Wednesday, February 8, 2017Jumada I 11, 1438 AH

BUSINESSGULF TIMES

VW mulls cap on pay for top executives

BP reports lowest profi t in decade

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QFC at the forefront of fi ntech discussions

UDC posts net profi t of QR681mn in 2016United Development Company posted

a net profi t of QR681mn in 2016, UDC said yesterday.

Net profi t attributable to owners of the company stood at QR623mn with earnings per share of QR1.76, UDC said.

UDC chairman Turki bin Mohamed al-Khater said,“We should particularly re-member 2016 as a year that saw our fl agship project, The Pearl-Qatar, increasingly be-come a living, functional and dynamic entity as UDC has pumped investments into accel-erating the pace of construction works, laying the foundations for rewarding and sustainable returns for coming years. Our positive fi nan-cial performance, therefore, leads the compa-ny to propose dividend distribution of QR1.25 per share”.

Al-Khater also highlighted that in 2016 UDC saw an increase in the company’s rev-

enue and operating profi t, closely associated with UDC’s strategic emphasis on generat-ing value to shareholders through focusing on core business functions. As such, revenue increased by 66% compared to last year and operating profi t increased by 9% from last year.

Al-Khater added, “We are committed to working hard in order to provide long-term value for our shareholders as we remain fo-cused on improving our business and creat-ing profi table investment opportunities for shareholders.”

UDC president and CEO Ibrahim al-Oth-man said 2016 witnessed the execution of the fi rst phase of the company’s fi ve-year busi-ness plan.

He said, “This was achieved through the conclusion of a series of agreements to de-velop in The Pearl, attract more residents

and retailers and promote investment op-portunities. This shows that The Pearl-Qatar constitutes an integrated investment product for investors who are seeking to increase their returns and diversify their portfolios.”

Al-Othman said, “In 2016, UDC sold two plots of land for the development of residen-tial towers in Viva Bahriya and completed the sale transaction of The Pearl Tower 2. The residential leasing volume witnessed an in-crease of 8%, while volume of residential sales in 2016 increased by 81%, compared to 2015. The volume of leased retail properties during the year 2016 also increased by 32% compared to last year.”

“There is no doubt that the outcome of relentless work done by UDC in 2016, will refl ect on the company’s projects and invest-ments during 2017, where we look forward to

continuing the development of ‘Al Mutahi-dah Towers,’ with construction works already launched in 2016, as well as developing the in-frastructure and 10 villas in Giardino Village, in addition to a school and hospital projects. Also in 2017, UDC will particularly concen-trate on retail operations and vital utilities in ‘Qanat Quartier’, which is increasingly being recognised as a distinct destination of The Pearl”.

UDC said it “targets investment opportu-nities in real estate, urban development and infrastructure with positive returns to share-holders.”

Meanwhile, the board of directors has de-cided to hold UDC’s ordinary annual general assembly meeting March 13 at 4pm at The Pearl-Qatar’s Marsa Malaz Kempinski Hotel. In the absence of a quorum, the alternative meeting will be held on March 20.

Barwa Real Estate 2016 net profi t jumps 353% to QR1.6bnBarwa Real Estate Group has posted

a net profi t of QR1.6bn in 2016, up 353% on the previous year, the com-

pany announced yesterday. Barwa’s consolidated fi nancial results

“reveal” an improvement in the operating revenues of the group by QR48mn amid an increase in the net rental income (6% compared to 2015) and net income from consultancy and other services (by 5%).

Barwa said it saw an 8% decrease in the general and administrative expenses as well as in the net fi nance costs last year compared to 2015.

Equity attributable to the sharehold-ers increased by QR658mn to QR18.2bn in 2016, the company said.

Barwa Real Estate Group chairman Salah bin Ghanem al-Ali said the board of directors has taken the task of a total re-structuring of the group from regulatory, operational, and investing perspectives.

