MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi Arabia climbs, falling rig demand hurts Qatar | Reuters:
"Gulf stock markets were mixed on Monday as stronger oil supported Saudi Arabia but news of falling demand for drilling rigs dragged down Qatar.
Both Brent crude and U.S. oil gained about $1 per barrel as news of a slowdown in U.S. drilling continued to buoy prices.
This helped the Saudi stock benchmark climb 0.9 percent as most stocks rose, offsetting negative influence from heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries, which dropped 2.9 percent as it went ex-dividend."
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Monday 13 April 2015
UPDATE 2-MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi Arabia edges up as oil rallies | Reuters
UPDATE 2-MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi Arabia edges up as oil rallies | Reuters:
"Saudi Arabia's stock market rose moderately in early trade on Monday, supported by positive corporate news and firmer oil.
The benchmark climbed 0.5 percent as most stocks rose, offsetting negative influence from heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries, which dropped 2.7 percent as it went ex-dividend.
Petrochemical firm PetroRabigh surged 4.8 percent after announcing it would ask shareholders to approve raising its capital via a rights issue worth about 7.04 billion riyals ($1.88 billion)."
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"Saudi Arabia's stock market rose moderately in early trade on Monday, supported by positive corporate news and firmer oil.
The benchmark climbed 0.5 percent as most stocks rose, offsetting negative influence from heavyweight Saudi Basic Industries, which dropped 2.7 percent as it went ex-dividend.
Petrochemical firm PetroRabigh surged 4.8 percent after announcing it would ask shareholders to approve raising its capital via a rights issue worth about 7.04 billion riyals ($1.88 billion)."
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Dubai housing prices fall slightly in Q1 -JLL | Reuters
Dubai housing prices fall slightly in Q1 -JLL | Reuters:
"Dubai housing prices fell slightly and rents were flat in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the final three months of last year, a report by property consultants JLL showed on Monday.
The real estate sector in Dubai has been among the most volatile globally over the past decade, swinging from boom to bust to boom again. Prices recovered to near peak values after falling by about half from their 2008 highs, but are now weakening again.
Apartment sale prices fell 2 percent in the first three months of 2015 versus the final three months of 2014, JLL said. Villa sale prices dropped 1 percent, while rental values for both villas and apartments were flat."
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"Dubai housing prices fell slightly and rents were flat in the first quarter of 2015 compared with the final three months of last year, a report by property consultants JLL showed on Monday.
The real estate sector in Dubai has been among the most volatile globally over the past decade, swinging from boom to bust to boom again. Prices recovered to near peak values after falling by about half from their 2008 highs, but are now weakening again.
Apartment sale prices fell 2 percent in the first three months of 2015 versus the final three months of 2014, JLL said. Villa sale prices dropped 1 percent, while rental values for both villas and apartments were flat."
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Abu Dhabi's Mubadala GE Capital says no plans to change shareholdings | Reuters
Abu Dhabi's Mubadala GE Capital says no plans to change shareholdings | Reuters:
"Mubadala GE Capital, a venture between Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala and GE Capital, said its ownership and strategy would remain unchanged despite General Electric's decision to divest most of its finance unit.
"Mubadala GE Capital is an important component of the Mubadala-GE partnership and continues to deliver on its mandate of profitable growth," a Mubadala GE Capital spokesman told Reuters on Monday.
"There are no current plans to change the shareholding or strategy of the business.""
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"Mubadala GE Capital, a venture between Abu Dhabi state fund Mubadala and GE Capital, said its ownership and strategy would remain unchanged despite General Electric's decision to divest most of its finance unit.
"Mubadala GE Capital is an important component of the Mubadala-GE partnership and continues to deliver on its mandate of profitable growth," a Mubadala GE Capital spokesman told Reuters on Monday.
"There are no current plans to change the shareholding or strategy of the business.""
