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Markets across the globe continued their rally, albeit in a subdued fashion manner, for the week ended July 31, 2009, as optimistic news kept investors bullish. The US economy shrank one percent in the second quarter—the market anticipated a 1.5 percent fall—spurring speculation that the pace of economic decline had stabilized. Furthermore, jobless claims rose [...]
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Italy’s Finmeccanica and Libya’s sovereign wealth fund said they have agreed to cooperate on aerospace and other projects in the Middle East and Africa, tapping into a market worth as much as $20 billion. The deal is the latest tie-up between an Italian company and Libya, which has recently bought stakes in [...]
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Samsung Engineering clinched $300 Mn worth deal for an Air Separation Unit from National Industrial Gases Company, a subsidiary of Saudi Basic Industries Corporation.
BP Plc, the only winner in Iraq’s first oil-licensing round since the U.S. led-invasion, says it can turn a profit at the Rumaila deposit that’s in line with other [...]
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Saudi and Gulf banks may increase provisions on troubled Saudi groups towards the end of the year but levels will not be threatening – Saudi state-owned National Commercial Bank (NCB).
Zain Saudi Arabia is expected to sign two-year murabaha financing worth $2.5 Bn to facilitate its network expansion in Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Aramco and [...]
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Saudi Arabia-based food producer Savola Al Azizia United Co. entered in to an agreement with Fawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & Co. to buy assets of Casino Guichard-Perrachon’s Geant chain in the kingdom. Savola will pay SAR440 Mn ($117 Mn) for the assets which will be bought through its 80%-owed subsidiary Al Azizia Panda [...]
US markets rose emphatically during the week ended July 24, 2009, as 75 percent of the S&P 500 companies’ second-quarter results as of date surpassed market expectations. Furthermore, home sales rose 11 percent to an annual rate of 384,000 in June 2009. The data reinforced the emerging trend that the US housing market has bottomed [...]
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Annual inflation in Bahrain slowed to 2.7 per cent last month, its lowest level in at least 23 months, from 3.5 per cent in May, as food prices posted a month-on-month decline.
Kuwaiti money supply growth accelerated to 21.5 percent in June from 17.7 percent in May, official data showed on Wednesday. Money [...]
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Mobile broadband in the Middle East and Africa will expand to $6 billion in the next two years from the current $1 billion, spurred by an expanding network and falling prices according to Delta Partners, a telecom advisory firm. The firm says in Africa, there are 10 undersea cables either under construction [...]
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The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has become the first regulator in the Middle East to set a minimum qualification bar for representatives of insurance companies to practice in the Kingdom.
Kuwait and Qatar have synchronized their power networks as they move towards the launch of a four-nation Gulf grid. Saudi Arabia successfully [...]
The US markets emphatically broke their four-week losing streak in the week ended July 17, 2009, as investors turned optimistic about economic recovery amid strong corporate earnings and US manufacturing data. Goldman Sachs reporting a record net profit of USD3.44 billion and strong earnings from Intel Corp and Johnson & Johnson allayed investors’ fears that [...]