“This restructuring contributes to an increase in the return on shareholders’ equity, and helps prepare the group to face the numerous challenges facing the real estate market.”

The board has also worked in coop-eration with the executive management to “put in place and initiate” necessary

plans to increase sustainable returns for the company’s shareholders by obtaining maximum benefi ts through group assets.

“This has refl ected positively on the fi -nancial position of the group and its fi nan-cial indicators, which allowed us to rec-ommend to the Annual General assembly the distribution of 25% cash dividends for 2016, a number considered the highest in terms of dividend distribution throughout the company’s history,” al-Ali said.

He said Barwa was always striving to support development “through the imple-mentation of profi table projects that con-tribute to the achievement of a sustainable growth strategy.”

“The board is continually keen on po-sitioning Barwa as one of the develop-mental pillars of Qatar, and to contribute to the World Cup 2022 requirements and achieving the Qatar National Vision 2030, supported and sponsored by HH the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.”

Barwa Group CEO Salman al-Muhan-nadi said 2016 “witnessed many chal-lenges and diffi culties” in the local and international real estate markets.

However, he said, with the “guidance of our board of directors chaired by HE Salah bin Ghanem al-Ali and also in alignment

with Barwa’s mission, we have worked hard to increase shareholders’ equity and return in addition to achieving sustainable growth.”

Al-Muhannadi said, “We have worked to overcome those diffi culties through completion of local projects under con-struction, the master plan and concept design of other projects in line with the market requirements and starting the de-velopment process at the earliest. We have also enhanced the operational effi ciency for the current operating projects.”

He said Barwa “succeeded in 2016 to accomplish many achievements.” They in-clude the completion of (construction and operation) of the two phases of the labour camp in Barwa Al Baraha project in addi-tion to the Al Khor project (housing com-plex for Shell employees).

Barwa also initiated the construction of many projects such as phase one of Madi-nat Al Mawater, Mustawdaat Project and Dara A – Lusail Area.

The work on these projects was going as per plan, and marketing campaigns would start soon, he said. The amendment of the master plan of Barwa Village extension re-sulted in an increase in the builtup area by 43%.

QP joins consortium to develop Pakistan LNG import project

Qatar Petroleum (QP) has joined a leading consortium to advance an LNG (liquefied natural gas) import project in Pakistan as part of eff orts to enhance its global footprint and support the Asian country’s growing energy demand.The consortium – comprising Total, Mitsubishi, ExxonMobil, and Hoegh, in collaboration with Global Energy Infrastructure Limited – would seek to develop a project that includes a floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), a jetty and a pipeline to shore to provide a timely and reliable natural gas supply to Pakistan.The FSRU will have a minimum regasification capacity of 750mn cubic feet per day by 2018.“This consortium will bring together partners with a proven track record of industry-leading performance and a history of delivering projects on time and on budget, while focusing on environmental stewardship,” QP president and chief executive Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said.Forming this consortium with Total, Mitsubishi, ExxonMobil and Hoegh represents a significant milestone that complements Pakistan’s successful eff ort to meet the growing demand for clean-burning natural gas in this important market, he said, adding QP is proud to partner with these distinguished companies to help meet Pakistan’s energy needs.The companies forming the consortium are global leaders in producing, shipping and marketing LNG with a strong track record of delivering on project execution in a very competitive global LNG market.Natural gas is a cost-competitive fuel and can deliver significant environmental benefits. This project has the potential to deliver substantial, reliable natural gas supplies to the public and private sectors in Pakistan. The FSRU has been committed, and the consortium is promptly advancing through the necessary technical and commercial milestones.QP recently said it is exploring oil and gas in Morocco and Cyprus in a bid to expand its LNG assets overseas; while rationalising costs at home.

Al-Kaabi: Looking to widen QP’s global reach.

QSE on track for 4 listings, including 2 ETFs, this yearBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) is

set to witness four listings (including

two exchange traded funds or ETFs)

this year, according to its top off icial.

