A flight by foreign companies from violent unrest in Egypt threatens to drive up vacancy rates at offices and malls and prompt international investors to shift funds to sub-Saharan real estate. The army overthrew and imprisoned President Mohamed Mursi in July and the ensuing crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood movement has killed about 900 people. This has prompted many multinational companies to scale down their operations or […]
Hedge funds cut bullish gold bets, reducing long contracts to the lowest since June, before prices rose the most in a month as the Federal Reserve unexpectedly decided not to taper stimulus. The net-long position held by speculators fell 17 percent to 70,113 futures and options in the week ended Sept. 17, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. Long wagers fell 6.8 percent to 109,217, the […]
Payment defaults by grounded Indian carrier Kingfisher (KAIR) Airlines Ltd. are prompting aircraft lessors to demand a premium to cover risks in the South Asian country. Companies leasing out planes are insisting on a one-year security deposit instead of the usual three-month cover in addition to a commitment to hire the aircraft for as long as nine years, said two officials of Air India Ltd. The state-owned […]
Asian shares ran out of steam on Friday as investors pondered what policy the U.S. Federal Reserve will pursue after it triggered a global market rally by leaving its stimulus level unchanged. The dollar drifted off a seven-month low against a basket of major currencies and U.S. Treasury yields rose after a string of upbeat U.S. data provided a reminder to markets that the day the Fed […]
Asian shares surrendered earlier gains while the dollar remained under pressure on Thursday, facing growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve’s impending stimulus reduction might be smaller than some had believed. The waning likelihood of an immediate U.S. military strike on Syria also continued to undermine the dollar as diplomatic efforts to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control intensified. European stocks are seen edging up, as […]
Last week was a key week not only for key economic data points, but the outcome of the G20 summit in St Petersburg which centered on the U.S.’s campaign to drum up last minute support for imminent military action in Syria. Markets particularly in the MENA region have been on tenterhooks with volatility prevailing in MENA indices including Turkey. The Lira reached a record low at 2.0841 […]
By The Arabian Post Staff International retailers continue to expand into the GCC region, often using Dubai as their ‘launch’ platform into other markets such as Doha, Riyadh and Jeddah, according to real estate consultancy firm CBRE. According to CBRE research, 25 new retailers opened stores in Dubai last year. A young population, strong brand association, solid household consumption and modern retail concepts coupled with a flourishing tourism […]
A week of gains for world stocks petered out on Wednesday and a sell-off in oil and core government debt eased, as talks began on trying to avert a U.S. military strike on Syria against a broadly calm market backdrop. The safe-haven yen was at a seven-week low against the dollar and stood near multi-year lows against the euro and sterling, while shares in Europe inched lower […]
Asian stocks rose to three-week highs on Thursday as Indian shares and the rupee rallied a day after the country’s new central bank chief unveiled measures to support the currency and the banking sector. But worries the U.S. Federal Reserve will soon scale back stimulus kept markets in check. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS advanced 0.6 percent, having earlier hit a high last […]
India’s newly installed central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan burnished his international credentials at a 2005 U.S. conference warning about the danger of a potential crisis. Now he has one of his own to contend with. Rajan, 50, joined the front lines of a battle to forestall a record slump in the rupee yesterday with a package of measures that may lure $10 billion in foreign-exchange inflows over […]
The patriotism of wealthy overseas Indians has helped the country avert economic crises in the past and it is little surprise that embattled policymakers are turning to them again to plug a record trade gap that is battering the rupee. This time, though, big investors among the more than 25-million overseas Indian community – the world’s second-largest diaspora – are staying away as the economic outlook darkens […]
India’s incoming central bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has little room to use borrowing costs to spur Asia’s third-largest economy as the rupee plummets, interest-rate swaps show. The cost to lock in rates for a year using the contracts surged 267 basis points this quarter to 10.16 percent yesterday as investors bet the Reserve Bank of India will prolong a cash crunch it created to shore up the […]
