Dubai Financial Market (DFM) will introduce a pre-closing period to its trading sessions from May 14 that will make closing prices more predictable and eliminate large last-minute swings, the bourse said on Sunday. DFM said the move was timed to come ahead of the inclusion of the United Arab Emirates in the list of emerging markets by index compiler MSCI at the end of this month, which […]
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) says it plans to clamp down on beef exports if it takes power after general elections that end on Monday, threatening supplies from one of the world’s biggest shippers of the meat. Surprisingly in a country where so many view cows as sacred, India has been poised to become the No.1 beef exporting nation, supplying markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and […]
The Dubai business community has been significantly more optimistic during the first quarter of 2014, compared to the same period of the previous year. Optimism is especially high among manufacturing and services firms, according to the quarterly business survey conducted by the Department of Economic Development. The composite Business Confidence Index for Dubai stood at 135.5 points in the first quarter of 2014, an increase of 22.4 […]
With Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. filing to go public, the biggest winner won’t be founder Jack Ma or his fellow executives or even venture capital backers like Silver Lake Management LLC. It’ll be Japan’s Masayoshi Son. Fourteen years ago, Son’s SoftBank Corp. started with a $20 million bet on a then-unknown Web portal connecting Chinese manufacturers with overseas buyers. That site evolved into China’s biggest Internet shopping […]
Dubai’s bourse has outpaced other Gulf markets by a wide margin in terms of companies’ first-quarter profit growth, data show, supporting its position as the top performer in the region. The emirate’s benchmark soared 108 percent last year and is up 57 percent this year, making it one of the world’s top-performing stock markets over the past 17 months. Although some analysts believe the market is overbought, […]
|By TAP Staff|The Investment Corporation of Dubai (ICD), owner of many of Dubai’s corporate jewels, such as the Emirates airline and the airport duty-free business, said its revenues grew 18 percent to $24.8 billion in the second half of 2013. The numbers were revealed in the prospectus released in connection with the plan to raise about $750m in its first Islamic bond issue. The latest full-year revenue […]
Dubai may need stronger measures to counter property speculation in the emirate, a senior International Monetary Fund official said on Tuesday as it warned again about a potential real estate bubble. Growth in the Gulf emirate, the region’s trade and business hub, picked up strongly last year as the government committed to real estate projects worth tens of billions of dollars following a property market crash in […]
Emirates, the No. 1 international airline, won’t be asked to move to Dubai’s new super-hub until 2024, avoiding disruption to its growth as it takes delivery of the world’s biggest fleet of wide-body jets. The sheikdom’s Al Maktoum airport, which opened in October and is targeting a capacity of 228 million passengers at a cost of 156.8 billion dirhams ($43 billion), should instead become an interim base […]
It looks sleek, thin and premium, but its price is anything but the latter. OnePlus One smartphone is creating a buzz online as a budget smartphone killer since it was rolled out on April 23, and people are definitely hungry for it. During its first launch, One smartphone was initially available in countries such as Austria, Canada, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Spain, […]
Dubai shares jumped the most since January after first-quarter earnings boosted investor sentiment. Qatar’s gauge also advanced. The DFM General Index (DFMGI) surged 3.3 percent, the biggest jump since Jan. 23, to 5,247.29 at the close. The measure has soared 56 percent this year, making it the best performer among more than 90 benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg. Dubai Islamic Bank advanced 5.5 percent after first-quarter profit more […]
|By Nicole Blackmore| Is Dubai the new Spain? Britons are abandoning their place in the Spanish sun for countries with better work opportunities and more stable house prices – and the Middle East is one of several areas attracting growing numbers of emigrants. While Dubai may not be a popular retirement option given the high cost of living, young professionals are moving there in droves. NatWest’s latest […]
Dana Gas Islamic bond was the best-performing dollar sukuk in the world last month as the energy company’s rising stock price prompted investors to exchange their debt into shares at a profit. The fuel producer’s $425 million convertible bond due October 2017 made 3.46 percent last month, compared with an average 0.41 percent return for all dollar-denominated sukuk, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The share conversion […]
