Middle East funds are bullish on Saudi Arabia’s stock market despite concern it is getting richly valued, while they think the United Arab Emirates has bottomed out after a volatile few months, a Reuters survey showed. The Saudi stock market index has jumped 13 percent since authorities announced in late July that they would open the market to direct investment by foreign institutions in the first half […]
|By TAP Staff| King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz of Saudi Arabia warned that terrorists will target the West if the world does not unite to confront them. King Abdullah made the statement during a presentation of credentials ceremony held in Jeddah yesterday for new ambassadors to Saudi Arabia, including U.S. Ambassador Joseph W. Westphal. “If neglected I’m sure they [terrorists] will reach Europe in a month and America […]
Barack Obama got a warm reception in Rhode Island last week, yet his lack of strategy has dismayed many others Photo: AP Just in case you thought that the Leader of the Free World was secretly harbouring a calculated, well-developed plan for bringing Isil under control and putting Russia’s imperial leader back in his box, Barack Obama banged that idea firmly on the head last week. He gave […]
By Dividend Yield: These are tough times for investors who look for cheap companies. The Dow and S&P 500 jump from high to high, but this boom is credit-driven; it’s the result of the monetary easing policy of the world’s major government banks. The good thing is that we can buy stocks in every market situation, whether the market has a P/E level of 30 or 10. […]
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 Pratik Deb In the beginning of the last decade, the Left front government of West Bengal felt the urge to do ‘industrialisation’ with an additional fervour and gusto. Sure, there was Chief Minister’s annual trip to London, sure there were those occasional government ceremonies with a gathering of a few local industrialists, sure the authority was going on putting up the show of being proactive and […]
MUMBAI: There is a new buzz in boardrooms around ‘natural capital sustainability’. Even as awareness on this issue is picking up, a handful of companies in India, cutting across industry segments, are giving back more than they take — being water- or carbon-positive is part of their business model. “Companies need to set quantifiable objectives around a crucial natural capital on which they are predominately dependent, […]
Claire Hajaj with her mother, father and brother in Kuwait, 1979 At 11, I discovered I was a stranger in my own family. It happened at a relative’s “do” in Regent’s Park – a bar mitzvah, or a wedding. I remember soft-pink tablecloths, gilded place-cards and cutlery gleaming like silver fish. A board at the reception-room entrance listed table numbers and names in grand, italicised print. I […]
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 […]
Blackstone Group is close to its first investment in the Middle East as the private-equity firm nears a deal to acquire a minority stake in Dubai’s GEMS Education, three people with knowledge of the matter said. Blackstone, based in New York, has teamed up with Fajr Capital Ltd. to invest in the world’s biggest privately held schools operator GEMS through its Blackstone Tactical Opportunities unit, the people […]
DP World Jebel Ali, UAE. DP World After posting a decent set of numbers in the first half, a company can be excused if it sounds optimistic about its growth outlook. In DP World’s case – the numbers are more than decent. The Dubai-based ports operator, one of the largest globally, reported a solid 26% jump in six-month earnings as it added new capacity amid a pick […]
West Texas Intermediate traded near the lowest closing price in seven months after speculators cut bullish bets and as supply rises in the U.S., the world’s biggest consumer. Brent was steady in London. Futures were little changed in New York after falling 0.3 percent yesterday. Crude inventories probably shrank by 1.8 million barrels to 360.7 million last week, a Bloomberg survey shows before an Energy Information Administration […]
The Floating Cinema drops anchor on the Grand Union Canal at King’s Cross, London Photo: HYDAR DEWACHI ‘It’s really captured people’s imagination,” enthuse producer Anna Ramsay and curator Laura Harford as they sit on the deck of the Floating Cinema, their 60ft wide-beam canal boat fitted out as a mini-Odeon. “I think it’s because it’s something so unusual, not at all what they expect to see on a […]
|By TAP Staff| Forbes has ranked Dubai ahead of Los Angeles, Beijing and Sydney as the most influential city in the world. Dubai was ranked seventh on a list topped by London. The rankings are based on eight factors including the amount of foreign direct investment they have attracted; the concentration of corporate headquarters; how many particular business niches they dominate; air connectivity (ease of travel to […]
|By TAP Staff| Dubai Healthcare Authority has joined hands with Emirates Holidays, Dubai Immigration, Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and other stakeholders to offer medical tourism packages. The packages will be launched in October as part of ambitious plans for the emirate to become one of the world’s most popular destinations. The details will be announced during the first Health Regulations Conference in Dubai which will […]
A man walks on Jumeirah beach as the Burj Al Arab hotel is seen during sunset in Dubai. Reuters Dubai’s hotels experienced a bumper first half even as refurbishment at the emirate’s main airport grounded Emirates Airline jets and limited the number of passengers flying. Hotels in the desert-city, which has become known for its extravagant infrastructure, architecture and opulent places to stay, catered to 5.8 million […]
QATAR. International food prices have been declining in recent months, reflecting record harvests and weak global demand. Declining food prices have in turn contributed to lower inflation in the Eurozone, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). This trend, coupled with a weak Eurozone recovery and mixed economic data in the US, suggests that the risk of global deflation remains high. As such, we expect […]
SAUDI ARABIA. Saudi Arabia set out draft proposals on foreign-shareholder limits as one of the world’s most restricted stock markets prepares to open its doors for the first time to investors outside the region. The Capital Market Authority may cap foreign ownership of a single stock to 49 percent, it said in plans posted on the Riyadh-based regulator’s website today. It may also set a 5 percent […]
INTERNATIONAL. U.S. special operations forces made a failed attempt to rescue journalist James Foley and other Americans held hostage by Islamic extremists in Syria earlier this summer, the White House said in a statement. The secret mission was authorized by President Barack Obama after the administration’s national security team concluded that the hostages “were in danger with each passing day,” said Lisa Monaco, Obama’s assistant for homeland […]
A broker monitors stock prices on a screen at the Saudi Investment Bank in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia plans to open its stock market, the Arab world’s biggest, to direct investment by foreign financial institutions in the first half of next year. Reuters The Wall Street Journal lists the top 10 companies by market value that might interest foreign investors once the market is opened up for direct […]
