|By TAP Staff| With mixed availability of commercial space across the Abu Dhabi market, potential occupiers remain focussed on prime Grade A stock, which is sustaining rents at the top end of the market, according to the latest research by real estate consultancy Cluttons. Cluttons Abu Dhabi Spring 2014 Commercial Market Outlook report, asserts that with flat rents persisting, occupiers remain in the driving seat and are […]
Qatar is paying the price for its six-week spat with neighbors in the Gulf Cooperation Council as the nation’s borrowing costs and credit risk increase. The yield on the country’s dollar bond due January 2020 climbed nine basis points since March 4, the day before the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain pulled their ambassadors after Qatar denounced the crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. […]
Standard and Poor’s may upgrade India’s outlook if the government that is elected next month addresses some of the country’s fiscal and economic challenges through steps such as passing a goods and services tax. “If in the future they implement policies that effectively addresses some of the credit weaknesses that I have highlighted, we could revise the outlook to stable again,” said S&P senior director Kim Eng […]
Three former brokers at ICAP, the world’s largest interdealer broker, appeared in a London court on Tuesday charged with running a four-year scheme to manipulate Libor benchmark interest rates. The men, who spoke only to confirm personal details such as addresses, bring to nine the number of people facing criminal charges in Britain over allegations they rigged the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used to […]
The wrenching selloff in U.S. high-growth technology and biotech shares could leave investors braced for more than a minor pullback when earnings pick up speed this week. First-quarter earnings estimates have fallen sharply as many companies have blamed the brutal winter for weak outlooks. With high-valuation stocks under pressure, earnings could be subjected to even more investor scrutiny than usual. “There’s skepticism among investors about the outlook, […]
Dubai’s benchmark stock index fell the most in a month, tracking a decline in global markets last week, on investor concern this year’s rally was overdone given prospects for earnings growth. Saudi Arabia’s gauge dropped. The DFM General Index tumbled 1.7 percent, the most since March 12, to close at 4,759.15 in the emirate. Dubai Islamic Bank , the United Arab Emirates’ biggest shariah-compliant bank, declined for […]
The Nasdaq suffered its biggest drop in two-and-a-half years on Thursday after another sharp selloff in biotech and momentum names, including Gilead Sciences and TripAdvisor, increasing investor anxiety about a broader pullback. The Nasdaq biotechnology index .NBI shed 5.6 percent, its biggest one-day drop since August 2011, adding to recent losses since a large drop in Gilead more than two weeks ago triggered a wider selloff for […]
Gold extended gains to a third session on Thursday, scaling fresh two-week highs, after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting showed that officials were not keen on increasing interest rates anytime soon. Gold prices came under pressure last month after Fed Chair Janet Yellen said the U.S. central bank would probably end its massive bond-buying programme this fall and could start raising interest rates around six […]
The Cumberland Hotel in London where the savage attacks on the UAE women happened Following the horrific attack on three Emirati women at the Cumberland Hotel in London on Sunday (6 April), police arrested four people late on Tuesday (8 April). Warrants were executed at addresses in Islington and three men (aged 32, 34 and 56) were arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. Also, a woman (aged […]
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Barack Obama declared the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace one of the two main U.S. foreign policy priorities for his second term. Fast-forward to today, the Obama administration faces a stark choice: expend more energy on a faltering peace process or absorb the hit to an already-troubled record in the Middle East and walk away from negotiations. Secretary of […]
The central bank of the United Arab Emirates will introduce on April 15 a mechanism allowing the country’s banks to borrow funds from it overnight, to help their liquidity management. The Interim Marginal Lending Facility (IMLF) will let lenders use certain assets as collateral to obtain one-day loans, according to a letter to banks which was published on the central bank’s website on Tuesday. Such mechanisms, common […]
The Dubai Gold and Commodities Exchange (DGCX) is planning to launch agricultural commodities contracts in the first quarter of 2015, the bourse’s chief executive officer said on Monday. “That’s something we really want to do, as we want to be able to diversify the products that we list on the exchange,” Gary Anderson told Reuters on the sidelines of a precious metals conference in Dubai. “We have […]
