A record run of declines; its worst performance since last year’s surprise devaluation and eight-year lows plumbed on a near-daily basis. Whichever way you cut it, China’s currency is having a testing month. However, unlike the infamous devaluation ruckus in August 2015, and the turmoil in markets that followed renminbi weakness in January, investors are not panicking this time. At least not yet. This month the offshore […]
The UK’s Autumn Statement arrives laden with investors waiting to see whether the British government will make good on recent heavy-handed hints about fiscal expansion. Past Treasury updates have tended to be a damp squib in global financial markets — political posturing and fiddling with tobacco taxes rarely able to catch the interest of international money. This year however the chancellor, Philip Hammond, has an opportunity to […]
The dollar’s post-US election surge has investors contemplating not whether they have overdone the rally but just how far the greenback can rise and how quickly it will get there. A series of currency landmarks, which not long ago investors thought too distant to worry about, have already been trampled by the dollar’s relentless march. The euro fell below $1.06, the yen weakened towards ¥111 against the […]
The Malaysian central bank’s moves to curb what it describes as “speculative and damaging” offshore trading in the ringgit are causing disquiet among investors and raising concerns about the regulator’s handling of the markets. Bank Negara Malaysia has asked foreign banks to commit to stop trading the ringgit — Asia’s worst-performing currency against the US dollar in 2015 — in the offshore non-deliverable forwards market. Malaysian debt […]
|By Ramesh Mahalingam| As someone who has worked in businesses across the ownership spectrum, I am tempted to pose this question to all aspiring CFOs: All other factors being equal, what is the fundamental difference in the approach to the financial reporting function as between a publicly listed company and a privately-owned business? The answer lies not in the IFRS standards, which by and large, do not […]
There are few things like a bull market to turn an investor’s head. Just look at China. Having slumped almost 50 per cent from its peak last June to a low in early January, the benchmark CSI 300 Index is now up 20 per cent. The memory-erasing qualities of this year’s rally in Shanghai will soon be given a real test as a trading link between Hong […]
On Wall Street the S&P 500 has surged to within touching distance of a record high, with the US equity market electrified by Donald Trump’s capture of the White House and the Republican party unexpectedly keeping control of Congress in Tuesday’s US election result. As an historic week ends, investors believe that a macro economic regime change looms, upending the policy mix that has dominated in Washington […]
Financial professionals arriving at their desks on Monday morning will have no shortage of views to digest on what the shock election of Donald Trump means for global markets. Having had a few days to consider the implications, economists, market strategists and analysts have penned thousands of words for clients in recent days that attempt to set out what the future holds. As Jan Loeys and his […]
/By Arabian Post Staff/The UAE moved a step closer to a federal bankruptcy law when the country’s Cabinet approved the final draft of the new law. The law, which will help companies facing financial difficulties to restructure and avoid arbitrary liquidation and criminal proceedings by the state. Companies and individuals are now able to restructure their debt while avoiding bankruptcy liquidation. The law contributes to strengthening the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Emirates Islamic announced the successful closure of its US$ 750 million 5-year Sukuk from its US$ 2.5 billion Certificate Issuance Programme. The issue, which will be listed on NASDAQ Dubai and the Irish Stock Exchange, received overwhelming investor interest from across the globe and marked the Bank’s return to the international debt capital markets after a period of four years. In September 2015, […]
|By Lawrie Williams| As we come up to the Easter holiday and trading gets thin, the opportunities for traders to manipulate precious metals prices up or down become easier and for the moment, those who would like to see prices lower are in the ascendant. Whether gold goes into freefall and loses all its gains achieved so far this year is the big question on gold investors’ lips. […]
The $15 trillion rout in global equity markets since May is reawakening the lure of gold for investors seeking safety. Hedge funds more than doubled their net-long position in bullion last week, just three weeks after they were the most-bearish ever. Investor holdings of gold through exchange-traded products are expanding at the fastest pace in a year, and the value of the ETPs has jumped by $3 […]
FOREIGN INVESTORS MAY GET SOME RELIEF
By G. Srinivasan
