|By Matein Khalid| I had written an article titled “six reasons to be bullish Saudi equities in 2018, published in the KT on January 28. Yet I was surprised to see Saudi Arabian equities become the world’s second best performing stock market in 2018 after Egypt. The Saudi equity index fund (KSA) I recommended in my column is up 18% at a time when the MSCI emerging markets […]
By Matein Khalid A dismal legacy of civil war, sanctions, insurgency, foreign invasion and terrorism has had a catastrophic impact on the Iraqi economy. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi told the assembled global elite at Davos 2018 that Iraq needed $100 billion in postwar construction. Yet money alone will not solve Iraq’s problems of systemic corruption, a society divided by sectarian cleavages, poverty, the displacement of 2 million […]
By James M. Dorsey The Gulf crisis that pits a United Arab Emirates-Saudi-led alliance against Qatar is escalating in discreet but no less worrisome ways that effect major third-party commercial interests and could increase international pressure for a resolution of the dispute. In a major shift away from Saudi and UAE restraint in attempting to force the international community and multi-nationals from taking sides in the 11-month […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The GCC’s first and the world’s only Shari’ah Compliant Spot Gold contract (DGSG), was listed on the DGCX on March 29th. The contract opened with world-record Exchange traded Shari’ah Compliant Gold volumes on the first day of trading. The product traded volume of 84 Kilograms worth USD 3.56 million, on its opening day. The contract’s launch follows months of planning and preparation for the […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Global trade enabler DP World announced strong financial results for the twelve months ending 31 December 2017. On a reported basis, revenue grew 13.2 percent and adjusted EBITDA increased 9.1 percent with adjusted EBITDA margin of 52.4 percent, delivering profit attributable to owners of the company of $1,209 million, up 7.3 percent, and EPS of 145.6 US cents. On a like-for-like basis, revenue grew […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|A buoyant GCC Bond and Sukuk market achieved an all-time high issuance of USD 70 billion in 2017, with sustained investor appetite expected in 2018, according to a co-authored white paper from Emirates NBD Asset Management (Dubai) and Fisch Asset Management (Zurich). The paper, titled “The GCC Fixed Income Market: Then and Now” identifies key themes in 2017 and provides an outlook for the […]
|By Manish Rai| The recent protests in Iran rang a warning bell for the ruling theocracy in Tehran. What started in Iran’s second largest and holy city of Mashhad over rising prices, transfigured into widespread, unprecedented protests against the theocratic regime in towns and cities across the country. The earlier protests mainly emerged from capital Tehran and some major cities. But the latest ones touch a vast panoply […]
|By Matein Khalid| When I first started on a Treasury bond futures trading desk in New York fresh out of Wharton, a senior mentor once advised to keep track of the four heartbeats of gold finance in real time. The price of money (interest rates), the price of currency (the US dollar), the price of oil and the price of gold. The price of money can be […]
By Manish Rai Last year in June Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, sea, and air blockade on Qatar for its alleged support to terror outfits and being too close to Iran. The Arab neighbours thought that by imposing this blockade they can pressurise Qatar to set aside its own ambitious foreign policy and toe the line of its bigger neighbours. But during […]
|By Matein Khalid|The rise in Brent crude to $60 a barrel and the trade volume ballast generated by the world’s first post Lehman synchronized economic recovery is hugely positive for UAE economic growth in 2018. After all, the UAE is unique because Abu Dhabi’s 100 billion barrels of proven oil reserves is complemented by Dubai’s role as the Gulf’s financial, logistics, aviation, shopping and services hub. The […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| Abraaj Group, the emerging markets-focused private-equity firm, is delaying the initial public offering of South African food and household products maker Libstar Holdings Ltd., reports quoting people familiar with the matter said. The firm had been working with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Standard Bank Group Ltd. on a sale expected to raise about $300 million, aaccordding to these reports. Abraaj, which bought […]
|By Matein Khalid|Emaar Properties will sell 20% of its UAE development portfolio in an initial public offering in November. This is the first IPO in the UAE capital markets in the last three years and follows bellwether offerings such as Emaar Malls and Emaar Misr. Emaar’s Dubai development’s adjusted net value is 24.1 UAE dirhams and I would not be surprised if the post IPO revalues the […]
