JEDDAH: Hyundai Heavy Industries announced on Sunday that it completed building the world’s largest gas-powered power station in Saudi Arabia, according to a news report.
BEIJING: China reported its first quarterly trade deficit since 2004 on Sunday as surging prices for commodities pushed up its import bill.
JEDDAH: The Saudi tourism industry has witnessed an increasing level of growth in recent years and is seen to continue this trend moving forward. The industry has undergone a major transformation led by the commitment to upgrade the Kingdom's infrastructure as well as improving its hospitality sector.
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s massive social spending packages will have a positive impact in the long term as an increase in supply will help reduce rents, one of the main drivers behind inflation, the finance minister said.
JEDDAH: Saudi stocks closed 0.52 percent higher on Saturday, supported by gains in the banking sector. The Tadawul All-Share Index (TASI) ended 33.97 points higher at 6,608.6.
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia announced Saturday that it was ready to meet the energy requirements of Asian countries. “We are ready to supply oil requirements of South Korea and other Asian countries,” said Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali Al-Naimi.
Oil reserves have again proven to be a curse, at least seemingly. Pointers are already there. And the theory has gained further circulation once oil from the rebel held eastern Libya finally began to trickle.
MANAMA: Bahrain-based Ahli United Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) Capitalization Fund announced the concluding of agreements to support the capitalization and expansion plans of AUB by investing $125 million in equity and $165 million in subordinated debt, AUB in a statement said.
CHARLOTTE, North Carolina: Investors looking for loan growth and surging revenues at the biggest US banks, including Citigroup Inc are likely to be disappointed by first-quarter earnings. Banks have been generating most of their profits in recent quarters from dipping into money they previously set aside to cover bad loans. Those reserve reductions make sense if credit losses are stabilizing, which seems to be the case.
HANOI: Vietnam will force banks to keep more reserves against their foreign currency deposits from next month and impose a ceiling on dollar deposit rates, the central bank said, as it moves to curb dollarisation and ease pressure on the domestic currency.
WASHINGTON: The US Treasury Department on Friday said it was delaying its semi-annual report on currency practices of countries like China in a widely expected move given it clashed with a G20 meeting.
WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama and congressional leaders struck a last-minute budget deal on Friday to narrowly avert a government shutdown that would have hit the economy and idled hundreds of thousands of workers.
LONDON: Fitch Ratings has affirmed Saudi Arabia’s Long-term local and foreign currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDR) at ‘AA-’, with Stable Outlooks. The Country Ceiling is affirmed at ‘AA’ and the Short-term foreign currency IDR at ‘F1+’. “Recent royal decrees will increase spending, but this will not endanger Saudi Arabia’s strong fiscal position.
SARAJEVO: Saudi Fund for Development extended a 35 million Bosnian marka ($25.5 million) loan for a ring road project in Zenica, central Bosnia.
JEDDAH: Saudi banks would see a partial recovery in lending this year, driven by steady retail and reviving corporate businesses, Nomura said.
HANOI: Toyota plans to recall more than 8,000 Innova cars in Vietnam for problems including a faulty pressure cylinder for rear wheel brakes.
NEW YORK: Gold rose to a record high for a fourth straight day and silver surged on Friday, as a weaker dollar, the prospect of a US government shutdown and inflation worries lifted precious metals in a broad commodities rally.
LONDON/MOSCOW: British oil giant BP failed to lift a block on its proposed $16 billion share swap with Russia’s Rosneft, but gained some breathing space to try to salvage the deal.
DETROIT: General Motors Co is recalling about 2,100 Chevrolet Cruze small cars to inspect for an improperly fastened steering wheel after discovering one vehicle with the defect.
LONDON, April 8 : A British commission’s report on how to make UK banks safer and more competitive has been given to senior government officials ahead of its official release on Monday, which analysts expect will propose “ring-fencing” retail banks from investment banks.
KUALA LUMPUR: More Gulf sukuk issuers are expected to tap the Malaysian market in the coming months although global issuance would be lower this year due to turmoil in the Middle East, HSBC’s Malaysian Islamic banking head said.
DALLAS: The CEOs of Southwest Airlines and American Airlines are giving a vote of confidence to Boeing.
BERLIN: A German millionaire’s complaint that publishing his net worth on a magazine’s rich list was an invasion of privacy has been dismissed by a judge on grounds of public interest, the court said on Friday.
JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s Karoo, a vast arid wilderness, may contain gas reserves that could solve the country’s energy problems — but only through an extraction process called fracking that has greens seeing red.