“ETFs are on the pipeline and in the

final process and we hope to see

listings this year. We are looking for

the listing of at least one ETF in the

first half,” QSE chief executive Rashid

bin Ali al-Mansoori told reporters on

the sidelines of an investor relations

award ceremony on Monday.

Two ETFs – sponsored by Masraf Al

Rayan and Doha Bank – are expected

to be launched this year.

“As a stock exchange we are ready

with technology and other support

systems to accept them and it is up

to them (ETFs) now,” al-Mansoori

said.

The Masraf Al Rayan ETF, which

will track 17-stock Al Rayan Islamic

index, will be managed by Al Rayan

Investment Company, a subsidiary of

the bank; while the Doha Bank ETF,

which will track the 20-stock Qatar

Index, have Amwal and Group Secu-

rities as fund manager and liquidity

provider respectively.

Multiple sources have confirmed that

the indicative per unit value of ETFs

has been fixed at one-hundredth

of the previous day’s close of the

respective indices in a bid to make it

attractive to investing public.

The proposed ETFs off er not only

an expanded portfolio but also give

investors a “viable” strategy to grow

with the market at “considerably”

lower costs.

Asked about the the QSE’s reported

plan to introduce short-selling,

al-Mansoori said it would come with

the ETFs. However, to a specific

query on whether short selling will

be allowed in the individual stocks,

he said it is up to the regulator (the

Qatar Financial Market Authority) to

approve.

On expanding the investment uni-

verse, he said two more companies

(apart from two ETFs) are likely to

be listed on the bourse by this year.

However, neither did he disclose the

sector from which it would come

nor made it clear whether it would

be through initial public off er (IPO).

Qatar has previously seen the listing

of companies even without an IPO.

The first GCC IPO of this year came from

Qatar, as Investment Holding Group

hopes to garner around QR491mn at

a pricing of QR10.1 per piece. However,

its details including subscription trend

is yet to be made public, even after the

extended deadline was closed.

Qatar’s bottled water company

Rayyan and construction major

UrbaCon Trading and Contracting,

the developer of Mall of Qatar, had

last year announced their IPO plans.

Malomatia, an IT company, plans to

float its IPO by 2019. The QSE last

year introduced a single-window sys-

tem to ensure smooth and speedier

IPOs and follow-on off ers. A special

committee, comprising members

of the QSE and QFMA, would now

look into all the aspects of listing and

trading. Page 16

Al-Mansoori: Technology and support systems ready.

Al-Khater (left) and al-Othman: Committed to working hard to provide long-term value for shareholders.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, February 8, 20172

‘Qitcom 2017’ meetto focus on smarttechnology for sustainable growthThe ‘Qitcom 2017’ con-

ference will focus on the transformational power

of technology to improve quality of life and promote sustainable economic growth, the Ministry of Transport and Communica-tions (MoTC) has announced.

The conference, slated from March 7 to 8 at the Qatar Na-tional Convention Centre, fea-tures over 40 internationally-renowned speakers specialising in various fi elds.

Among the conference’s key-note speakers is professor Carlo Ratti who directs the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He will be discussing how tech-nology has the potential to shape the cities we live in and improve the quality of life for citizens.

The concept of smart cities will be a key theme throughout the conference, highlighting how the application of smart technology can drive sustainable growth across diff erent sectors of the economy.

Following the opening ses-sion, topics examined on the fi rst day of the conference include how technology can enable more effi cient transportation systems to reduce congestion, boost GDP, and facilitate a transition to a low carbon economy.

The use of digital clusters as a business model to drive eco-nomic growth by stimulating innovation, creating jobs, and attracting international invest-ment will then be followed by a session on how digital technolo-gies are enabling governments to engage with their citizens in more eff ective and effi cient ways online.

Among the sessions on day two are cybersecurity for smart cities to ensure digital safety, and the challenges and trends in the current technological revo-lution taking place in the health-care sector for future healthier societies.

