|By Arabian Post Staff|Bank of America-Merrill Lynch has made moderate downward adjustments to its near-term growth forecasts in the light of the election of Trump as the next US President. “Given the high level of uncertainty about the exact policy changes at this stage, we are assuming that trade tensions and fiscal stimulus have offsetting impacts on growth in the medium term,” it said. While a wide […]
Emirates Group first-half profit plunged 64 percent as the world’s biggest airline by international traffic struggled with a rising U.S. dollar and political and economic uncertainty that damped global travel and weighed on fares. Net income fell to 1.3 billion dirhams ($364 million) in the six months through September from 3.7 billion dirhams a year earlier, the Dubai-based carrier said Wednesday in a statement. Revenue rose 1 […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|The gold price breached US$1,300/oz in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory, up from US$1,275/oz before the vote counting began. Gold price has increased, outperforming other assets, including other safe havens. The market is expeting short term volatility in the wake of the election result as it signals a major political and economic change. Gold trading volumes have risen sharply in Asia. Western markets, which […]
Microsoft Corp said it will be increasing pricing for its enterprise software and cloud services in the UK in the wake of the sterling’s plunge since Britons voted to leave the EU. The price increase, from Jan. 1 2017, will be 13 percent for its enterprise software and 22 percent for its enterprise cloud services, it said. Pricing changes will not apply to consumer […]
|By Matein Khalid| The fall in oil prices since 2014 has triggered a liquidity crunch and higher funding costs in the UAE banking system. EIBOR is almost double the London interbank rate LIBOR. Non-performing loan (NPL) have begun to rise as property prices have fallen 20% from their peak and corporate/SME borrowers are hit by a sharp downturn in the business cycle. DIB shares reflect these macro […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| US$51.6 billion of Dubai’s debt will come due for repayment in 2016-18, with US$27.4 billion due in 2018, IMF has estimated. Over US$28.9 billion of Abu Dhabi’s debt will also come due during this period. According to IMF, these imply short-term rollover risks for both Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but for a larger extent in the case of Dubai. The Fund feels that […]
|By Arabian Post Staff| The three-month Saudi Interbank Offered Rate, or Saibor, used as a benchmark to price loans, has climbed 15 successive months to the highest in seven years, Bloomberg reported. It gained 84 basis points this year to 2.385 percent on Sunday, compared with a 27 basis-point advance in the London Interbank Offered Rate for dollars. Meanwhile, the loans-to-deposit ratio among Saudi banks, a key measure of […]
By Sankalp Phartiyal and Anya George Tharakan | MUMBAI/BENGALURU MUMBAI/BENGALURU Infosys Ltd cut its annual revenue growth target for the second time in three months as India’s software service exporters feel the pinch of major Western clients holding back on spending as they wait to see how November’s U.S. presidential election and Europe’s Brexit drama play out. While it reported second-quarter net profit grew 6.1 percent, the […]
|By Matein Khalid| The Algiers pact was a game changer in the international oil markets. Crude oil prices have risen to three month highs above $50 Brent after OPEC agreed to cut output to the 32.5 – 33 MBD range, with the symbolic Saudi-Iranian deal reinforced by a sharp drop in US inventories and Hurricane Matthew’s havoc in the Caribbean. Unfortunately for OPEC, the US land rig […]
The European Union’s law enforcement agency, Europol, issued a warning today regarding the cybercrime threat landscape, particularly threats emanating from the so-called “Darknet.” Produced by Europol, the “2016 Internet Organized Crime Threat Assessment” report, outlines the biggest threats online. The annual report concluded that techniques that have normally been associated with cybercrime are now extending into other crime and threat areas, said Rob Wainwright, director of Europol. […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has witnessed a 210.8% growth in the use of Chinese currency for payments in the last two years, data released by SWIFT has shown. More than 80% of the direct payments made between the UAE and China and Hong Kong in August 2016 were in CNY, representing one of the highest increases worldwide. Data also shows that the EMEA […]
|By Matein Khalid| When Ben Bernanke uttered the word “taper” in May 2013, he triggered a bloodbath in emerging markets and a free fall in “fragile five” currencies that included the Indian rupee and the Indonesian rupiah. However, Asian equities markets, while not immune to a Fed rate hike, are far better positioned for higher US dollar interest rates than in 2013, let alone 2007 or 1998. […]
