Abu Dhabi government-owned Al Hilal Bank priced its debut $500 million five-year sukuk issue, a document from lead managers said on Tuesday, as Gulf issuers flood back to the market to take advantage of conducive market conditions. The transaction priced at par with a profit rate of 3.267 percent and a spread of 170 basis points over midswaps, the document said. The spread had tightened significantly from […]
Dubai government-owned property developer Nakheel said on Sunday it had sold town houses worth about 460 million dirhams ($125.24 million) in its Warsan Village project. “As expected we witnessed a big response to the residential units … from investors from a number of countries including the UAE, the GCC countries, India and China,” a Nakheel spokesman said according to the state WAM news agency. “We also noticed […]
Fund managers in the Middle East are set to pump more money into Saudi Arabia over coming months but may withdraw some funds from Dubai because of concern its red-hot market has risen too fast, a Reuters survey showed. The survey of 16 leading Middle East-based investment institutions, the first of its kind in the region, was conducted over the past 10 days by Trading Middle East, […]
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 […]
Dubai’s government is working on new rules to protect its real estate market and prevent any excessive rise of property prices that could end in a crash, a senior official said on Tuesday. The bursting of a property bubble in 2009-2010 caused prices to plunge by more than 50 percent, pushing Dubai close to a debt default. The market is recovering strongly this year, with apartment prices […]
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are poised to adopt a single medicine-pricing policy within the bloc as of 2014, Bahraini Minister of Health Sadiq Abdulkarim Al-Shihabi told local media. He said the application of a unified pricing system and common procurement policy for drugs will contribute to lowering the price of medicine in GCC states. The single pricing policy will be initially applied in government-owned facilities, which […]
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 […]
Emaar Properties said yesterday that investors will this week be able to buy homes in the latest phase of Arabian Ranches, as the Dubai developer expands one of its most popular communities. Emaar said it would open online registration on its website for 121 villas with Spanish-style architecture in the Palma phase on Wednesday. Sales are to be held simultaneously in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on Saturday. […]
Apple Inc. is poised to announce record opening-weekend sales as throngs of excited customers waited through long lines in Sydney, Tokyo, London and San Francisco to pick up the latest iPhones. Sales for the iPhone 5s and 5c started yesterday with crowds in Sydney and extended through stores in the U.S., Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Puerto Rico, Singapore and the U.K. In London, the […]
The U.S. Federal Reserve defied investor expectations on Wednesday by postponing the start of the wind down of its massive monetary stimulus, saying it wanted to wait for more evidence of solid economic growth. Investors responded by propelling U.S. stocks to record highs and driving down bond yields. Yields on U.S. Treasury debt had risen over the summer on expectations the Fed would cut back its $85 […]
DAMAC Properties, a privately held Dubai property developer, has hired two international investment banks to help arrange an initial public offering of shares in London and join a growing list of Gulf companies seeking overseas listings. Deutsche Bank and Citigroup Inc will advise on the planned flotation, two banking sources aware of the matter said, speaking on condition of anonymity as the matter is not public. The […]
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 […]
Gold will extend a drop into 2014 as the U.S. Federal Reserve tapers stimulus, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said, forecasting that a decision by the central bank to start reducing bond-buying next week may spur renewed selling. The reduction of asset purchases may be the catalyst that pushes gold prices lower, analysts including Jeffrey Currie and Damien Courvalin wrote in a report today. Goldman’s economists expect that […]
Fitch Ratings says that the Dubai prime property sector is set up for a strong 2014 following a vibrant 2013. Notwithstanding the positive trend, uncertainty remains a concern for the real estate sector in general as several factors and events evolve, notably Middle East instability, Dubai’s bid for the World Expo 2020 and major new real estate projects that are in the pipeline. As per Fitch’s expectation, […]
Benchmark London prices for physical gold fell to US$1363 lunchtime Tuesday, down 2.3% from Monday’s high as the Assad regime in Syria accepted a Russian-backed plan to give its chemical weapons to international control. The Rupee meantime rose to a 2-session high after new Indian trade data showed gold imports falling and exports rising in August. Premiums in Asian markets, over and above London’s benchmark gold price, […]
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 […]
Residential property prices in Dubai are in the midst of another boom, but this time it’s fundamentals – and not speculation – at play, Standard Chartered Bank said in a new report, indicating that the rally will continue as long as the fundamentals remain in place. Economic growth, improving demographics, return of investor confidence and improving regulations have been cited as the primary factors fuelling a remarkable […]
Dubai’s growing population and improving economy are driving a rebound in the emirate’s housing market, rather than the type of speculation that fueled the 2008 boom, according to Standard Chartered. Residential property prices in Dubai are in the midst of another boom, but this time it’s fundamentals – and not speculation – a new report published by the bank said, indicating that the rally will continue as […]
A surge in lending to investors by brokerages in the United Arab Emirates has helped make Dubai the world’s second-best performing market this year, but has left it prey to volatility. Some investors have been able to make profits in the range of 40 to 60 percent this year on local stock markets but the question is whether such margin lending – borrowing with cash or holdings […]
A decline in Gulf Cooperation Council sovereign and state-owned corporate bonds in the event of a U.S. strike on Syria would make them a “screaming buy,” according to Sergey Dergachev at Union Investment Privatfonds. “These credits are extremely solid,” Frankfurt-based Dergachev, who helps oversee about $10 billion in emerging-market funds, said Aug. 30, singling out bonds issued by companies such as National Bank of Abu Dhabi PJSC […]
General Motors said it expected the automobile industry in the Middle East to show growth that is sustainable, but at a slower rate than in the last few years, hurt by uncertainty and political crisis in markets such as Egypt and Syria. The U.S. automaker temporarily closed its Egyptian assembly plant outside of Cairo last month, and shut its local office, after deadly clashes between security forces […]
DP World Ltd., the world’s third-largest ports operator, posted a 9.1 percent increase in first-half profit, beating analysts’ estimates, as it focused on fast-growing markets and monetized assets in Hong Kong. Net income rose to $264 million, or 31.8 cents a share, from $242 million, or 29.1 cents, the Dubai-based company said in a statement to Nasdaq Dubai today. The mean estimate of three analysts was for net income […]
Gulf stock markets stabilised by the close on Wednesday after plunging in early trade on the prospect of an escalation of Syria’s civil war, as the United States threatened a military strike on Damascus over the use of chemical weapons. Stocks had also tumbled on Tuesday and selling resumed on Wednesday morning as local retail investors, who have dominated trade in recent weeks, scrambled to lock in […]
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 […]
