Sunday 4 September 2011

Mideast Stock-Saudi, Qatar gain as banks, petchems rise; UAE down | Reuters

Saudi stocks ended higher for a second day and Qatar also advanced on Sunday as banks and petrochemical stocks led gains, but UAE markets slipped with many traders wary ahead of the opening on global markets this week.

The Saudi index climbed 0.8 percent, after gaining 2.1 percent on Saturday, the first session after the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday which began on Aug. 25 in the kingdom.

Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) and Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) added 0.3 and 0.6 percent respectively.

MENA stock markets close - September 4, 2011

ExchangeStatus IndexChange
TASI (Saudi Stock Market)
6153.360.76%
DFM (Dubai Financial Market)
1483.71-0.58%
ADX (Abudhabi Securities Exchange)
2612.82-0.12%
KSE (Kuwait Stock Exchange)
5843.80.91%
BSE (Bahrain Stock Exchange)
1258.03-0.02%
MSM (Muscat Securities Market)
5767.351.14%
QE (Qatar Exchange)
8440.881.07%
LSE (Beirut Stock Exchange)
1287.520.56%
EGX 30 (Egypt Exchange)
4661.420.47%
ASE (Amman Stock Exchange)
2044.830.41%
TUNINDEX (Tunisia Stock Exchange)
4549.851.10%
CB (Casablanca Stock Exchange)
11613.60.84%
PSE (Palestine Securities Exchange)
490.93-0.02%

Qatar National Bank shares jump as bank announces Euro Medium Term Note Program | AMEinfo.com

The Doha-based QE Index added 1.07%, closing at 8,440.88 points. Qatar National Bank shares soared 2.33% to reach QR144.90. Earlier in the day, QNB Group announced that it plans to develop a Euro Medium Term Note Program (EMTN Program) with a total amount of $7.5bn. "The proceeds from this program will be utilized in the Bank's normal operations," the bank has said in a statement posted on the QE website. Barclays, HSBC and QNB Capital were appointed as arrangers for the EMTN program.

Beyond Political Reform, Egypt Will Need Economic Restructuring: Vali Nasr - Bloomberg

Six months after the fall of the Mubarak regime, Egypt remains in disarray. Protesters continue to take to the streets demanding change, while dozens of secular and Islamist parties jockey for power with the all-powerful military in anticipation of elections in November.

Whether Egypt will then get a stable government and develop into a genuine democracy will depend not only on how it manages its raucous politics but also on whether it can fix its sclerotic economy, and soon.

Political upheaval has plunged Egypt’s economy into crisis. Since January, unemployment has climbed to 12 percent, and investment has shrunk by 26 percent. In a country in which tourism accounts for 11 percent of GDP, international arrivals have fallen a precipitous 46 percent. Given that 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day, the impact of such jolts has been profound.

Aldar shines but Eid fails to refresh UAE shares - The National

Fresh volatility is hitting UAE markets after the Eid holiday. Abu Dhabi's benchmark stock index, the Abu Dhabi Securities Market Index, was down 0.15 per cent at 12.15pm. The Dubai Financial Market General Index was trading 1 per cent lower.

Earlier, Aldar Properties rallied to its highest intraday gain in a month after the developer said its Al Falah villa project will be completed in the next year.

Markets are still reeling after a period of heavy selling across global bourses earlier last month.

Global anxieties set to trickle down - The National

Fresh volatility is likely to hit regional markets as worries about the global economy filter down to local investors.

Gulf markets will resume digesting global news after a hiatus because of the Eid Al Fitr holidays.

"More volatility is to be expected," said Jarmo Kotilaine, the chief economist of NCB in Saudi Arabia. "Clearly, the basic assumption about the expectations for the global economy have been downgraded quite significantly."

The Freeport News - Wishing the best for Kerzner

Sol Kerzner is one of the most significant investors in the history of the modern Bahamas. His investment in the country in the 1990s led to the employment of thousands of Bahamians. At its peak, Atlantis employed more than 9,000 employees. It is the largest private sector employer in the country and the second largest employer overall after the government.

In 2006, Kerzner International was taken private by a group of investors for $3 billion, plus the assumption of $600 million in debt. The investor group included Kerzner and his son Butch, who is now deceased.

The financial crisis of 2008 hurt the company. The subsequent collapse of the group travel market, a deep recession and continued weakness in the American economy have reduced revenues to the company. Consequently, paying back the debt owed has been difficult.

Business : UAE bourses set to resume upward trend

Gulf stock markets are expected to resume upward trend today after a long Eid Al Fitr holidays.

The trading activity is expected to gain momentum this week as investors may give up their cautious approach towards the equities.

The market analysts said the 
regional equities are likely to track the recent positive trends of global markets. They said investors would be closely watching the US President Labour Day speech on Monday and two-day Fed meeting on September 20-21 before taking fresh positions.

IS PEAK OIL REAL? | PRAGMATIC CAPITALISM

In this September 2010 study a German military think tank analyzes how “peak oil” could impact the world in the coming years. They discuss the importance of oil to the global economy, its connection to global conflicts and why the world is almost certainly running out of this important resource:

It is a fact, however, that oil is finite and that there is a peak oil. Since this study is mainly focused on understanding cause-effect relations following such a peak oil situation, it is not necessary to specify a precise point in time. Some institutions claim that peak oil will occur as early as around 2010. Depending on the development of globally relevant factors, we cannot rule out that peak oil could have serious security policy implications within the review period of the 30-year investigation perspective chosen for the SFT series. The dimension of the potential effects in conjunction with the above-mentioned ambiguity regarding the existing data on the future availability of oil therefore underpins the necessity to look in more detail at
the potential security policy implications for Germany.

Apart from the above-mentioned uncertainty factors regarding exact peak oil occurrence, it is foreseeable that when global peak oil is actually reached – and if transformation towards post-fossil societies has not been extensive enough or has occurred too late – it will no longer be possible from a certain point to cover the global demand for oil. Against this background and regarding the long periods of time needed for adjustments in the energy sector aiming at a far-reaching energy transition, it is today’s necessity (1) to thoroughly analyse our extent of oil dependence, (2) to identify – based on this information and in time- potential risks , and (3) to discuss alternatives for using oil.


Saudi Stock Market close - September 3, 2011

General Index
Intraday 3 month
Daily Statistics
Date03/09/2011
General Index6106.93
Change (%)2.13%
Change127.63
T. Volume103249189
T. Companies 150
Advanced142
Declined0
Unchanged3
UnTraded5