What Wall Street watchers read (Re-post)

March 7th, 2010

There’s a fascinating insight into what Reuters’s highly prolific financial blogger, Felix Salmon, reads and how he spends his days, in the Atlantic Monthly. The most interesting insights come in the middle of the piece, where New York-based Salmon says:

The meat of what I read at the office is from my RSS reader. I useNetNewsWire and have God-knows-how many hundreds of subscriptions … I find myself clicking on the feeds with fewer unread items. When there are really good bloggers who don’t post very often, I will read everything they write. John Hempton,Epicurean Dealmaker, Mike Konczal, Steve Waldman …

I have my laptop running TweetDeck. I have two screens for my official Reuters PC running the Reuters terminal, e-mail and messaging services. And then I have two screens connected to my Mac Mini, which is where I do my real work. The right-hand screen is for the feeds coming in on NetNewsWire and Twhirl, and the left-hand one is for e-mail, web browsing, iChat, PDF documents and drafting blog entries.

At the end of the piece Salmon reveals that he’s no fan on The Economist, writing “I definitely don’t read The Economist. I don’t like that kind of air of omniscient, Balliol College superciliousness.” Ouch!

In another article in the same series, Liar’s Poker author and Bloomberg columnist Michael Lewis says:

I don’t tweet, I don’t Twitter, I couldn’t even tell you how to read or where to find a Twitter message. I don’t actually see the point of limiting communication to a haiku. I find the whole effusion of communications technology bewildering …. I have an email address and I’m thinking of shutting that down

I look at aggregation sites sometimes, like RealClearMarkets. It’s run by libertarians, clearly, but they do drag in everything that’s written about finance.

Actually, if you were to draw a pie chart of where I get news from, I bet I get a third from whatever people in Berkeley—specifically the parents’ at my kids’ school—are outraged about. I’m surrounded by people who are alive to what’s going on in the world and who are quick to be outraged by it.

To read the original articles from Atlantic Monthly click below:-

• Felix Salmon: What I Read
• Michael Lewis: What I Read

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Dubai Shares Rise Most Since January, Lead Gulf Gains, on Oil

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Dubai shares led gains in Gulf markets as oil rose to the highest level in almost two months and global markets advanced after smaller-than-expected U.S. job losses boosted optimism for a global economic revival.

Emaar Properties PJSC, the developer of the world’s tallest skyscraper, advanced the most in two months as its Indian joint venture got approval for a share sale. Dana Gas PJSC, a United Arab Emirates-based explorer and producer, gained in Abu Dhabi trading after making two discoveries. The Dubai Financial Market General Index increased 2.3 percent, the most since Jan. 25, to 1,621.73. Abu Dhabi’s gauge climbed 0.8 percent and Oman’s MSM30 Index rose 0.5 percent.

“There is a strong correlation” between Gulf stocks and the price of oil, said Ian Munro, head of research at MAC Capital Advisors in Dubai. “Economic growth and corporate earnings in the region are derived from barrels of oil.”

Aston Martin's Kuwaiti Co-Owner Struggles With Debt

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The Kuwaiti co-owner of Aston Martin, Investment Dar, will hold talks with creditors this week as it fights to avoid a fire sale of assets including its stake in the British luxury-car maker.

The Islamic investment firm is working with creditors to restructure about 1 billion Kuwaiti dinars ($3.5 billion) of debt, but a dispute with the central bank over its 2008 financial results and lawsuits from some creditors is slowing the process, persons familiar with the plan told Zawya Dow Jones. The dispute with the central bank revolves around the level of provisioning, the people said.

Dar filed a court case against the central bank in July last year due to its refusal to approve the 2008 results. The central bank appointed a monitor in September last year to supervise the debt-restructuring process and financial results.

SHUAA appoints Head of Asset Management

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SHUAA Capital, the leading financial services institution in the GCC, today announces the appointment of Nadi Bargouti as Head of Asset Management.

Bargouti joins SHUAA from Samba Capital in Riyadh where he held the position of Head of Asset Management.

Sameer Al Ansari, Chief Executive Officer of SHUAA Capital, said:“SHUAA’s asset management division is at the heart of our fee generating businesses, with an on-ground presence in the United Arab Emirates and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Having worked in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, Nadi brings over 10 years of solid asset management experience to SHUAA.

Kuwait's NBK to take 60 pct of Syrian bank

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The National Bank of Kuwait, or NBK, the country's biggest lender by market value, plans to hold a 60% stake in a bank to be formed in Syria with a capital of $220 million, Kuwait's Al Anbaa newspaper reports Sunday citing unnamed persons.

The Kuwaiti lender is holding talks with Syrian investors to own the remaining stake in the Syrian bank, the paper reports.

