|By TAP Staff| Gold traded near a three-month low as the dollar advanced on speculation the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates next year, curbing demand. Gold has declined 5.2 percent this quarter as the outlook for higher borrowing costs reduced demand for an inflation hedge. Fed policy makers will meet Sept. 16-17. The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of 10 […]
By Leila Abboud PARIS Mon Sep 8, 2014 12:50pm IST A computer user poses in front of a Google search page in this photo illustration taken in Brussels May 30, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir/Files A panel appointed by search engine Google will hold the first of a series of meetings on Tuesday to debate the balance between privacy and the free flow of information after a May […]
By Paul Carsten BEIJING Mon Sep 8, 2014 11:12am IST A picture illustration shows a WeChat app icon in Beijing, December 5, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Petar Kujundzic/Files BEIJING (Reuters) – Apple Inc has a lot for which to thank people like Deng. A Beijing-based quality analyst, she gave only her surname as she’s embarrassed by how much money she spends playing mobile games on WeChat, a hugely popular […]
By Ben Klayman DETROIT Mon Sep 8, 2014 8:27am IST The General Motors logo is seen outside its headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan August 25, 2009. Credit: Reuters/Jeff Kowalsky/Files DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Co will introduce in two years its first car that can communicate with other vehicles to help avoid accidents and ease traffic congestion, Chief Executive Mary Barra said on Sunday. […]
RAK Ceramics For RAK Ceramics, the world’s biggest manufacturer of tiles, 2014 may become one of the most transformative periods in the company’s 23-year history. Investment firm Samena Capital this year bought a 31% stake in the company that in the past two decades has become the flagship business of Ras al Khaimah, the most northern of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates, […]
As political unrest continues to grip the Middle East, it is hardly a surprise that many international investors are wary about the region’s business prospects. Whether that is warranted or not, the International Finance Corporation, a World Bank Group subsidiary that promotes the private sector in developing markets, is trying to change that perception by stepping up its investments in the financial and power sectors. “We have […]
Sharjah is offering investors an enticement that fellow emirate Dubai doesn’t as the sheikhdom gears up for its first Shariah-compliant bond sale this month: a credit rating. The emirate, which is more than twice the size of New York City, may price the debt to yield 2.5 percent to 3 percent if it’s a five-year issue, according to three fixed-income analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. That compares with […]
By Edwin Chan SAN FRANCISCO Wed Sep 3, 2014 12:21pm IST The Apple logo is pictured inside the newly opened Omotesando Apple store at a shopping district in Tokyo June 26, 2014. Picture taken June 26. Credit: Reuters/Yuya Shino/Files SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The week before a crucial launch of its new iPhone, Apple Inc said intimate photos of celebrities including Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence were leaked online […]
By Christina Farr and Edwin Chan SAN FRANCISCO Wed Sep 3, 2014 7:44am IST The Apple logo is pictured at a retail store in the Marina neighborhood in San Francisco, California April 23, 2014. Credit: Reuters/Robert Galbraith/Files SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has often displayed uncanny timing, with its well-orchestrated end-of-year iPhone releases. But the leak of racy celebrity photos in the past few days […]
Islamic debt could become a source of funding for U.K. infrastructure projects from wind turbines to high-speed trains and airports as Britain cements its position as the first sukuk market in a non-Muslim nation. Investors including Bank of London and the Middle East see scope for the U.K. to issue Shariah-compliant bonds with varying maturities after the Debt Management Office attracted bids for more than 10 times […]
Militants from the al-Qaida-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) taking aim at captured Iraqi soldiers Photo: AP As Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria butcher thousands of “infidels” and carry off their women and children into slavery, many in the West are inclined to see this as an unique outcrop of Islamic fundamentalism. Yet after overrunning a Bosnian town on 11th July 1995, Bosnian […]
Emirates NBD (ENBD), Dubai’s largest lender, plans to sell a benchmark-sized capital-boosting bond, a document from lead managers said on Monday, looking to take advantage of favourable markets to strengthen its reserves. ENBD has chosen Citigroup, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered and its own investment banking arm to arrange investor meetings ahead of a potential issue, the document said, confirming what banking sources told Reuters […]