|By Matein Khalid| Jamie Dimon, the unanointed king of Wall Street and chief executive of New York banking colossus J.P. Morgan did not mince his words. He called Bitcoin “a fraud”, a speculative bubble comparable to the Dutch tulip mania of the seventeenth century and declared he would fire any trader at his bank trading in the cryptocurrency “in a second” for “stupidity”. This has only reinforced the […]
|By F R Chowdhury| Myanmar (previously known as Burma) is a vast country of 676,550 sq. km. or 261,217 sq. miles on the north-east coast of Bay of Bengal. Basically it is between Bangladesh and Thailand though it has also long common border with India and China. Its population is only about 49 million. Majority are Buddhists. Next large population is ethnic Bengali Muslims and a small percentage […]
|By Matein Khalid| Trump’s post Charlottesville remarks, the Barcelona terrorist attacks and Cisco’s results unnerved the US stock market bulls last week. Friday was a surreal moment in the history of Wall Street. It was entirely rational for traders on the New York Stock Exchange floor to cheers and the Dow Jones Index rise 150 points when news broke that Trump had fired his alt-right, white nationalist chief strategist […]
Interested in precious metals investing or storage? Contact us HERE Posted with permission and written by John Rubino CLICK HERE FOR ORIGINAL) By now everyone with an Internet connection is aware of the “ransomware” attack that shut down hundreds of thousands of computers over the weekend. The fact that the onslaught is just beginning — as the military-grade hacking tools developed by […]
Worries about political uncertainty in Brazil extended to agricultural commodity markets, with the real’s fall triggering declines in corn, soyabeans, coffee and sugar. “Grain markets are under pressure as traders take a risk-off attitude due to Brazil’s currency falling sharply,” said brokers Allendale. Brazil is a leading producer of coffee and sugar and is also a large exporter of corn and soyabeans. The commodities are traded […]
By Jamie McGeever | LONDON LONDON The turmoil in Washington surrounding Donald Trump’s presidency is rattling world markets, and the burst of volatility could force investors into a strategic or tactical rethink of how much risk they are happy to face. Increasingly damaging revelations about the Trump administration’s and election team’s dealings with Russia triggered the biggest fall on Wall Street on Wednesday since last September and […]
Thursday 10:45 BST What you need to know ● Europe and Asia bourses soft after Wall Street sell-off● Futures signal more losses for Wall Street● Dollar finds its footing but pound jumps above $1.30● Yen, gold and Treasuries firm as traders again seek havens ● Brent crude slips back towards $52 a barrel——————- Hot topic US equity futures are weaker while haven assets are again in demand, […]
Adylkuzz is believed to have infected more computers than WannaCry, using the same vulnerabilities Another large-scale, stealthy cyberattack is underway on a scale that could dwarf last week’s assault on computers worldwide, a global cybersecurity firm told AFP on Wednesday. The new attack targets the same vulnerabilities the WannaCry ransomware worm exploited but, rather than freeze files, uses the hundreds of thousands of computers believed to have […]
Here is a selection of five charts that FT Markets believes are worth watching. A fresh chart will be added on a regular basis. 1. Wall Street hit by biggest slide since November US stocks suffered their worst trading day in eight months on Wednesday after political turmoil in Washington shook investors, with some fearing President Donald Trump’s ability to push through his pro-growth policies has been […]
The citizens of Sweden are perhaps closer to completely giving up a component of their individual sovereignty than any other country on earth. In a world where government’s abuse of power and intrusion into the personal lives of its blissfully ignorant enablers grows more disturbing by the day, at least for now, cash offers the one opportunity to transact in a truly anonymous way. That said, Swedes […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks fell on Thursday and the dollar was stuck near six-month lows against a basket of currencies as uncertainty mounted over U.S. President Donald Trump’s future following reports that he tried to interfere with a federal investigation. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4 percent. Japan’s Nikkei shed 1.5 percent, Australian shares lost 1.2 percent and South […]
Call it the Trump fade? The so-called Trump trade captivated Wall Street after the surprise election of Donald Trump last November. After years of stagnant economic growth in the wake of the financial crisis, the prospect of Mr Trump’s pro-business agenda, combined with Republican control of both executive and legislative branches of the US government, breathed new life into the ageing equity rally, sent the dollar to […]
