The tide may be turning in the retreat of the U.S. oil explorers. Rigs targeting oil fell by 33 to 986, the smallest decline since Jan. 2, Baker Hughes Inc. said on its website Friday. Energy rigs in the Permian Basin shale region dropped by seven to 355 after dropping by as much as 49 earlier in the month. The Eagle Ford in Texas lost three rigs. […]
Gulf stock markets fell sharply on Tuesday as Brent crude extended losses after plunging 5 percent a day earlier and the threat of a fresh euro zone crisis in Greece also prompted investors to sell risk assets globally. Brent crude touched a fresh 5-1/2-year low at $52.28 a barrel on Tuesday on oversupply concerns. MSCI’s emerging market index was down 0.9 percent. Saudi Arabia’s main index dropped […]
The United Arab Emirates and Egypt appear the most attractive among major Middle Eastern stock markets in an era of low oil prices, the latest Reuters survey of regional asset managers suggests. The plunge of oil and equity prices over the last several months has stunned managers, and they may therefore invest their 2015 equity allocations to the region only gradually. “I think the next three months […]
Deutsche Bank is open to offers for its London-based gold vault following the closure of its physical precious metals business, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. “If the right offer came along, then the bank would sell the London vault,” one source close to the situation said. The German bank shut its physical precious metals trading arm last month as it further reduced its […]
In Saudi Arabia, where the currency has been fixed at about the same rate for 28 years, even the tiniest swings in the futures market reflect concern the peg will be broken. So the 0.2 percent drop that traders see by next year shows this is the most worried they’ve been about it since 2009. For Standard Chartered Plc and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank PJSC, that speculation […]
OPEC will stand by its decision not to cut crude output even if oil prices fall as low as $40 a barrel and will wait at least three months before considering an emergency meeting, the United Arab Emirates’ energy minister said. OPEC won’t immediately change its Nov. 27 decision to keep the group’s collective output target unchanged at 30 million barrels a day, Suhail Al-Mazrouei said. Venezuela […]
Most stock markets in the Gulf fell sharply on Tuesday after oil prices hit five-year lows, triggering a fresh wave of panic selling of shares by local retail investors, though most fund managers and analysts think the region can cope comfortably with cheaper oil. Dubai’s market, traditionally the Gulf’s most volatile, tumbled 3.5 percent to 3,889 points, though it closed well above its intra-day low of 3,761 […]
Oman’s stock market sank on Sunday after Standard & Poor’s cut its outlook for the country’s sovereign rating and local cement firms said natural gas prices would double – examples of the pain which the weaker Gulf oil exporters may face because of the slide in oil prices. Brent crude slipped 0.8 percent to $69.07 a barrel on Friday after Saudi Arabia slashed its oil prices for […]
Gulf stock markets plunged in early trade on Sunday after OPEC’s decision to keep crude output unchanged sent oil prices tumbling at the end of last week. Dubai’s benchmark dropped 4.8 percent to a six-week low, with all traded stocks in decline. Qatar’s index also fell 4.8 percent, slumping to its lowest level since early July. Oman’s bourse dropped 4.4 percent, Abu Dhabi slid 2.0 percent and […]
Middle East fund managers expect to put money back into Gulf stock markets in coming months once the shock of the plunge in oil prices fades, the latest Reuters survey of regional asset managers shows. The slide of Brent crude to $70 a barrel last week,from around $115 in June, has shifted the outlook for the oil-exporting Gulf economies. This has caused Gulf equities to underperform after […]
Funds tracking MSCI’s emerging markets index are likely to start buying several stocks in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar that will see their benchmark weightings increased after the end of trading on Tuesday. These include Emaar Properties, Dubai Islamic Bank and First Gulf Bank in the UAE, plus Doha’s Industries Qatar, Qatar National Bank, Doha Bank and Commercial Bank of Qatar. Gulf International Services will join […]
By Barun Das Gupta KOLKATA: If one takes the trouble of rummaging through the archives relating to that part of India which is now called Arunachal Pradesh, one will stumble on a shocking document titled “Regulation 2 of 1880. The Assam Frontier Tracts Regulation, 1880.” It begins with the Preamble: “Whereas it is expedient to provide for the removal of certain frontier tracts in Assam inhabited or […]
NEW DELHI: Less than a day after Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) announced a hike in consumer power tariff through power purchase adjustment charges (PPAC), it withdrew the order. This is the first time a tariff order has been withdrawn in Delhi since DERC was constituted in 2001. While the regulator said the order stands withdrawn till it receives complete information from various power generators on fuel […]
Mobily shares hit 32-month low RIYADH, 21 hours, 35 minutes ago Shares in Saudi Arabia’s Mobily tumbled for a fourth trading day on Sunday after the company scrapped its third-quarter dividend following its shock restatement of 18 months of earnings last week. Mobily’s shares were down 4.3 per cent at SR56.00 as of 0803 GMT, slumping to a 32-month low and taking its losses to 30 per […]
Gold traded within 40 cents of a four-year low after the Bank of Japan boosted stimulus and the Federal Reserve ended asset purchases, highlighting divergent central-bank policies and hurting bullion demand as the dollar climbed. Silver retreated to the lowest level since 2010. “One printing press stops and another one cranks up,” Felicity Emmett, senior economist at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., wrote in a […]
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 […]
Asian traders are split on whether Saudi Arabia will deepen the crude price cuts that propelled oil into a bear market this month. State-run Saudi Arabian Oil Co. will announce official selling prices for supplies to buyers in Asia for December next week after cutting prices to the lowest in almost six years for a month earlier. The world’s biggest oil exporter will further discount supplies, according […]
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 […]
Iran, which faces sanctions on crude exports, sees no need for OPEC to hold an emergency meeting, a sign that markets may need to wait a month before the world’s biggest producer group responds to falling prices. Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has consulted with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about political and economic reasons for the collapse in prices, the ministry’s news website Shana reported today. No […]
New Delhi: Shortly after 10 am on Friday, while the prime minister was exhorting an annual meeting of top military commanders from the Army, Navy and Air Force to be ready for any call to arms, India’s newest missile blasted off from a canister at the Chandipur test range on the coast of Odisha. This was the Nirbhay long-range cruise missile, which can hit a target […]
David Wolf, a fund manager at Fidelity Investments in Toronto, says equity spasms such as those that shook global stocks this week scare professionals as much as everyone else. “My dad has been quite panicky,” Wolf said of his father, Bernard, a retired economics professor from Canada’s Schulich School of Business. “He knows what markets are all about and he knows what the economy is all about, […]
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 […]
The price of oil suffered its biggest drop in nearly two years earlier this week after the International Energy Agency reduced its forecast for demand for this year and next. Associated Press A slump in oil prices has eroded investor confidence in Persian Gulf stock markets, some of which are among the leading performers globally this year. The major oil-exporting states in the region such as Saudi […]