The application of technol-ogy as a driver for environmen-tal sustainability through more effi cient resource consumption will precede the fi nal topic of

the day on how sporting mega events such as the 2022 World Cup are being transformed by technology in terms of athlete performance and stadium enter-tainment.

Reem al-Mansoori, assistant undersecretary of the MoTC’s Digital Society Development Sector, said: “The conference is the region’s preeminent plat-form for senior-level govern-ment offi cials, business leaders, academics, innovators, and in-vestors to interact, network, and share knowledge on sustainable economic development through technological innovation.

“As well as exceptional in-ternational speakers, the con-ference will also feature a large

number of Qatari speakers who are leading the application of smart city technology, in what promises to be a thought-pro-voking two days of discussion on sustainable solutions to real-world issues that aff ect all of us around the world.”

Ratti, who is also founding partner at Carlo Ratti Associati design offi ce, said: “Today, we fi nd ourselves in a moment of crucial change. Internet is enter-ing the spaces we live in, and is becoming Internet of Things. It is merging the physical and dig-ital layers, giving rise to cyber-physical systems.

This transformation is open-ing the door to a new world of applications that can encom-

pass many domains, as it hap-pened with the first wave of the Internet.

“As a result, many aspects of urban life are being rapidly transformed: from energy to waste management, from mo-bility to water distribution, from city planning to citizen engage-ment.

Confronting these changes requires an open and cross-dis-ciplinary debate, and it is for this reason that I really look forward to joining the ‘Qitcom 2017’ con-ference. It will be a great oppor-tunity to discuss innovation and the ways in which technology can improve quality of life in our cities.” For more information on the conference, visit qitcom.qa

Ratti: Keen to join the ‘Qitcom 2017’ conference.

Erdogan reiterates discontent with Turkish interest rate policy

Turkish President Tayyip

Erdogan reiterated his

discontent with the country’s

interest rate policy yester-

day, saying it was a means of

exploitation and calling on

the country’s banks to “be

reasonable.”

“I am not happy with our coun-

try’s interest rate policy.

My country cannot develop

with this rate policy, this is

a means of exploitation,” he

said at an economic summit in

Ankara.

“If you try to double the interest

rate set by the central bank

to give credit, you can’t get

anywhere with 15, 16, 17%.

We can’t achieve anything if

loans are provided at double-

digit interest rates,” he said.

“I’m calling on the bosses of the

financial sector, namely state

banks, to be reasonable.”

Meanwhile Turkey’s sovereign

wealth fund will be used to

finance major projects such

as defense and aerospace

investments and big infrastruc-

ture plans such as highways

and hospitals, Deputy Prime

Minister Nurettin Canikli said

yesterday.

“These projects pay off in me-

dium to long term and generate

resources,” Canikli said on

Twitter.

Turkey has transferred govern-

ment stakes worth billions of

dollars in Turkish Airlines, major

banks and fixed-line operator

Turk Telekom to a sovereign

wealth fund set up last year to

help finance big-ticket infra-

structure projects.

Teva CEO exits amid crisis of confi denceReutersTel Aviv

The chief executive of Teva Pharmaceutical Indus-tries has stepped down, leaving new management to overhaul the world’s biggest maker of generic

drugs and restore confi dence after a series of missteps sent its shares plummeting.

Teva, Israel’s largest company, said late on Monday chief executive Erez Vigodman was departing imme-diately and would be replaced on an interim basis by chairman Yitzhak Peterburg.

A string of questionable and costly acquisitions, along with delayed drug launches, has led to calls for management and structural changes, including a possi-ble split of the business into separate generic and brand-ed medicine units.

Investors say Teva, which faces pricing pressure in its core generics business and recently lost patent pro-tection on its key branded drug Copaxone for multiple sclerosis, must choose a new CEO with extensive phar-maceutical experience.

