Asian stocks climbed, Australia’s dollar strengthened to its highest in a month and commodities rallied after Chinese trade data exceeded estimates. European equity futures increased while the U.S. currency weakened and gold halted a five-day gain. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 1.1 percent as of 4:12 p.m. in Tokyo as a measure of Chinese shares in Hong Kong headed toward the biggest two-day gain since November. […]
The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly approved a one-year extension of federal borrowing authority on Tuesday after Republicans caved into President Barack Obama’s demands to allow a debt limit increase without any conditions. The 221-201 vote, carried mainly by Democrats, marked a dramatic shift from the confrontational fiscal tactics House Republicans have used over the past three years, culminating in last October’s 16-day government shutdown. It came […]
Devender Ojha was a student in high school when he created a comic strip about a headmaster who used to turn up to class drunk. The teenager made copies of his work and displayed them in his village in Uttarakhand. It wasn’t long before it got noticed. “After that, that headmaster was sacked from the school and new headmaster came there,” said Ojha, who is now 24 […]
Oman Telecommunications (Omantel) reported a 2.6 percent rise in annual profit on Wednesday. The former monopoly made a net profit of 119.3 million rials ($309.87 million) in 2013, up from 116.2 million rials in 2012, the company said in a statement. Omantel made a fourth-quarter profit of 29.7 million rials, up from 26.2 million rials in the same period of 2012, Reuters calculated, based on the company’s […]
Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE), the largest aircraft leasing firm in the Middle East, has ordered 20 turboprop commercial aircraft with an option for another 20 planes from French-Italian manufacturer ATR, the company said on Wednesday. DAE put the value of the purchase at $988 million. “We aim to diversify our portfolio and expand into regional aircraft, to meet an increasing demand from airlines that are developing regional […]
Nissan announced sales for NV350 Urvan in the GCC region have reached 5063 units exactly one year after its launch. The model has also achieved a record segment share of 26.3% in the 3rd Quarter of the 2013 fiscal year (October – December). The result reflects sales growth of more than 50% between February and December last year compared to the same period in 2012. Nissan NV350 […]
Research from PwC predicts that global assets under management (AuM) will rise to around $101.7 trillion by 2020, from a 2012 total of $63.9 trillion. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 6%. The report, Asset Management 2020: A brave new world, also finds that assets under management in the SAAAME (South America, Asia, Africa, Middle East) economies are set to grow faster than […]
Aldar Properties will look to refinance 7.9 billion dirhams ($2.2 billion) worth of debt this year, and is open to bank loans as well as bonds, the chief financial officer of the Abu Dhabi property firm said on Wednesday. “You could see us (doing) normal refinancing – banks or bonds – because of our strong credit ratings. We will also manage debts with government receivables, existing cash […]
Oven-hot pizza delivered to your home by drone! Sounds like fantasy? Well, this could become a reality in Dubai and elsewhere in the UAE if tests currently under way succeed. The technology is almost there. The only limiting factor is the cost. Obviously a pizza costing AED55 with a delivery cost of AED550 wouldn’t make sense. But the people behind the idea say the cost will over […]
|By Cushla Sherlock| As the global economy continues its recovery, Credit Suisse’s top investment ideas focus on carefully selected themes which aim to help you generate more bang for your buck in 2014 – from China to cash-rich companies. In this video, Giles Keating, Head of Private Banking Research, explains the rationale behind the ideas and the investment implications. Idea 1: Europe’s Recovery Rationale: Europe’s recovery is slowly […]
Google Inc., the company that leads Internet search, has gained a new superlative: top dealmaker. From buying a digital-thermostat developer to selling a mobile-phone business, Google has executed more deals than any company in the world over the past three years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg through January, up from 13th place in the three years prior. Advertising-firm WPP Plc was second, followed by chipmaker Intel […]
Dubai’s bourse rose further on Tuesday after a choppy session as it tried to break free of the 4,000-point psychological resistance level, while other regional markets were narrowly mixed because of a lack of fresh catalysts. The Dubai index climbed 1.0 percent to a fresh five-year closing high of 4,065 points after rebounding from an intra-day loss of roughly 1 percent – a sign that buyers remain […]