Dubai told international bankers on Monday that it was gearing up for another boom and did not regret the pro-growth policies which brought it to the brink of default five years ago. It appeared to win the endorsement of many of the bankers. Over a dozen top Dubai officials and executives met about 100 representatives of financial powerhouses including Deutsche Bank, Nomura Holdings and Fidelity Investments for […]
A top Dubai economic policymaker said on Monday that an agreement to merge the two main stock markets in the United Arab Emirates, the Dubai Financial Market and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange, had been reached in principle but nothing had been finalised. “It is going to be very positive. The agreement has been reached between the two – there is a dialogue but it is not […]
India’s high-profile RBI governor is likely to come under political pressure to retreat from his hawkish stance on inflation if opposition leader Narendra Modi wins power in the general election. Strategists in Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), confident that his jobs-first policy pitch will secure a strong voter mandate, suggest that they would prefer to have one of their own at the helm of the Reserve Bank […]
The S&P 500 closed at another record high on Wednesday as signs of steady private-sector hiring suggested that the economy was slowly building momentum after a winter-related pullback. That also put more focus on Friday’s government jobs data, which is among the most widely watched economic indicators. “There’s positioning ahead of that report,” said Bucky Hellwig, senior vice president of BB&T Wealth Management in Birmingham, Alabama. He […]
|By TAP Staff| India’s Supreme Court has ordered the chairman of Samsung Electronics, Lee Kun-hee, to appear before a local court within six weeks to avoid arrest in a dispute with an Indian company that was to supply goods to a Dubai company. The dispute is over the payment of over a $1.4 million owed to the company for supplying the goods. The dispute dates back to […]
Weaknesses in auditing led to Citigroup Inc failing the U.S. Federal Reserve capital assessments, fueling fears that there is negligence in controls at the U.S. bank, the Financial Times reported on Friday citing executives and others sources familiar with the matter. Executives at Citi are promising better auditing and anti-money laundering processes and will try to allay the concerns that led regulators to veto the bank’s plan […]
The rupee rose above 60 to the dollar on Friday, marking its strongest in eight months, as hopes for continued foreign investor inflows send domestic shares to a string of record highs. The partially convertible rupee was trading at 60.04/05 per dollar at 9.27 a.m., after earlier hitting 59.99, its strongest since July 30. The rupee closed at 60.31/32 on Thursday. The BSE Sensex rose 0.4 percent, […]
Middle East fund managers are willing to buy most of the region’s main equity markets on dips, believing corporate earnings and balance sheets will continue improving this year, a monthly Reuters survey shows. Markets retreated early this month as retail investors rushed to take profits during the worst of the geopolitical uncertainty over Ukraine. Dubai’s bourse fell 6.7 percent from its peak close to its trough. Qatar’s […]
Nakheel plans to release 94 hotel and resort plots for sale on Deira Islands in Dubai as part of a drive into hospitality and retail, The National reported. The developer plans to sell plots on two of the four islands that make up the project that could eventually accommodate 23,000 new hotel rooms. As many as 500 sites would eventually be sold by the developer. Nakheel sees […]
Kuwait will let foreign banks open multiple branches in the country to spur growth, authorities said on Tuesday, though analysts doubt many banks will take advantage of the offer unless the government accelerates long-postponed investment projects. For years, the OPEC member’s economic performance has lagged other Gulf Arab oil exporters as ingrained political tensions between the cabinet and parliament, and entrenched bureaucracy, have delayed business reforms and […]
A US federal appeals court upheld the conviction of former Goldman Sachs Group Inc director Rajat Gupta, one of the biggest successes in federal prosecutors’ long-running probe to stop insider trading on Wall Street. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Gupta’s claim that wiretap evidence should not have been admitted to show that he leaked news about Goldman’s finances, including a crucial investment by Warren […]
Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has declined to stand in upcoming national elections, adding to a sense of gloom in the Congress party as a growing list of high-profile cabinet members shies away from facing voters at the ballot box. After ten years in office, the Congress party is trailing in opinion polls. Thanks to its failure to check corruption, cool inflation and spark an economic revival, it […]