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National Bank of Fujairah to fill gap in financing left by Antwerp Diamond Bank | The National
National Bank of Fujairah to fill gap in financing left by Antwerp Diamond Bank | The National:
"National Bank of Fujairah (NBF) said it would step in and meet the funding needs of diamond manufacturers and traders after the Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB), once a leader in its field, closed its global operations last year.
NBF’s move to create a specialised team to fund diamond cutters, polishers and traders comes as Dubai vies with Antwerp, Belgium, to become the world’s biggest diamond hub.
The Fujairah-based lender said it had brought on board industry experts from ADB, which had a Dubai office, to run its new division and will focus mostly on providing short-term purchase and sales financing to established diamond businesses that ship raw diamonds from producing countries in Africa and Europe to manufacturers in India and the Far East. ADB shut its doors after its owner, KBC Bank in Belgium, failed to find a buyer."
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"National Bank of Fujairah (NBF) said it would step in and meet the funding needs of diamond manufacturers and traders after the Antwerp Diamond Bank (ADB), once a leader in its field, closed its global operations last year.
NBF’s move to create a specialised team to fund diamond cutters, polishers and traders comes as Dubai vies with Antwerp, Belgium, to become the world’s biggest diamond hub.
The Fujairah-based lender said it had brought on board industry experts from ADB, which had a Dubai office, to run its new division and will focus mostly on providing short-term purchase and sales financing to established diamond businesses that ship raw diamonds from producing countries in Africa and Europe to manufacturers in India and the Far East. ADB shut its doors after its owner, KBC Bank in Belgium, failed to find a buyer."
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Dh1.76b filed in DIFC Courts in 2014 | GulfNews.com
Dh1.76b filed in DIFC Courts in 2014 | GulfNews.com:
"DIFC Courts, the emirate’s English language common law courts, said on Sunday the total value of claims and counterclaims increased 81 per cent to Dh1.76 billion in 2014 compared to the previous year.
It is the first time the value of claims and counterclaims has exceeded Dh1 billion.
“We’ve grown in terms of the size of claims, we’ve grown in terms of the number of claims, we’ve grown in terms of the complexity of the claims,” said Mark Beer, chief executive of the common law courts at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)."
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"DIFC Courts, the emirate’s English language common law courts, said on Sunday the total value of claims and counterclaims increased 81 per cent to Dh1.76 billion in 2014 compared to the previous year.
It is the first time the value of claims and counterclaims has exceeded Dh1 billion.
“We’ve grown in terms of the size of claims, we’ve grown in terms of the number of claims, we’ve grown in terms of the complexity of the claims,” said Mark Beer, chief executive of the common law courts at the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)."
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Hedge fund PAAMCO: oil price fall creates shake-out in industry | GulfNews.com
Hedge fund PAAMCO: oil price fall creates shake-out in industry | GulfNews.com:
"A 50 per cent fall in oil prices since last year has produced a “shake-out” in the oil and related industries in the region and elsewhere, even as it sees lower fund flows from the regional sovereign wealth funds this year and the next, a top official at hedge fund Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO) told Gulf News.
“The active managers may be interested in looking at oil and oil related investments as oil prices have fallen and some of the stocks in those sectors are at prices lower than they were last year,” said Stephen Oxley, managing director at PAAMCO.
The latest in the shake-out has been from Royal Dutch Shell, which took over BG Group in a $91 billion (Dh334 billion) deal."
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"A 50 per cent fall in oil prices since last year has produced a “shake-out” in the oil and related industries in the region and elsewhere, even as it sees lower fund flows from the regional sovereign wealth funds this year and the next, a top official at hedge fund Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company (PAAMCO) told Gulf News.
“The active managers may be interested in looking at oil and oil related investments as oil prices have fallen and some of the stocks in those sectors are at prices lower than they were last year,” said Stephen Oxley, managing director at PAAMCO.
The latest in the shake-out has been from Royal Dutch Shell, which took over BG Group in a $91 billion (Dh334 billion) deal."
