Mideast Stocks Gain as Inoculations Calm Yield Fears: Inside EM - Bloomberg

Mideast Stocks Gain as Inoculations Calm Yield Fears: Inside EM - Bloomberg

Middle East equities rose as optimism surrounding the acceleration in global coronavirus vaccinations outweighed a rise in U.S. yields that may signal the return of inflation.

Israel’s TA-35 climbed as much as 1.2%, while benchmark stock indexes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi and Egypt also made gains.

“We see higher inflation expectation as positive for the cyclical parts of emerging markets, such as the MENA region, especially when these expectations are driven by a rebound in the global economic growth which should propel earnings growth,” said Divye Arora, money manager at Daman Investments Psc in Dubai. “However, we are also watchful of the pace of increase of 10-year US treasury yields.”

In another boost to risk sentiment, global coronavirus vaccinations reached more than 202 million in a little more than two months since the first shots were delivered, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. Moreover, the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE vaccine appeared to stop the vast majority of recipients in Israel becoming infected, providing the first real-world indication that the immunization will curb transmission of the coronavirus.

MIDDLE EASTERN MARKETS:

• Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index closes 0.7% higher after climbing as much as 0.9%, with Al Rajhi Bank, Banque Saudi Fransi and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. rising the most
• Dubai Financial Markets General Index closes 0.3% lower after falling as much as 0.7%
• Emaar Properties -0.8%; Damac Properties -2.5%; Du -0.5%
• Abu Dhabi’s ADX closes 0.2% higher
• Etisalat leads gains, trading 0.8% higher
• Kuwait Premier Market little-changed
• Agility drops 0.6% after announcing 6.5 million dinar impact on revenue following a court decision
• NOTE: Kuwait extended a decision to impose a ban on entry of all foreigners to the country, Kuwait Times reported, citing the civil aviation authority

Iran to Attend OPEC+ Committee Meeting Next Month, Delegate Says - Bloomberg

Iran to Attend OPEC+ Committee Meeting Next Month, Delegate Says - Bloomberg

Iran is set to attend the meeting of an OPEC+ advisory committee next month, according to a delegate who declined to be identified.

While Iran -- exempted from OPEC’s production cuts because it’s output has been hit by U.S. sanctions -- isn’t a member of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee (JMMC), it will be represented at the panel’s March 3 gathering, the delegate said. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies, which include Russia, meet the following day to consider output levels for April.

It’s not uncommon for non-JMMC members to participate in its sessions, with OPEC nations such as Libya and Venezuela having attended in the past.

Yet Iran’s presence is less typical, and comes as the Islamic Republic engages in a diplomatic back-and-forth that could eventually lift sanctions on Iranian crude exports. If significant volumes from the country hit world markets, that could complicate OPEC’s efforts to clear surplus oil inventories left behind during the pandemic.

European, Middle Eastern & African Stocks - Bloomberg #UAE #Kuwait #Israel #SaudiArabia #Qatar close

European, Middle Eastern & African Stocks - Bloomberg #UAE #Kuwait #Israel #SaudiArabia #Qatar close

Major Gulf indexes end mixed, few fresh factors | Reuters

Major Gulf indexes end mixed, few fresh factors | Reuters

Major stock markets in the Gulf ended mixed on Sunday, in the absence of fresh factors to trade on, with property shares weighing on the Dubai index.

Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index added 0.7%, ending two sessions of losses, with Al Rajhi Bank rising 1% and Banque Saudi Fransi climbing 3.8%.

The kingdom’s food and drug administration has approved the COVID-19 vaccine made by AstraZeneca, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing state TV.

Dubai’s main share index eased 0.3%, hit by a 0.8% fall in blue-chip developer Emaar Properties and a 2.5% slide in DAMAC Properties.

Last week, DAMAC, the owner of the Middle East’s only Trump-branded golf course, located in Dubai, said the emirate’s property market in general had been adversely affected by the pandemic. Its chairman Hussain Sajwani said it would take at least 12-24 months to see a “substantial recovery”.

DAMAC posted a net loss of 37 million dirham a year earlier.

In Abu Dhabi, the index added 0.2%, supported by a 0.8% increase in telecoms firm Etisalat.