|By Steve Austin| At first sight it appears that low oil prices are good for society. A low oil price helps us save dollars at the pump, acts as an economic catalyst making exchanges cheaper and thereby stimulating the economy. However, there are downsides as well, often out-of-sight-out-of-mind and we will address these today. Change in economic model For the first time we have entered an era […]
/By Matein Khalid/The oil market has been a rollercoaster in 2016. A global financial panic triggered by China’s yuan depreciation caused Brent crude to fall below $30 a barrel in late January. I was amazed at the sheer scale of the speculative short positions accumulated by oil traders and hedge funds in both West Texas and Brent futures markets, the highest since the oil crash of 2008. The […]
/By Matien Khalid/I have been bullish on emerging market debt as an asset class since last autumn. Even though the Chinese yuan devaluation was toxic, this asset class is up 12% in 2016, thanks to almost $5 billion in cash inflows. The tax amnesty in Indonesia, the political changes in Brazil after President Dilma’s impeachment, the election of a center-right pro-business government and $16 billion sovereign debt […]
KUWAIT. On Aug 12, S&P Global Ratings affirmed its ‘AA/A-1+’ long- and short-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Kuwait. The outlook is stable. The affirmation indicates that our ratings on Kuwait continue to be supported by the sovereign’s high levels of accumulated fiscal, external, and household wealth, despite the low oil price environment. The ratings are constrained by the concentrated nature of the economy […]
|By Arabian Post Staff|Saudi Arabia’s banks are seen more likely now than ever before to tap the international bond markets. According to data compiled by Bloomberg, Saudi banks have less foreign currency debt outstanding compared to any other GCC country. Of the 57 securities outstanding from issuers in the kingdom, only one is a dollar bond from a bank, compared with more than 400 foreign-currency notes from […]
The fate of billions of dollars in investments in Turkish bonds hangs in the balance as Moody’s Investors Service prepares to reveal whether it’s handing the country a second junk rating on its debt. Moody’s, which put Turkey on review for a downgrade immediately after a failed military plot to oust the government last month, currently ranks the nation’s debt at Baa3, its lowest rung within investment […]
WASHINGTON — A cash payment of $400 million delivered to Iran in January became part of the presidential campaign on Wednesday, as Donald J. Trump seized on the money transfer as a sign of what he called the administration’s failed foreign policy — prompting a forceful White House rejection. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said the payment to Iran was part of the resolution of […]
Jack Ma, founder and Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group speaks during the inaugural ”Xin” Philanthropy Conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, July 9, 2016. China Daily/via Reuters A Chinese consortium that includes game developer Shanghai Giant Network Technology Co Ltd and e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd founder Jack Ma has agreed to acquire Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc’s online games unit for $4.4 billion in cash, the […]
ABU DHABI // Love the idea of Pokemon Go, but can’t be bothered putting in the leg work? There is a solution – but it doesn’t come cheap. Players at advanced levels are selling their accounts for up to Dh15,000 on classified websites. Omar Moued, 29, decided to try his luck on dubizzle.com after watching a video about a player in the UK who sold his account […]
EGYPT. JLL, the world’s leading real estate investment and advisory firm, today has released its Q2 2016 Cairo Real Estate overview report determining the factors affecting all sectors in the real estate market. In March, Cairo’s Central Bank announced the devaluation of the Egyptian pound from EGP7.78:US$1 to EGP8.85:US$1 in order to boost the banking system to attract foreign investment and finance major projects, as well as […]
|By Matein Khalid|Brexit will have a profound impact on international banking. It was no coincidence that the shares of UK, German, Swiss, Italian, Spanish and other banks fell 20-25% in a single trading session on news of Brexit. Even American money center banks and investment banks with a large footprint in the City of London fell 8 – 10% on Friday, June 24, 2016. As Deutsche Bank […]
INTERNATIONAL. Stock markets received a welcome boost during trading on Thursday following the Bank of England’s decision not to change interest rates which eased the ongoing Brexit fears, consequently lifting risk sentiment. Asian markets were elevated in the early sessions of Thursday after China’s better than expected GDP results alleviated concerns over slowing economic growth in the world’s second largest economy. Although European markets initially tumbled after […]