|By TAP Staff|The global Sukuk industry is expected to be one of the fastest growing segments of the Islamic finance industry with huge growth potential in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, according to a report by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. This is particularly true of Dubai where Sukuks are expected to play an important role over the next decade in securing funds for […]
By Lior Cohen: Silver’s downward trend reached an impasse last week. Let’s examine the relation between silver and U.S. equities and gold. Also, will the upcoming non-farm payroll report adversely impact the price of silver? Last week, silver inched up 0.2%. The silver ETF, iShares Silver Trust (NYSEARCA:SLV), also edged up by 0.1%. Moreover, companies, including Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) and Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS), also slightly recovered […]
Hong Kong’s government will hold investor meetings next week for its maiden Islamic bond issue, a spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Thursday. A meeting will be held in Hong Kong on Monday before one in Singapore on Tuesday, Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday and meetings in Dubai, Doha, Abu Dhabi and London on Thursday. The AAA-rated government earlier mandated HSBC, Standard Chartered, CIMB Group […]
By Daniel R Moore: I finally gathered the most recent data reported by the Chesapeake Granite Wash Trust (NYSE:CHKR) to perform a quarterly financial review. Honestly I did not find any surprising new information within the financial statements. The Trust still deserves a junk rating at best, and the bad news has been public for over a year. The issues facing the Trust are best summarized in […]
LEBANON. Byblos Bank issued today, in cooperation with the American University of Beirut through the Olayan School of Business, the results of the Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index for the first half of 2014. The results show that the Byblos Bank/AUB Consumer Confidence Index improved marginally in January and February, picked up pace in March and April, and regressed in May and June 2014. The Index reached […]
UAE. Dubai World, the state-owned company at the center of the emirate’s 2009 financial crisis, reached a deal with its main creditors to extend the repayment of $10.3 billion of debt, two people with knowledge of the matter said. The group, which owns the world’s third-largest ports operator, agreed with its creditor committee to repay in 2022, four years later than previously agreed on, the people said, […]
“We have to be honest, we weren’t able to finish it the way we wanted,” said Kassem Eid, a Syrian rebel who has joined the opposition in exile. By ANNE BARNARD August 29, 2014 BEIRUT, Lebanon — As he rode onto the base of the Fourth Division, the formidable Syrian Army unit that had been starving and bombarding his town near Damascus for months, Kassem Eid prepared for a […]
By Brad Thomas: One of the most frequent questions that I hear today from retail investors is “why are REITs critical to your investment portfolio?” That’s a logical question to ask, especially for investors who owned REITs during the Great Recession. The purpose of this article will be to answer that question but also to provide meaningful insight into the potential impact of REITs and rising interest […]
By NICK CUMMING-BRUCE August 29, 2014 GENEVA — The number of refugees from the Syrian civil war has risen above three million, the United Nations refugee agency said Friday, calling the crisis “the biggest humanitarian emergency of our era.” More than a million people have fled in the last 12 months alone, the refugee agency said, counting only those who registered as refugees. The total number is believed to […]
A cluster bomb was spotted at the Taftanaz air base in Syria after rebels seized the site last year. By RICK GLADSTONE August 27, 2014 Cluster bombs, outlawed munitions that kill and maim indiscriminately, have caused more casualties in the Syrian civil war than in the 2006 Lebanon conflict, when Israel’s heavy use of the weapons hastened the treaty banning them two years later, a monitoring group said Wednesday. […]
First-time sellers of bonds that adhere to Islam’s ban on interest are poised to revive an industry suffering its worst quarter in more than four years. Luxembourg and Hong Kong aim to market debut offerings of sukuk next month, while Kenya, South Africa, Bangladesh and Tatarstan have announced plans for maiden issues. Islamic bond sales have fallen 82 percent to $2.6 billion this quarter compared with the […]
Two months ago, the U.K. became the first Western nation to sell Islamic bonds. But missing from the list of advisers and arrangers on the £200 million transaction were any of the country’s six shariah-compliant banks. One of them, Bank of London and the Middle East, doesn’t appear to have any hard feelings about it and applauds the rise in sovereign sukuks as they will help accelerate […]