Meanwhile, sovereign wealth and public pension funds are bolstering their funding of private debt, with close to $9 billion committed since the COVID-19 crisis as they hunt for yield and their ample liquidity allows them to take on more risk than banks.

The Qatari index eased 0.1%, with Commercial Bank shedding 2.2%.

#UAE's Tabreed likely to issue more bonds in coming years, says CEO | ZAWYA MENA Edition

UAE's Tabreed likely to issue more bonds in coming years, says CEO | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Dubai-based National Central Cooling Company (Tabreed) could issue more bonds as it looks to fund acquisitions, including the purchase of district cooling units sold by real estate and infrastructure developers looking to offload non-core assets, its chief executive officer (CEO) told Zawya.

“[There] will be more and more opportunities coming to the market this year. Dubai Airport is one of them,” Bader Al Lakmi said in a phone interview.

The state-owned Dubai Airports has reportedly appointed Standard Chartered as an advisor on the potential sale of a controlling stake in the district cooling plant of Dubai International (DXB). The business is valued at around $750 million, Bloomberg reported earlier.

Al Lakmi said the airport opportunity is being “looked at” by Tabreed, and that it is one of many opportunities in the emirate that the company will consider in 2021.

The company told the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) on Thursday that no agreement regarding the asset serving DXB has been signed yet.

Can OPEC+ Maintain Order As Oil Prices Rise? | OilPrice.com

Can OPEC+ Maintain Order As Oil Prices Rise? | OilPrice.com

After months of neglect from traders, oil became a hot commodity again this month as Brent surged over $65 a barrel and WTI topped $60 for the first time in a year. The rally cast a shadow over OPEC+’s resolve to keep cutting as much production as they are cutting now. Oil had been recovering steadily even before the United States lost some 40 percent of its oil production because of the Arctic cold wave that swept across the country. The Texas deep freeze certainly helped it, but its effect is already dwindling as traders take profits: Brent was down to less than $63 at the time of writing, and WTI had slipped below $60 a barrel. Yet a substantial upside potential remains that could increase internal tensions between OPEC+ members.

For one thing, U.S. demand for oil is recovering. The recovery, Bloomberg reports, started with the vaccination drive that began in December, and since then, refiners have been ramping up fuel production. The last couple of weeks have seen gasoline stocks rise but so has production.

While demand in the world’s top consumer of oil recovers, production is stalling. According to the EIA, U.S. output will remain below 12 million bpd next year as well. This imbalance will turn the United States into a net exporter this year and next, EIA said in its latest Short-Term Energy Outlook. But more importantly for OPEC+, this would push oil prices higher still, tempting barely compliant members to become even less compliant.

There is already discord within the extended oil cartel. The last time OPEC+ made a decision on production, it had to make a compromise decision to take into account the interests of those—like Russia—that insisted on some rollback of the deepest production cuts. And now, Saudi Arabia has said it would suspend its voluntary unilateral additional cuts that amounted to 1 million bpd and that Riyadh effected in its whatever-it-takes quest for higher prices.

Why retail lending will remain a key focus for #Saudi banks? | Banking – Gulf News

Why retail lending will remain a key focus for Saudi banks? | Banking – Gulf News

The sustained growth in retail lending is a key source of strength for Saudi banks and that has largely mitigated the impact of the pandemic on their financial profiles, says rating agency Fitch.

“The retail segment supported the sector’s asset-quality metrics in 2020, and we expect it will soften the impact of an adverse operating environment for Saudi banks. Austerity measures, rising unemployment and weaker consumer confidence are the key risks,” said Amin Sakhri, an analyst at Fitch Ratings.

Retail lending has been a high-growth segment in Saudi Arabia in recent years and a key driver behind sector growth. Fitch Ratings expects it will continue to be so, as banks’ retail appetite remains high.

Mashreq Capital's Kettlewell on Low Interest Rates, #Saudi's Benefitting from Oil Prices and Reforms - Bloomberg video

Mashreq Capital's Kettlewell on Low Interest Rates, Saudi's Benefitting from Oil Prices and Reforms - Bloomberg

Oliver Kettlewell, Head of Fixed Income and Global Portfolios at Mashreq Capital, discusses seeing yields falling in 2H, his belief of three more years of low interest rates, and how Saudi is benefitting from higher oil prices and recent reforms. He speaks with Manus Cranny on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East." (Source: Bloomberg)

Mideast Stocks Mixed as Investors Weigh Reflation: Inside EM - Bloomberg

Mideast Stocks Mixed as Investors Weigh Reflation: Inside EM - Bloomberg

Middle East stocks were mixed as traders weighed an acceleration in global coronavirus vaccinations against a rise in U.S. yields that may signal the return of inflation.