The Indian rupee rebounded on Thursday from a record low after the central bank’s move to provide dollars directly to oil companies provided relief to the currency, while a recovery in emerging market currencies also helped offer support. The central bank decision is aimed at removing a major source of dollar demand from the spot market – worth $400 million to $500 million daily – and so […]
India’s rupee plummeted more than 3 percent to a record on concern a surge in oil prices will worsen the current account and push the economy toward its biggest crisis in more than two decades. Stocks and bonds plunged. The U.S., France and the U.K. are considering limited military action against Syria after concluding the regime used chemical weapons against civilians, fanning concern unrest will disrupt Middle […]
The Indian rupee hit a record low and shares slumped on Tuesday after parliament’s approval of a $20 billion plan to provide cheap grain to the poor renewed doubts about the government’s resolve to control spending ahead of elections due next year. The alarm over India’s fiscal deficit eclipsed an announcement by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram that the government had approved infrastructure projects worth 1.83 trillion rupees […]
Investors are favoring U.S. stocks over emerging markets by the most ever as fund flows and volatility measures show institutions are increasingly seeking the relative safety of American equities. Almost $95 billion was poured into exchange-traded funds of American shares this year, while developing-nation ETFs saw withdrawals of $8.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) trades at 16 times […]
Global financial stability is at risk as central banks draw back from ultra-easy policies that have flooded the world with cash, because emerging markets lack defenses to prevent potentially huge capital outflows, top officials were warned on Saturday. Central bankers from around the world, devoting the second day at their annual Jackson Hole policy retreat to the threats posed by global liquidity, heard two academic papers on […]
Iran is raising its exports of iron ore and iron products to China and India in an attempt to replace at least a small part of the massive revenue that has been lost due to sanctions on its oil sales. While Iran’s oil exports have halved in the last few years due to western sanctions over the country’s disputed nuclear program, iron ore exports have grown by […]
The Arabian Post Special As India’s currency plummeted against the U.S. dollar, Gulf-based Indians are avoiding gold purchases or selling their gold to raise cash for property bargains back home. “Since early 2013 when the Rupee started tumbling, we have been receiving ample demand from Indian residents for property loans,” said Shabbir Gunerwala, a loan officer working for Indian bank ICICI in Dubai. Santosh Tandel, the regional […]
Stock markets in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar rose to new multi-year highs on Thursday despite a sell-off in emerging markets around the world, as retail investors in the Gulf bought selected stocks viewed as laggards. Egypt’s bourse rose on the back of a reduction in street violence. “It’s a good surprise to see that the most internationally-linked markets like UAE have been resilient despite the […]
At least two major global investment banks are maintaining that the beleaguered Indian rupee, which is already down about 15 per cent since the beginning of 2013, could see a further deterioration of about 10.5 per cent in the near future and slump to Rs70 against the US dollar. That would equate to a level of Rs19 against the UAE dirham, and if attained, this exchange rate […]
The rupee fell past 65 to the dollar to a record low on Thursday, after Federal Reserve minutes hinted that the U.S. was on course to begin tapering stimulus as early as next month and as foreign investors become sellers of Indian stocks. In an ominous sign for Asia’s worst-performing currency this year, overseas investors who had been net buyers of Indian stocks so far in 2013 […]
Asian markets were under the cosh on Thursday as a spike in U.S. bond yields drove up borrowing costs globally, and even surprisingly strong data from China couldn’t completely staunch the bleeding. Emerging markets again bore the brunt of the selling as many have come to rely on cheap dollars to underpin domestic demand and fund current account deficits. The currencies of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand all […]
A mechanism to standardize medicine prices in member countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is expected to be put in place by November ahead of a meeting of Gulf Health Ministers early next year to endorse the price list. The entire scheme is aimed at reducing and maintaining uniform prices of medicines and profit margins. Dr. Fahad Al-Dosari, head of medicinal pricing at the executive office […]