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Saudi Arabia's Plan to Extend the Age of Oil - Bloomberg Business
Saudi Arabia's Plan to Extend the Age of Oil - Bloomberg Business:
"Last fall, as oil prices crashed, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s petroleum minister and the world’s de facto energy czar, went mum. He still popped up, as is his habit, at industry conferences on three continents. Yet from mid-September to the middle of November, while benchmark crude prices plunged 21 percent to a four-year low, Naimi didn’t utter a word in public.
For 20 years, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May 2015 issue, the world’s $2 trillion oil market has parsed Naimi’s every syllable for signs of where supply and prices are heading. Twice during previous routs—amid the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and again when the global economy melted down 10 years later—Naimi reversed oil’s free fall by orchestrating production cutbacks among members of OPEC. This time, he went to ground.
At the cartel’s semiannual meeting on Nov. 27 in Vienna, Naimi shot down proposed output reductions supported by a majority of the 12 members in favor of a more daring strategy: keep pumping and wait for lower prices to force high-cost suppliers out of the market. Oil prices fell a further 10 percent by the end of the next day and kept going. Having averaged $110 a barrel from 2011 through the middle of 2014, Brent crude, the global benchmark, dipped below $50 in January."
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"Last fall, as oil prices crashed, Ali al-Naimi, Saudi Arabia’s petroleum minister and the world’s de facto energy czar, went mum. He still popped up, as is his habit, at industry conferences on three continents. Yet from mid-September to the middle of November, while benchmark crude prices plunged 21 percent to a four-year low, Naimi didn’t utter a word in public.
For 20 years, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May 2015 issue, the world’s $2 trillion oil market has parsed Naimi’s every syllable for signs of where supply and prices are heading. Twice during previous routs—amid the Asian financial crisis in 1998 and again when the global economy melted down 10 years later—Naimi reversed oil’s free fall by orchestrating production cutbacks among members of OPEC. This time, he went to ground.
At the cartel’s semiannual meeting on Nov. 27 in Vienna, Naimi shot down proposed output reductions supported by a majority of the 12 members in favor of a more daring strategy: keep pumping and wait for lower prices to force high-cost suppliers out of the market. Oil prices fell a further 10 percent by the end of the next day and kept going. Having averaged $110 a barrel from 2011 through the middle of 2014, Brent crude, the global benchmark, dipped below $50 in January."
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Iran Watchers’ Stock Buying Guide Is Loaded With Top Dubai Names - Bloomberg Business
Iran Watchers’ Stock Buying Guide Is Loaded With Top Dubai Names - Bloomberg Business:
"As world powers move toward ending Iran’s international isolation, bargain-hunting stock investors are circling.
The primary focus for many of them, though, isn’t Iranian companies themselves, but rather multinationals that are located in nearby countries as well as those that have kept ties with the Islamic republic during sanctions. Their business, the thinking goes, would get a big lift from an opening up of the Middle East’s second-biggest economy.
Negotiators are seeking to finalize by June a deal that would check Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for an end to sanctions.
The biggest beneficiaries could include banks and developers in Dubai and a Malaysian shipper that may see orders climb if Iran resumes global oil exports. Here are 16 stocks identified by analysts at firms including Exotix Ltd., Global Securities and Erste Securities Istanbul as potential winners."
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"As world powers move toward ending Iran’s international isolation, bargain-hunting stock investors are circling.
The primary focus for many of them, though, isn’t Iranian companies themselves, but rather multinationals that are located in nearby countries as well as those that have kept ties with the Islamic republic during sanctions. Their business, the thinking goes, would get a big lift from an opening up of the Middle East’s second-biggest economy.
Negotiators are seeking to finalize by June a deal that would check Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for an end to sanctions.
The biggest beneficiaries could include banks and developers in Dubai and a Malaysian shipper that may see orders climb if Iran resumes global oil exports. Here are 16 stocks identified by analysts at firms including Exotix Ltd., Global Securities and Erste Securities Istanbul as potential winners."
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