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – New Delhi has asked the European Union to lift a ban on Indian mangoes, as the country has already addressed the issue cited by the 28-nation bloc in a clampdown on shipments from next month. The EU informed India in March that shipments of premium Alphonso mangoes would be blocked from May until December 2015 after authorities in Brussels found consignments infested with […]
When French wine and cognac bottle maker Saverglass decided to expand three years ago, it chose a relatively remote, less affluent location in the United Arab Emirates for its plant rather than the business hubs of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The company sited its 75 million euro ($105 million) factory, which produces some 400,000 bottles a day, in the desert emirate of Ras Al Khaimah, an hour’s […]
A sense of euphoria can be felt as you walk onto the Dubai Financial Market’s (DFM) trading floor. Excited investors sit huddled at tables, eyes fixed on trading screens. Occasionally the floor erupts in applause as certain stocks shoot up to target levels. A local investor in his fifties who gives his name as Abu Hany, dressed in the traditional white robes of the Gulf, describes himself […]
Gold premiums in India, the world’s second biggest consumer after China, jumped to their highest level in more than two-and-a-half months due to short supplies amid firm demand ahead of the second-biggest gold buying festival. Premiums for gold bars rose more than 23 percent to $110 an ounce on London prices, a level last seen in early February, compared with $89 an ounce earlier in the week. […]
Emirates NBD expects the buoyant local economy to keep boosting its profits and allow the bank to build up its bad loan coverage ratio without the kind of severe provisioning which stymied recent earnings, its CEO said on Thursday. Dubai’s largest lender beat analysts’ forecasts with a 25 percent jump in first-quarter net profit to 1.04 billion dirhams ($283.7 million) as higher interest and fee income outstripped […]
Dubai-owned port operator DP World is in talks with lenders to triple the size of an existing $1 billion loan, as well as extend the lifespan and cut the interest rate, seeking to take advantage of investors’ renewed confidence in the emirate. The firm, part of state-owned conglomerate Dubai World , is aiming to raise the loan to $3 billion, four banking sources said, speaking on condition […]
Dubai Holding Commercial Operations Group (DHCOG), part of a conglomerate owned by the emirate’s ruler, will repay $319 million of debt more than 18 months early, the latest state-linked company to settle restructured loans ahead of time. Sovereign-linked entities in Dubai were forced to renegotiate billions of dollars of liabilities at the turn of the decade after a local property crash and a lack of refinancing options […]
Emaar Properties, Dubai’s largest listed real estate developer, predicted on Wednesday that its profits would more than quadruple by 2018 as the emirate’s economy booms and the company’s overseas business expands. The company, about 29 percent owned by the Dubai government, is seen by many investors as a proxy for the emirate’s economy, which relies heavily on real estate development, tourism and the retail industry – sectors […]
Dubai tapped capital markets for the first time in more than a year with the sale of $750 million of 15-year Islamic bonds as the emirate seeks to pay debt and finance its budget amid a property-market recovery. The Dubai government’s securities will price to yield 5 percent, according to a person with knowledge of the offering, who asked not to be identified because the details are […]
Oman’s plan to build a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline from Iran is the latest sign that Saudi Arabia is failing to bind its smaller Gulf neighbors into a tighter bloc united in hostility to the Islamic Republic. The accord was signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Oman last month, and marks the first such deal between Iran and a Gulf Cooperation Council state in more […]
Hedge funds lowered bullish bets on gold for a fourth week, the longest streak this year. The net-long position contracted to the lowest since mid-February as speculators sold bullion on signs of accelerating U.S. economic growth. The investors more than doubled bets on lower prices in the past month while reducing wagers on a rally in six of the past seven weeks. Prices fell 7.6 percent since […]
Saudi Arabia’s main share index rose the most in a month to reach a fresh six-year high on Sunday as investors shook off a slight dip in quarterly profit from the bourse’s biggest stock. Speculation in mid-cap stocks helped Dubai gain. The Saudi measure advanced 1.1 percent to its highest close since June 2008, up 12.9 percent so far in 2014. This came despite Saudi Basic Industries […]
