Gold and silver slumped to the lowest since 2010 as the dollar strengthened after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases this week. The Fed is weighing the timing of interest-rate increases as other central banks add to stimulus to bolster their economies. The Bank of Japan today raised its annual target for enlarging the monetary base to 80 trillion […]
|By TAP Staff| Nigerian property investors account for 60 percent of hotel apartment purchases in the Dubai hospitality market, according to a Nigerian newspaper. During the property market boom which suffered a crash in the world economic recession of late 2008 to 2010, Nigerian investors accounted for well over 40 percent of Dubai’s residential market, such that a significant number of houses on Palm Jumaireh—one of Dubai’s exclusive […]
SINGAPORE: India’s state-owned Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd aims to double its refining margins once it completes the expansion and upgrade of its Kochi refinery in southern India to process high sulphur crudes by 2016, a senior company official said. The refiner’s margins dropped to $3 a barrel this year, from $4.50 to $5 a barrel last year, but levels will increase by a about $3 to […]
NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh Ltd, the overseas arm of state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, on Tuesday signed an agreement to pick an up to 50 per cent stake in PetroVietnam’s two exploration blocks in the South China Sea. OVL will take a 40 per cent stake in Block 102/10 and 50 per cent in 106/10 that lie outside the sea territory claimed by China. PetroVietnam, […]
AP It’s not just Wall Street banks such as Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that got it wrong. Energy consultants and even the U.S. government didn’t foresee the sharp slide in oil prices, which have tumbled 25% since June. Goldman shocked the market yesterday with a call for U.S. prices to fall to $70 a barrel in the second quarter of 2015. Barclays just released its second price update in […]
Gulf Cooperation Council countries may see their current-account surplus decline by $175 billion next year if oil prices stay about $80 a barrel, according to the International Monetary Fund. The projected surplus for the six GCC countries may plunge from $275 billion to about $100 billion next year, Masood Ahmed, director of the Middle East and Central Asia department at the IMF, said in an interview in […]
On a scale of 1 to 10, the new Apple iPad Mini 3 rates only a 2 when it comes to the ease with which it can be repaired. The unit, which hit store shelves this week, was rated by the gadget-repair site iFixit, which proclaimed that the iPad Mini 3 is almost indistinguishable in design and internal components from its predecessor, the iPad Air 2. iFixit […]
Mumbai: After years of regulatory dithering, foreign and domestic institutions might look forward to entry into the commodity derivatives market. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Forward Markets Commission (FMC) are meeting next week to consider the proposal, suggested by a sub-committee of the Financial Stability and Development Council. Allowing domestic financial institutions such as banks and mutual funds was made by the commodities markets […]
By S. Sethuraman As the slow-grinding economy enters the second half of fiscal 2015, a tinge of optimism pervades policy-making circles in Modi Government that recovery would now begin to gather some steam to hit at least a minimum of 5.5 per cent GDP growth, in a distinctly improving macro-economic environment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has now put in place a new economic team to […]
Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) said on Sunday its chief executive officer, Gary Anderson, had stepped down due to ill health. DGCX said in a statement that Gaurang Desai, its chief operating officer since inception in 2005, will act as an interim CEO. According to Anderson’s LinkedIn profile, he had been head of the exchange since April 2012. Prior to joining DGCX, Anderson was a founding […]
Oil’s collapse into a bear market is excessive because there’s no oversupply to justify the selloff, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The bank is “near-term constructive about prices” after they fell too much, too soon, analysts including Jeffrey Currie, the head of commodities research in New York, wrote in a report e-mailed today. While expectations of a glut have driven down crude, the risk of a […]
MUMBAI: At one of the customary premonetary policy meetings with industry, former Reserve Bank of India governor Duvvuri Subbarao wanted to know how many of those present would benefit from an interest rate cut. Almost all hands went up. The next question was how many would pass on the lower cost to customers. Almost no one raised their hands. Subbarao kept interest rates unchanged. The voice of […]