Israel’s TA-35 climbed as much as 1%, while benchmark stock indexes in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt also made gains.

“We see higher inflation expectation as positive for the cyclical parts of emerging markets, such as the MENA region, especially when these expectations are driven by a rebound in the global economic growth which should propel earnings growth,” said Divye Arora, money manager at Daman Investments Psc. “However, we are also watchful of the pace of increase of 10-year US treasury yields.”

In another boost to risk sentiment, global vaccinations reached more than 202 million just over two months after the first shots were injected, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

• Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index climbed as much as 0.6%, with Banque Saudi Fransi, Al Rajhi Bank and Saudi Basic Industries Corp. rising the most
• Dubai Financial Markets General Index fell 0.6% at 12:45 p.m., after rising as much as 0.5%
• Emaar Properties -1.1%; Emaar Development -3%; Du -0.5%
• Abu Dhabi’s ADX climbs as much as 0.3%
• Etisalat leads gains, rising 0.5% at 12:45 p.m.
• Kuwait Premier Market falls as much as 0.2%
• Agility drops 0.8% after announcing 6.5 million dinar impact on revenue following a court decision

Credit Suisse's Iqbal on the Oil Price Rally, #Saudi Consolidation, and LNG's Return to the Forefront - Bloomberg video

Credit Suisse's Iqbal on the Oil Price Rally, Saudi Consolidation, and LNG's Return to the Forefront - Bloomberg

Fahd Iqbal, Head of MENA Research at Credit Suisse, discusses whether the oil price rally can endure, why and in what areas he thinks a consolidation is due in Saudi Arabia, and how liquified natural gas is returning to the forefront as Qatar recommits itself to being the dominant force in LNG. He speaks with Manus Cranny on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Middle East." (Source: Bloomberg)

Texas Blackouts Mask All the Reasons Oil Prices Can Tumble - Bloomberg

Texas Blackouts Mask All the Reasons Oil Prices Can Tumble - Bloomberg

The snowstorm that slammed Texas and neighboring states last week is just the latest in a series of factors that have sent oil prices soaring. It risks burying visibility of the one thing that might undo the rally — a huge reservoir of idle production capacity.

Oil prices began to move lower on Friday, but they are still close to their highest level in over a year, since well before the pandemic trashed global demand. A bull run took Brent from around $37.50 a barrel at the end of October to nearly $62.50 in the space of 15 weeks, a rise of 4% per week. Then the freak snowstorm added another couple of bucks.

The pressures behind the steady climb are well known: recovering economies, vaccine rollouts and, less often acknowledged, the huge supply cuts adhered to with unprecedented discipline among the oil producers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies in the wider OPEC+ group, which came on top of price-related slumps in production elsewhere.

Oil demand has started to recover and is expected to return even more quickly in the months ahead. The International Energy Agency sees it within 1.5 million barrels a day of pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, compared with a 16 million-barrel deficit in the second quarter of 2020. But there are still constraints on supply, and that’s helping to drain excess stockpiles and support prices.

#AbuDhabi’s Mubadala Mulling IPO of Yahsat, CEO-Designate Says - Bloomberg

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Mulling IPO of Yahsat, CEO-Designate Says - Bloomberg

Al Yah Satellite Communications Co.’s incoming chief executive officer said its owner is considering an initial public offering of the Abu Dhabi-based firm.

“Mubadala Investment Co. is looking at this very closely,” Ali Al Hashemi said in an interview in Abu Dhabi. “I can say that financially we are very healthy to be applicable for IPO, but Mubadala has to take the final decision.”

Yahsat provides integrated satellite communications solutions to over 150 countries across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, Asia and Australasia, according to information on its website. It runs five satellites and is wholly owned by Mubadala, the $232 billion state-controlled wealth fund.