For the country’s corporate sector apprehensive of long pendency in courts and protracted litigation on commercial disputes for resolution, help is on hand at long last. The NDA government has set off a flurry of activities on this front to give a whiff of long-felt comfort to assuage investors’ enduring worries on this count. In the ongoing winter session of Parliament, the Law Commission of India’s report with its draft bill on Commercial Division and Commercial Appellate Division of High Courts and Commercial Courts Bill, 2015 was tabled. Subsequently, the House Panel on Personnel, Public Grievances , Law and Justice under the chairmanship of Mr. E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan also submitted its report, which also took due note of the Ordinance promulgated by the Government on October 23, 2015 making certain improve
|By TAP Staff| Global investors’ confidence in the world’s economic outlook has fallen significantly due to concerns over China and emerging markets, according to the BofA Merrill Lynch Fund Manager Survey for September. Asset allocators have adopted a “risk-off” stance in response. Some of the responses are: Threat of recession in China increases as biggest tail risk; concern over a potential emerging markets debt crisis also rises […]
UAE. Women are just as likely as men to find employment in small and medium-sized businesses in the UAE, according to the latest research by business intelligence company MEED. Of the more than top 50 SMEs in the Emirates which participated in the study, 50 per cent said they employ an equal number of women and men in their organisations. About 40 per cent even reported having […]
UAE. Invesco today released its third annual Invesco Global Sovereign Asset Management Study[1], an in-depth report on the complex investment behaviour of sovereign wealth funds, conducted amongst more than 50 individual sovereign investors across the globe representing $7.09 trillion2 of assets, including Middle East based sovereign wealth funds. This year’s study took place against a backdrop of an extreme fall in the price of oil and provides […]
Mumbai: The board of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) on Wednesday cleared big-bang market reforms, including a move to replace the two-decade-old insider-trading rules with the new prohibition of insider trading (PIT) regulations, and amending the existing delisting regulations. Additionally, Sebi approved new reforms in consent mechanism under which it will give entities found violating securities laws the option of settling the matter before the […]
Kolkata: The fear of bad loans and limited lending opportunities to top companies have prompted several banks to shift focus towards the retail (individual loans) and small & medium enterprises segments. India Inc’s reluctance to borrow money is keeping bankers worried. While lenders were able to stem fresh impairment in their credit quality in the July-September period, low demand for corporate loans has decelerated the growth in […]
NEW DELHI: With global energy firms refusing to participate in the ambitious TAPI gas pipeline, India may propose getting a Chinese company to lead a consortium that will build the USD 10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan- Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline. French giant Total SA had initially envisaged interest in leading a consortium of national oil companies of the four nations in the TAPI project, but backed off after […]
MUMBAI: Leading public sector banks have lowered some of their term deposit rates by up to 100 basis points as credit growth remains sluggish and liquidity in money markets has improved (100 basis points = 1 percentage point). The lenders who reduced deposit rates recently include the Bank of Baroda, Bank of India and Andhra Bank. The State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and Central Bank of […]
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who prefers to cut hierarchy and have direct interaction – be it bureaucrats or students – will next meet chiefs of public-sector banks. The proposed meeting comes amid rising bad loans and reports of various irregularities in state-owned banks. The prime minister is likely to take stock of the banks’ performance – an exercise usually undertaken by the finance minister. “Credit […]
By G. Srinivasan The Modi Government is overly obsessed head over heels with economic reforms so much so that even before the results of the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly elections were out, it announced the decontrol of diesel price and a higher price for natural gas. These are the boldest reform strokes the stakeholders had been crying for that hold out the desirably salutary and intended impact […]
NEW DELHI: In order to make India a better place to do business, the government is working to cut down the time for registering a business from 27 days to a single day. Towards this end, it has readied a raft of measures, such as, single registration for all labour laws, overhaul of tax systems, reduction in the number of permits required, easing up property registration, quick […]
A broker monitors stock prices on a screen at the Saudi Investment Bank in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia plans to open its stock market, the Arab world’s biggest, to direct investment by foreign financial institutions in the first half of next year. Reuters The Wall Street Journal lists the top 10 companies by market value that might interest foreign investors once the market is opened up for direct […]