Janet Yellen, fresh from taking the helm of the Federal Reserve, made it clear on Tuesday she would not make any abrupt changes to U.S. monetary policy, saying the central bank was on track to keep reducing its stimulus even though the labor market recovery was far from complete. In her first public comments since becoming Fed chief earlier this month, Yellen said the central bank must […]
The Bitcoin Foundation said the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange in Tokyo is to blame for technical faults that prevented customer withdrawals of the virtual currency that lost as much as 21 percent of its value today. “The issues that Mt. Gox has been experiencing are due to an unfortunate interaction between Mt. Gox’s implementation of their highly customized wallet software, their customer support procedures and their unpreparedness,” […]
|By K Raveendran| Indians across the world celebrated the elevation of Satya Nadella as the new CEO of Microsoft. Dubai, with its compulsive spirit of celebration, was no exception. The talking point at the week-end parties in Emirates Hills and Arabian Ranches was none other than the Hyderabad techie, who, by virtue of his new role at the most admired company in the world, becomes the latest […]
The Bayt.com ‘Millennials in the MENA’ survey, recently conducted by Bayt.com and YouGov Siraj, a research and consulting organization, has revealed that in the UAE, millennials (working professionals 35 years of age or below) are considered to be innovative and hardworking by older peers, and that the majority of them (71%) consider entrepreneurship more preferable than employment. Millennial Careers in the UAE: Current and Future Four in […]
Gold rallied to the highest level since November as investors assessed further cuts to U.S. stimulus and Chinese buyers increased purchases to extend last year’s record consumption. Silver, platinum and palladium rose. Bullion for immediate delivery gained as much as 1 percent to $1,287.81 an ounce, the highest price since Nov. 18, and was at $1,283.85 by 3:01 p.m. in Singapore. A fifth day of advance would […]
A subsidiary of Dubai-based contractor Drake and Scull has won a 375 million dirham ($102.10 million) contract from local developer Nakheel , Drake and Scull said on Tuesay. The contract is related to a development at Nakheel’s Palm Jumeirah, a palm-shaped group of artificial islands just off Dubai’s coast, the firm said in a bourse statement. The firm identified the subsidary that won the contract as the […]
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Tuesday he has asked for legal cases to be filed against Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani and policymakers over pricing of gas produced from the D6 block in the east coast. “Today we have instructed the anti-corruption branch to file a criminal case against Murli Deora, FIRs against Veerappa Moily, V.K. Sibal, the (then) director general of hydrocarbons, Reliance Industries […]
Dubai house prices are only 15 percent short of their 2008 peak and will return to those pre-crisis highs within 18 months, consultant Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) said on Monday. The emirate outpaced all major property markets last year, with prices climbing more than 22 percent as billions of dollars of government real estate projects triggered a buying binge among investors. The fast growth, however, has raised […]
Dubai’s Emirates flagship airline plans to ground 19 or 20 planes from May because of runway construction work at Dubai International Airport, the airline’s president Tim Clark said on Monday. That number of planes represents roughly 10 percent of the airline’s fleet of about 200 planes. The work is expected to be finished by July 20, Clark told reporters. “It’ll have an impact on the revenue. We […]
JP Morgan has cut its correspondent banking relationship with Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank, as part of a global review of its business, sources familiar with the matter said. In a memo to staff last year, the U.S. bank said it would scale back its relationships with foreign banks in order to comply with regulatory pressure to tighten risk controls. As part of this process, the bank […]
The health of the U.S. economy and the extraordinary and controversial measures the Federal Reserve has taken to support it will top the agenda on Tuesday when Janet Yellen testifies to lawmakers for the first time as head of the Federal Reserve. Yellen, in just her second week on the job since succeeding Ben Bernanke earlier this month, will want to reinforce the central bank’s determination to […]
The price of the digital currency bitcoin slid to its lowest level in nearly two months on Monday after bitcoin digital marketplace Mt. Gox said a halt on withdrawals it announced on Friday would continue indefinitely after it detected “unusual activity.” The bitcoin price varied dramatically from one exchange to another, with Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, the best known operator of a bitcoin digital marketplace, recording one of […]
