as the new brand ambassador. The company also unveiled a new logo and announced the addition of soft furnishing to its portfolio of products. Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rizwan Sajan said that in much the same manner that Juhi has […]
The countdown is over — Google has launched its Launcher. It’s been anticipated for some time and, on Wednesday, the Google Now Launcher became available on the Play Store. Initially, the launcher was released for the Nexus 5 last year with promises at the time that the launcher would become available for other devices. Really, it’s just an Android application package that links the device’s operating system […]
Saudi Arabia and India have formed a new joint venture to build a rice distribution hub in Dubai to link Indian production to consumers in Middle East, Arab News reported. Prince Mishaal bin Abdullah bin Turki and global private investor V Raman Kumar have formed the joint venture with India’s rice producer, LEAF India (Lakshmi Energy and Foods), to create West Asia and North Africa region’s largest […]
Citigroup Inc said on Friday that it has discovered at least $400 million in fraudulent loans in its Mexico subsidiary and said employees may have been in on the crime. The bank wrote down bogus loans to a company whose assets Mexican law enforcement officials have now seized. Citigroup’s 2013 profit fell by $235 million to $13.67 billion after the write-down. Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Michael Corbat […]
The London gold fix, the benchmark used by miners, jewelers and central banks to value the metal, may have been manipulated for a decade by the banks setting it, researchers say. Unusual trading patterns around 3 p.m. in London, when the so-called afternoon fix is set on a private conference call between five of the biggest gold dealers, are a sign of collusive behavior and should be […]
A last official link between the Gulf’s colonial era and its commercially dynamic present, Bill Duff devoted his life to Dubai and played a bigger part than any other westerner in the early transformation of the emirate from obscure outpost into global hub. Duff, who has died aged 91, arrived as an economic adviser in 1959 in what were called the Trucial states. His mission came at […]
Among the hundreds of soft drinks and beverages that were displayed at the Gulfood 2014, a unique cola brand attracted visitors. Dubai Cola is a carbonated soft drink mixed with pure Arabian dates and honey. “It is a revolution in the world of soft drinks,” claims the producer, who is expanding into other markets. It is now available in the UAE at various Emarat petrol stations and […]
Increase in number of seats in flights between India and Dubai will allow for multiple choice of travel and cheap connections for Indian passengers, sectoral experts said. “Enhancement of seat quotas with Dubai is a good thing for both countries. It will help enhance supply of seats, increase competition and help bring down fares,” said Amber Dubey, partner and India head of aerospace and defense at global […]
The path toward U.S. energy independence, made possible by a boom in shale oil, will be much harder than it seems. Just a few of the roadblocks: Independent producers will spend $1.50 drilling this year for every dollar they get back. Shale output drops faster than production from conventional methods. It will take 2,500 new wells a year just to sustain output of 1 million barrels a […]
China’s yuan surpassed the Swiss franc to become the seventh most-used world payments currency in January, global transaction services organization SWIFT said on Thursday. With a market share of 1.39 percent, the yuan remained one of the top 10 most-used currencies for payments worldwide for the third consecutive month. It ranked eighth in December. Yuan payments increased by 30.6 percent while the growth for all payment currencies […]
|TAP Special| Dubai should reorient its economic focus by shifting away from property and concentrate on advanced industries, a report by the Department of Finance proposed. Within the real estate sector itself, the emphasis should be changed from residential to commercial, it further said. The paper says Dubai has learned lessons from the global financial crisis, including the importance of budget discipline and the need to regulate […]
