Sunday 17 May 2015

MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf mixed, Egypt falls further on MSCI index fears | Reuters

MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf mixed, Egypt falls further on MSCI index fears | Reuters:



"Gulf stock markets were mixed on Sunday after oil prices diverged while it remained unclear whether the truce in Yemen would be extended. Egypt's market extended losses on speculation that it might eventually lose emerging market status.



Brent crude edged up on Friday but U.S. oil fell as traders and investors debated whether oil's rally over the past month and a half should continue amid stubbornly high supplies.



In Yemen, a five-day humanitarian truce agreed last week was to end in the early hours of Monday, and no new agreements had been announced to extend it by the time stock markets closed on Sunday."



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UPDATE 2-MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi Arabia extends gains, Egypt stabilises | Reuters

UPDATE 2-MIDEAST STOCKS-Saudi Arabia extends gains, Egypt stabilises | Reuters:



"Saudi Arabia's bourse rose broadly in early trade on Sunday, and Egypt's market also edged up after last week's sell-off in Cairo driven by speculation that the country might eventually be excluded from MSCI's emerging markets index.



The main Saudi index climbed 0.5 percent to 9,783 points as most stocks rose. Last week it confirmed technical support on its 200-day average, now at 9,566 points, and it faces chart resistance at its April peak of 9,897 points.



Al Tayyar Travel Group, which was the only addition to MSCI's new Saudi Arabian index last week, jumped 2.8 percent."



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UPDATE 1-MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf markets mixed, Qatar's Ezdan surges again | Energy & Oil | Reuters

UPDATE 1-MIDEAST STOCKS-Gulf markets mixed, Qatar's Ezdan surges again | Energy & Oil | Reuters:



"Gulf stock markets were mixed in early trade on Sunday after mixed messages from the oil market and earnings reports, but Qatari property developer Ezdan Holding extended gains following its inclusion in MSCI's emerging markets index.


Brent crude edged up on Friday, but U.S. oil fell as traders and investors debated whether oil's rally over the past month and a half should continue amid stubbornly high supplies.



Dubai's stock index slipped 0.3 percent as blue chip Emaar Properties lost just as much and Gulf Finance House, the most traded stock, fell 1.3 percent."



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IMF downgrade of UAE growth forecast unfounded | The National

IMF downgrade of UAE growth forecast unfounded | The National:



"Although the IMF downgraded its growth forecast for the UAE quite sharply two weeks ago, the news so far this year does not justify such a big adjustment, with some recent developments even beginning to suggest that a turning point might be on its way.



Two weeks ago the IMF released its regional economic outlook titled Oil, Conflicts and Transitions, in which it downgraded its outlook for many GCC economies, including the UAE’s, based primarily on the outlook for oil prices over the coming year. In it, the IMF anticipated that overall growth in oil-exporting countries would be steady this year, but it forecast a weaker growth outlook in some of the individual GCC economies, including the UAE.



The IMF downgraded its estimate for the UAE’s growth last year to 3.6 per cent from 4.2 per cent previously, and revised growth forecasts for this year and next year down to 3.2 per cent from 4.5 per cent and 4.4 per cent, respectively, in its October 2014 outlook."



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Texan fracking advocate out to 'dethrone Opec' | The National

Texan fracking advocate out to 'dethrone Opec' | The National:



"Chris Faulkner, a Texan whose profile as an advocate for the shale oil business in the US has far outgrown the size of the company he runs, is on a mission to “dethrone Opec”.



Mr Faulkner, the chief executive of Breitling Energy in Dallas, is in the UAE on what he says is a regular fact-finding tour and to share his views on international oil policy.



“About twice a year I go to the Middle East to tour the region, hold meetings and see first-hand what’s going on there,” he explains. “It helps us strategise at Breitling Energy to understand the dynamics that you don’t read in the headlines.”"



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US airlines up the ante in row with Gulf carriers over open skies | The National

US airlines up the ante in row with Gulf carriers over open skies | The National:



"The increasingly acrimonious row between the Arabian Gulf and US airlines on subsidies continues to simmer.



The top three US carriers – American Airlines, United Continental and Delta Air Lines claimed in a report released on Friday that Gulf carriers had expanded in the US by 25 per cent this year without generating new traffic.



Etihad Airways also released a report on Friday that said the three US carriers had received more than $70 billion in government and court-sanctioned benefits over the past 15 years."



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Egypt needs government funding to make it happen | GulfNews.com

Egypt needs government funding to make it happen | GulfNews.com:



"Dealing with unemployment is always tricky. There is no magical recipe or a set of policies than can simply be introduced and problem will be resolved, or at least reduced.



No one could question that increased investments in a given economy can create jobs if the money was put into good use. No one can question either the key role that entrepreneurship can play in job creation. (SMEs provide 70 per cent of the workforce in the Czech Republic.)



And when it isn’t foreign direct investment (FDI) or any other inflow — remittances for example — neither is it entrepreneurship or an increased role for SMEs, it most probably is government spending. Keynesian (theory) has been pretty much defined by that, with government spending being channelled into infrastructure projects. What Maynard Keynes was very specific about is that government role should increase when that of aggregate demand (private) decreases."



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Why Cameron’s victory means Britain won’t be leaving the EU | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Guardian

Why Cameron’s victory means Britain won’t be leaving the EU | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Guardian:



"Eurosceptics were relishing the prospect of a minority Miliband government and the inevitable resignation of David Cameron. Whoever succeeded him as Conservative leader could only have won by hardening the anti-EU line and then relentlessly harrying what they expected to be a weak Miliband government for its pro-Europeanism. Euroscepticism would reach new and impassioned heights.



All of that is stone dead. One of the silver linings from the election result is the death of Brexit. There will be alarms along the way to the referendum, but the Tory high command has taken the decision that, come what may, Britain must stay in and it is politically skilled enough to ride the political white surf and deliver the necessary yes result.



Mr Cameron’s private view, echoed by George Osborne, has always been that it is of existential importance that Britain remain in the EU. This explains why both Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless last autumn correctly doubted their leader’s Eurosceptic credentials and left the Conservative party to join Ukip."



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