NBK has received initial approval from the Syrian and Kuwaiti regulatory authorities to operate in Syria, the bank's chief executive officer told state-run Kuwait news agency last week.

NBK is planning to boost its capital by 10% to fund expansion as the Kuwaiti lender looks for growth outside its crowded home market.END

Dana Gas Makes Two Natural Gas Discoveries in Nile Delta, Egypt

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Dana Gas PJSC, a United Arab Emirates-based explorer and producer, made two natural gas discoveries in the Nile Delta, Egypt, that may add an estimated 35-70 billion cubic feet of reserves.

The first discovery was at ‘El Panseiya-1’ in the West El Manzala concession, with an estimated 8-13 billion cubic feet of recoverable gas, the company said in a statement to the Abu Dhabi bourse. The second discovery, ‘South Faraskour-1,’ also in the West El Manzala concession, is estimated to hold recoverable reserves of 27-57 billion cubic feet of gas with associated condensate.

The El Panseiya-1 and South Faraskour-1 discoveries are expected to be tied in to Dana’s El Wastani gas processing plant by the end of 2010, it said.END

Saudi bourse may open to foreign investment

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Saudi Arabia is considering further steps to open up the Arab world's largest bourse to foreign investment, the head of the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said in remarks published Saturday.

In 2008, the word's top oil exporter and Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries member allowed so-called swap agreements between non-resident foreign investors and local intermediaries, permitting indirect foreign ownership on the bourse.

Previously, foreigners could enter the Saudi stock market only through selected funds.

DP World in plan to join FTSE 100 club

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DP World, Dubai’s global port and logistics group, is aiming to become a member of the FTSE 100 Index of shares as part of a plan to sell new equity on the London Stock Exchange, senior sources at the company say.

The plan is still at an early stage and no final decision has been made, but it is believed DP World is examining a strategy to place new shares with a simultaneous rights issue and a sale of some of the controlling 77 per cent stake held by its parent company, Dubai World.

The NASDAQ Dubai-listed company announced in January it was seeking a dual listing on the London Stock Exchange this year.

Technical Trade: Global Investment House will Make it when it Breaks it (Re-post)

Global Investment House share was trading at the KD1.000 levels 18 months ago and has been beaten up hardly since then. Due to the economic downturn, the stock plummeted and broke every resistance level reaching a price of less than 100 fils. The stock has been trading side-ways since January 2009, between 60 and 150 fils. After the comeback of Zain’s deal, Global was named to be representing Bharti. Although Global came out immediately after that and announced to their shareholders that this deal won’t have any material implications on Global’s book value. Nevertheless, it sure boosted up the overall sentient towards the company and resulted in a hike in the share price from 85 fils in mid February touching 110 fils last week.

It’s not the first time the stock reached this level, but from a purely technical point of view this time is different. The price is trading close to its 200 day moving average which means that if the stock breaks this level upwards it will create a new support level and may leave the “less than a 100 fils” levels for good. As you see in the chart below, last time the price met its 200 day moving average (the time they announced the rescheduling of their debts) it couldn’t break it and fell sharply afterwards. This time if those technical patterers were accompanied by some positive fundamentals, i.e positive earnings results, the stock will rally.

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Oman central bank to keep rates low; sees credit surging

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Oman will keep interest rates close to zero for the foreseeable future to prevent a further surge of liquidity into the Gulf country’s banking system, the oil producer’s central bank head has said.

The Gulf sultanate has been keeping the rate it uses for draining excess liquidity from the market at around 0.04% at its weekly auctions of deposit certificates, near the lower end of the US benchmark rate range.

“The interest rates will stay low because of excess liquidity in the banking sector,” Central Bank of Oman executive president Hamood Sangour al-Zadjali told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Iran’s Ace (Or Deuce): Its Oil Reserves

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Diplomacy and energy are never far apart in the Persian Gulf. So, as American officials seek new international sanctions against Iran this week, it’s probably wise for them to remember how much the world’s global energy map has changed over the past decade.
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Iran’s leaders certainly do, and they’ve been counting on their increased ties with Asian countries, especially China, as their trump card against efforts to hem in their nuclear program.

At the same time, the Iranians may want to reconsider just how much that trump card is worth. A number of experts say it is losing its value with each month that the stalemate over its nuclear program continues.

Saudi Shares Rise on Global Economy Optimism, Led By Sabic

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Saudi Arabian shares rose, led by Saudi Basic Industries Corp., after smaller-than-expected U.S. job losses boosted optimism for a global economic revival.

The world’s biggest chemicals maker, also known as Sabic, gained 1.9 percent to 91.75 riyals ($24.5), the highest since October 2008.

The Tadawul All Share Index gained 0.9 percent to 6,539.67 in Riyadh. The measure is up more than 6 percent this year as oil prices surged to the highest level in almost eight weeks. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest crude exporter.