TOKYO: Japan’s economy is in a “severe condition” with no quick recovery in sight following a triple disaster triggered by the March 11 earthquake that has sent service-sector sentiment plummeting the most on record, the government said.
FRANKFURT: Europe’s banking regulator is setting a stricter standard for bank capital reserves as it readies for a new round of stress tests, aimed at boosting confidence that the region’s banking system can get through the debt crisis that has seen three countries taken to the brink of financial collapse.
LONDON: European shares set a five-week closing high on Friday, led by miners tracking stronger metal prices and investors positioning themselves for an expected positive start to the US corporate results season next week.
LONDON: Gold’s “super cycle” could see prices averaging $2,100 an ounce by 2014 and even approaching $5,000 later in the decade, Standard Chartered said in a report as demand rises in burgeoning Asian economies.
PARIS: Events around the world, political and social, or even catastrophic such as the unfortunate disasters in Japan are pointing toward a world that’s constantly changing and becoming increasingly interdependent, Khalid A. Al-Falih, president and CEO of Saudi Aramco, said.
SARAJEVO: Saudi investors pledged on Wednesday to invest in Bosnia with $50 million starting capital and Turkey said that one of its banks will extend credit lines for infrastructure projects.
MANAMA: Bahrain’s economy accelerated in the final quarter of last year from the previous three months and grew 4.5 percent in 2010 as a whole, beating forecasts, data showed.
RABAT: Saudi Paper Manufacturing Co should finalize a deal with Moroccan state-owned fund CDG Development by end-July for a majority stake in paper firm Cellulose du Maroc.
FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank raised interest rates by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent, announcing its first hike since July 2008 to counter firming inflation pressures in the 17-country euro zone.
MANAMA: The situation is back to normal in Bahrain for all businesses, said the CEO of Bahrain Association of Banks (BAB).
DUBAI: Dubai’s Department of Finance plans to raise $800 million by monetizing road toll receipts and will use proceeds to fund infrastructure projects, a statement from the Dubai government said.
DOHA/DUBAI: Qatar’s central bank said its decision to cut interest rates this week was aimed at stimulating banking activity and boosting lending to the private sector ahead of an increase in infrastructure spending.
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti telco Zain has signed a term sheet agreement to sell its quarter-stake in Zain Saudi, it said in a statement, paving the way for a due diligence process on the $950 million deal.
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), the Gulf state’s sovereign fund, will set up a company with $1 billion in capital to invest in Egypt’s stock market, a local newspaper said, citing the head of the chamber of commerce.
DUBAI: Qatar has picked US engineering firms Parsons and Aecom to manage the construction of a light rail transit system in the Gulf nation’s largest real estate development.
NEW YORK: Ivory Coast’s presidential claimant Alassane Ouattara is expected to announce within days the end of a ban on exports of cocoa, of which the country is the world’s leading producer, his UN envoy said.
DHAKA: A state-appointed committee probing a recent series of sharp falls in Bangladesh share prices handed its report to the finance minister, holding the regulator primarily responsible for the debacle.
BOLOGNA, Italy/DETROIT: Fiat SpA is poised to increase its stake in Chrysler Group to 30 percent within the next two months, CEO Sergio Marchionne said.
NAIROBI: Kenya has licensed HSBC Limited to open a representative office for marketing and liaison purposes in the country, the east African nation’s central bank said.
LONDON: Britain’s South Hook Gas has signed a deal giving US-based ConocoPhillips access to spare liquefied natural gas import capacity at Europe’s biggest LNG terminal, it said.
NEW YORK: Qatar liquefied natural gas producer Rasgas has aided in the supply of additional fuel to Japan following last month’s earthquake and tsunami, a company executive said.
DUBAI Banks in the Gulf are expected to show signs of recovery on their balance sheets when they report first-quarter results, though lending is likely to remain muted.
DOHA: Qatari property developer Barwa Real Estate has laid off nearly 90 employees amid a restructuring move being pushed through by its new chief executive, two sources said.
KARACHI: China Three Gorges Corp., the country’s largest hydropower developer, is ready to invest $15 billion in Pakistan’s troubled energy sector to add 10,000 megawatts to its grid in 10 years, a senior company official said.
LONDON: Nissan UK says it will suspend production for three days this month because of supply disruptions caused by the earthquake in Japan.
LONDON: British milling wheat has been sold to Turkey for the first time, with a shipment of 7,200 tons, merchant Gleadell said.
LONDON: The British government has pledged to rip up some of the 21,000 rules that it says are holding back business, using a modern “crowd-sourcing” technique to tackle an age-old problem.
LONDON, April 7 : Oil rig maker Lamprell said it is in talks to buy Norway’s Maritime Industrial Services Co (MIS) for 38 crowns ($6.88) per share, valuing the business at around $330 million.