Al Hashemi, current CEO of Thuraya Telecommunications and the general manager of Yahsat Government Solutions, will take over as the CEO of Yahsat Group in April.

Saudis, Russia Differ Again on Oil Strategy Before OPEC+ Meeting - Bloomberg

Saudis, Russia Differ Again on Oil Strategy Before OPEC+ Meeting - Bloomberg

Saudi Arabia and Russia are once again heading into an OPEC+ meeting on opposite sides of a crucial debate about the oil market.

Riyadh is publicly urging fellow members to be “extremely cautious,” despite prices rebounding to a one-year high. In private, the kingdom has signaled it would prefer that the group broadly holds output steady, delegates said. Moscow, on the other hand, is indicating that it still wants to proceed with a supply increase.

The positions mirror those taken at recent meetings, but this time the Saudis have a new bargaining chip -- 1 million barrels a day of voluntary cuts. The kingdom pledged to make these extra curbs only in February and March, but some see signs that could change as the negotiations get underway.

“The key question for me is how they return the Saudi barrels,” said Bill Farren-Price, a director at research firm Enverus and veteran observer of the cartel. The kingdom could potentially use them as “leverage for getting a deal,” he said.

Lucid Motors Is Said to Near Deal to Go Public via Klein’s SPAC - Bloomberg

Lucid Motors Is Said to Near Deal to Go Public via Klein’s SPAC - Bloomberg

Lucid Motors Inc. is nearing a deal to go public through a merger with a blank-check company started by investment banker Michael Klein that could be announced early next week, according to people familiar with the matter.

The combined entity will be valued at as much as $15 billion, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

The special purpose acquisition company has been in talks to raise between $1 billion and $1.5 billion in funding from institutional investors to support the transaction, the people added. The valuation and the amount of additional funding could still change based on investor demand.

A deal for the electric vehicle maker could be announced on Tuesday, two of the people said. The talks are ongoing but could still fall apart.

Klein, a former Citigroup Inc. rainmaker, will use Churchill Capital Corp IV, his largest SPAC that has raised more than $2 billion, for the transaction, the people said. Lucid is backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.

No capital reduction, says #Dubai's Deyaar board as losses top $476mln | ZAWYA MENA Edition

No capital reduction, says Dubai's Deyaar board as losses top $476mln | ZAWYA MENA Edition

The board of Dubai’s property developer Deyaar has recommended against capital reduction after accumulated losses have topped 1.75 billion dirhams ($476 million).

In a statement to the Dubai Financial Market (DFM), the company said members had agreed that if necessary, they would recommend that shareholders do not proceed with the measure.

According to a detailed analysis of the company’s finances, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a loss of 216.9 million dirhams for 2020.

The losses were also attributed to the provisions for impairment of assets “due to the real estate market situation in Dubai recorded in 2010.

In addition, the company applied at the start of 2018 the International Financial Reporting Standard 9 (IFRS 9) and this resulted in provisions for certain assets amounting to 661 million dirhams.

Accumulated losses are now 30.26 percent of capital ratio as of December 31, 2020, the analysis said.

Mideast Stocks: Major Gulf markets rise in early trade | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Mideast Stocks: Major Gulf markets rise in early trade | ZAWYA MENA Edition

Major stock markets in the Gulf rose early on Sunday, lifted by gains in their banking shares, with the Saudi index leading the way.

The kingdom's food and drug administration has approved the COVID-19 vaccine made by AstraZeneca, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing state TV.

The benchmark index in Saudi Arabia traded 0.5% higher, on course to end two sessions of losses.

Al Rajhi Bank rose 0.6%, while Banque Saudi Fransi jumped 3.1%.

Dubai's main share index rose 0.3%, with its largest lender Emirates NBD gaining 0.4%, and DAMAC Properties advancing 1.6%.

In Abu Dhabi, the index added 0.2%, helped by a 0.3% gain in the United Arab Emirates' largest lender First Abu Dhabi Bank.

Meanwhile, sovereign wealth and public pension funds are bolstering their funding of private debt, with close to $9 billion committed since the COVID-19 crisis as they hunt for yield and their ample liquidity allows them to take on more risk than banks.

The Qatari index was up 0.3%, led by gains in financial shares, with top lender Qatar National Bank rising 1.9%.