NEW DELHI: India is likely to next month sign a deal to lay an oil pipeline to Nepal for supply of petrol, diesel and ATF, said Sunil Kumar Thapa, Commerce Minister of the Himalayan nation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Nepal in August had “assured that India will assist in putting up a pipeline,” he told reporters after meeting Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan […]
Hyderabad: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan has said the central bank is in talks with the Centre to set up a financial resolution authority (FRA). “We really need a financial resolution authority so that we can close financial institutions in trouble, without necessarily merging those and taking the losses. We need to clean institutions…while resurrecting those functioning well. FRA will be the entity that […]
New Delhi: Oil companies’ gains on diesel sales jumped 87 per cent within a fortnight on a historic slide in global crude prices. Their profits from diesel, recorded for the first time ever, continue as the government delays a decision on deregulating its price. “The over-recovery on high-speed diesel (HSD), applicable for the second fortnight effective October 16, is now Rs 3.56 per litre. The over-recovery […]
|By TAP Staff| Etisalat is planning its first ever sukuk issuance in a follow-up to its debut conventional bond earlier this year, bankers are being quoted as saying. According to these sources, the state monopoly telecom player of the UAE, rated Aa3/AA-/A+, is in talks with banks for the potential Islamic bond issuance, proceeds of which are set to go towards infrastructural improvements of its telecommunications network. […]
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) hired senior bankers from Rothschild and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) for its investment banking business in the Middle East. The New York-based bank named Majed Al Mesmari, previously at Rothschild, as head of investment banking coverage in the United Arab Emirates, it said in a statement today. Fahad Al-Deweesh has joined from British lender Standard Chartered to lead investment banking coverage in […]
Gold futures rose for the second straight day as the dollar’s decline boosted the metal’s appeal as an alternative investment. The greenback fell as much as 0.2 percent against a basket of 10 major currencies, erasing earlier gains, as yields eased on Treasury 10-year notes. Yesterday, the dollar slumped 0.9 percent, the most since Sept. 18, 2013, while gold climbed 1.2 percent, the biggest gain in two […]
Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid last year referred to Israeli expats in Berlin as willing to throw Israel “in the garbage” for a cheaper cost of living. Bloomberg News Back in 2011, rising dairy prices sparked a cottage cheese protest in Israel. Now there’s a pudding protest. The first campaign, which called for a consumer boycott of dairy goods, eventually helped bring hundreds of thousands of middle […]
Some patients recalled seeing a bright light; a golden flash or the Sun shining Photo: Rex “To die, to sleep – To sleep, perchance to dream – aye, there’s the rub, For in this sleep of death what dreams may come …” So says Hamlet, pondering his own mortality in perhaps the most famous soliloquy Shakespeare ever wrote. The question “Is there life after death?” has fascinated human […]
Dubai bourse… marked recovery in economy boosts IPOs Dubai bourse ‘may see further listings by year-end’ DUBAI, 1 days ago The Dubai Financial Market could see one more company list on the stock exchange before the end of the year in addition to the already-announced share sale by a healthcare and education start-up, its chairman said on Thursday. Initial public offerings in the emirate dried up in […]
Regal position: escorting the Queen to Ladies Day at Royal Ascot Photo: Rex Features Forget Downton Abbey and Upstairs Downstairs. This week, we have had a glimpse behind the scenes of a real-life royal household, with the news that The Queen has been advertising for someone to remove chewing gum from the floors and furniture at Holyrood House. Her Majesty’s chosen cleaner must be available to prise pink […]
The PM has pledged seven-day GP cover by the end of the decade Photo: Geoff Pugh/The Telegraph Everyone will have access to a family doctor seven days a week by the end of the decade, David Cameron has pledged. But according to official figures, millions of patients have to wait a week or more for an appointment with their GP. Doctors’ unions are warning that there would need […]
By S. Sethuraman The Reserve Bank of India’s Fourth Bi-Monthly Monetary Policy Statement on September 30 does not offer any hint of monetary easing in the near future, again citing risks to lowering at present the policy lending repo rate from 8 per cent it has maintained since April, in the current fiscal year. This leaves all other policy rates and reserve ratios unchanged, (reverse […]