LONDON: Britain’s smaller banks could be hit by ratings downgrades after Moody’s said it was assessing how they would fare without a tacit understanding the government would always bail them out if they got into financial trouble.
LONDON/FRANKFURT: Siemens may scrap plans for an atomic power joint venture with Russia’s Rosatom after the nuclear crisis in Japan and mounting internal resistance, the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified sources.
HELSINKI: Moody’s cut its credit rating on Nokia, citing the Finnish mobile phone company’s weakening market position and uncertainty over its transition to Microsoft’s Windows Phone software.
SEATTLE: Microsoft and Toyota have unveiled a plan to work together on bringing Internet-connected services to Toyota’s cars across the world.
GODOLLO, Hungary: European finance ministers on Saturday defended painful austerity measures as a necessary means to defeat the region's crippling debt crisis.
RIYADH: Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), and largest shareholder in Citigroup, expressed his support of Citigroup's reverse stock split and the reinstatement of its cash dividend policy.
AMMAN: Arab stock markets were volatile last week as investors resorted to profit taking and speculation tactics, pending the publication of first quarter results, financial analysts said on Friday.
NEW YORK/LONDON: It’s simple enough to see that many of the world’s key commodities have surpassed their peaks from 2008, including gold, corn, and copper; others are still well behind, oil and wheat to name but two.
TOKYO: Japan’s top automakers plan to resume production at all domestic factories in stages starting on Monday, but output levels will be at half of original plans and at the mercy of parts availability, while fresh power outages further clouded the outlook.
SAN DIEGO: Facebook is looking to strengthen its relationship with the news media and has already helped boost traffic to news websites, a top executive said.
NEW YORK: Google CEO Larry Page has promoted six executives to head key parts of the company in one of his first big moves since he took over the Internet search company on Monday.
LISBON: Political and economic uncertainty clouded Portugal’s future as it remained unclear who would negotiate the terms of its requested bailout, how much it would be and when it would arrive.
NEW YORK: Brent crude futures dipped on Thursday, as investors worried after five days of gains that oil had become expensive enough to crimp economic growth and cut demand. Prices also came under pressure after a major earthquake struck Japan, the world’s third largest economy still reeling from last month’s earthquake and tsunami.
Brent crude for May delivery dipped 15 cents to $122.16 a barrel by 1612 GMT. It hit a 2-1/2-year high of $123.37 on Wednesday, as violence in the Middle East continued to stoke supply fears.
WASHINGTON: The World Bank needs to take a more grassroots approach to fighting poverty in response to revolutionary change in the Middle East and North Africa, the bank’s president said.
GENEVA: World trade will carry the scars of the financial crisis into 2012, the World Trade Organization said with a prediction of 6.5 percent growth for this year, less than half of last year’s sharp rebound.
MILAN : Global food prices came off record highs in March after unrest in the Arab world and Japan’s earthquake, but new increases are in sight as demand grows and supplies tighten, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization said.
LONDON: The British government must fully enforce the recommendations of an independent inquiry into the banking sector, Labour leader Ed Miliband said. Speaking to a business audience, Miliband accused the banking system of having “failed British industry for too long.”
TOKYO: Japan is set to form an initial supplementary budget worth a bigger-than-expected 4 trillion yen ($47 billion) for relief efforts after last month’s earthquake and tsunami devastated the country’s northeast.
PARIS: OPEC ministers on Wednesday brushed aside worries that inflated fuel prices will slow economic growth, saying there was little more they can do to rein in $120-a-barrel crude.
CAIRO: Egypt’s property investment market suffered a further jolt on Wednesday with the arrest of a second housing minister as part of an anti-corruption campaign.
MANILA/HONG KONG: Some of Asia’s emerging economies are showing signs of overheating, underscoring the need for further policy tightening and more flexible foreign exchange rates to tackle growing inflationary pressures, the Asian Development Bank said.
Thursday - 7 April 2011
TOKYO: Toyota Motor Corp will begin making two more car models on April 11, taking another small step toward normalizing operations after a massive earthquake in Japan disrupted its supply chain and forced most of its factories to halt work.
LONDON: Honda Motor said it would cut UK manufacturing volumes by half from April 11 because of a shortage of some components supplied from Japan following the earthquake and tsunami in the country in March.
JEDDAH: As a result of corporate-wide restoration activities, Nissan is now capable of resuming normal operations at all of its Japanese plants except for the Iwaki Engine Plant. “We are aiming to resume normal operations at these facilities from mid-April,” according to a Nissan statement.
