Gold traders are the most bullish in five months on signs that demand for coins and jewelry increased during a plunge in prices that prompted billionaire investor John Paulson to cut his holding for the first time since 2011. Thirteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect prices to rise next week, four were bearish and five neutral, the highest proportion of bulls since March 8. Consumer buying of […]
By Jeanette Rodrigues & Ye Xie – Aug 14 Bloomberg: India increased efforts to stem the rupee’s plunge and stop capital outflows that are pushing the economy towards its biggest crisis in more than two decades. The Reserve Bank of India, whose Governor Duvvuri Subbarao steps down next month, cut the amount local companies can invest overseas without seeking approval to 100 percent of their net worth, […]
The total value of ongoing projects in the GCC region currently stands at $2.62 trillion, with the Kingdom accounting for $875 billion. The Kingdom’s strong construction market is being driven by government spending and high oil prices, according to a recent Global Investment House report. For 2013, the Kingdom budgeted $219 billion for spending, up by 18.8 percent, year-on-year, from 2012. Out of this, almost $76 billion […]
Bloomberg By George Smith Alexander & Anto Antony – Aug 13 India’s economy is growing at the slowest pace in a decade, companies are burdened by record debt and governance is so bad that even local cement billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla is reluctant to invest in the country. Yet some foreign entities, from Diageo Plc to Qatar’s government, are undaunted, finding buying opportunities as Indian firms look […]
DUBAI, Aug 12 (Reuters) – Lenders including Deutsche Bank, HSBC and China Development Bank are resisting calls by Saudi Telecom (STC) to restructure a loan that could potentially leave them with losses of up to $600 million, banking and industry sources said. The tussle over the $1.2 billion loan highlights the risks banks face extending loans to state-owned companies in the Middle East, where billions of dollars […]
Two Gulf Arab borrowers have attracted heavy investor demand for international bond sales in the past two weeks, but higher yield premiums are prompting many other potential issuers in the region to seek alternative funding sources. In the case of Saudi Arabia, companies that might have issued bonds in the international market may now choose to issue in the country’s liquid riyal-denominated bond market. In May, a […]
Dubai’s business community are more upbeat on the emirate’s economy than they were a year ago, according to the latest business confidence survey released by Department of Economic Development (DED). The department’s latest quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI) reached 120.7 points for the second quarter of 2013 – up 14.6 per cent points on the same period last year. The index has also risen by 6.7 points […]
Aug 8 (Reuters) – Looking beyond the problems of a region beset by regime change in Egypt, a security crisis in Yemen and civil war in Syria, international investors are seeking out well-run businesses in Middle Eastern and even some North African stock markets. The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is a diverse investment universe which includes both energy importers and exporters, and surplus and […]
DUBAI, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Two Gulf Arab borrowers have attracted heavy investor demand for international bond sales in the past two weeks, but higher yield premiums are prompting many other potential issuers in the region to seek alternative funding sources. U.S. dollar bond issuance in the Gulf, conventional and sukuk, stands at about $17.3 billion year-to-date, up from $11.4 billion in the same period a year […]
By Gerald Al Fil While the comeback of stock market rallies investment banking, the Shari’ah-compliant industry faces its toughest test since it entered its boom phase a decade ago. I got puzzled when I received a tweet from @Worldmuslimnews on May 11 saying “Islamic finance is out”. Are issuances of Islamic bonds (sukuk) not going through the roof as we can read day by day? Could first […]
CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — In a world where financial rescues dominate headlines, U.S. government bond funds played hero yet again, rescuing portfolios in a tough second quarter. Sound familiar? Analysts have been pegging the end of the decades-long (and surely stretched?) Treasury rally ad nauseam. But Europe’s festering credit crisis, weakening Chinese economic growth, and a bumpy U.S. recovery combine to pressure the Federal Reserve and its counterparts […]
PARIS—Investors abandoned Peugeot SA in droves Friday, driving its share price to its lowest level in over a quarter century, as a potential credit downgrade and a worsening outlook for the European car market overshadowed the company’s plans to shed 8% of its French workforce. Moody’s Investors Service Inc. warned Friday that it will study a possible lowering of Peugeot’s debt rating because of the worsening cash […]
Despite the recent run of disappointing economic data, a broad range of experts and forecasters expect the economy to improve slightly in coming months, thanks to lower oil prices and new signs of life from sectors like automobile sand housing. Call it a firming up, if not quite a comeback. Economists at many of the most-watched forecasting organizations, both public and private, expect growth to pick up […]
By K. Raveendran | Special to Gulf News | 3/3/2006 According to WorldClimate, a portal that provides worldwide weather data over long periods of time, Singapore receives an average annual rainfall of about 240 cm and London some 61 cm per year. Compared to this, Dubai gets an average rainfall of only 10 cm for a full year. So, one might assume that buildings in Singapore and […]