The new boss needs to set a clear strategy, said Eldad Tamir, head of investment house Tamir Fishman, whose funds have slashed holdings in Teva by 90% in the past two years.

“Is it the biggest generics company or is there an un-derstanding that generics is hitting a glass ceiling and it should do other stuff ,” such as investing more in brand-ed drugs, he told Reuters.

Compounding the challenge for Teva, US President Donald Trump has pledged to crack down on drug pric-es. Veteran Israeli activist investor Benny Landa echoed previous calls from US institutional shareholders for Teva to be split into separate branded and generic com-panies, telling the Globes website there was little benefi t from keeping the two diff erent activities combined.

Teva shares fell around 2% in Tel Aviv yesterday fol-lowing Vigodman’s departure, which comes after the

head of Teva’s generics business, Siggi Olafsson, left.Tal Levi, analyst for Israeli investment house Hal-

man-Aldubi, said Teva needed to manage cash fl ow bet-ter and deliver the hoped-for synergies from its acquisi-tion last year of the Actavis generics business.

Teva’s New York-listed shares, which hit $72 in July 2015, tumbled to around 10-year lows last week after a US court found Copaxone patents to be invalid.

The drug accounted for almost a fi fth of Teva’s rev-enue last year. Investors and analysts have raised con-cerns Teva might have to cut its dividend if Copaxone faces generic competition in the near term.

Vigodman joined Teva in 2014 after his success at re-juvenating an ailing Israeli agrochemicals fi rm earned him a reputation as a turnaround specialist and deal-maker.

But a series of stumbles has dismayed investors. Vi-godman embarked on a costly buying spree that culmi-nated in the acquisition of Actavis for $40.5bn, a price many investors believe was too high.

Teva is now saddled with nearly $36bn in debt, similar to its market value, making it very diffi cult to raise new equity, Tamir said. A $2.3bn deal for Mexican drugmaker Rimsa has led to both sides suing each other.

And in December Teva agreed to pay more than $519mn to settle US criminal and civil allegations that it bribed overseas offi cials to gain business.

Last month, Teva provided a 2017 revenue and profi t forecast below Wall Street’s estimates.

Interim leader Peterburg, who will work alongside Teva’s new chairman, former Celgene CEO Sol Barer, said he would conduct a “thorough review” of Teva’s business while the company searches for a permanent CEO. RBC Capital Markets analyst Randall Stanicky said it was unclear what this entailed and whether asset sales could be on the agenda.

“We fi nd it interesting that Teva would pursue a re-view before naming a permanent CEO, which may be suggestive of further close involvement of the board and broader management team,” Stanicky said.

Qatar bourse falls on profi t-bookingBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

Qatar Stock Exchange yesterday lost 25 points to settle below the 10,600 mark mainly on stronger selling in insurance,

telecom and industrials stocks.A substantially stronger profi t booking by Gulf

institutions rather led the 20-stock Qatar Index shrink 0.23% to 10,584.94 points as Qatar’s Fi-nance Minister HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi said aus-terity measures to continue though pressure on state fi nance was easing.

Large cap equities bore the maximum brunt in the market, whose year-to-date gains were con-tained at 1.42%.

Islamic stocks were however seen outperform-ing the main index in the bourse, where buying support from local retail investors weakened and Gulf individuals also turned net sellers.

Trade turnover rose amid lower volumes in the bourse, where telecom, banking and realty sec-tors together accounted for more than 71% of the total volumes.

Market capitalisation was down QR0.66mn or 0.12% to QR567.86bn as large, mid and small cap equities fell 0.51%, 0.18% and 0.12% respective-ly, while microcaps gained 0.26%.

The Total Return Index rose 0.1% to 17,182.39 points, All Share Index by 0.09% to 2,914.85 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index by 0.34% to 3,994.61 points.

The insurance sector saw its index shrank 0.84%, telecom (0.64%), industrials (0.31%) and consumer goods (0.2%), whereas banks and fi nancial services gained 0.43%, real estate (0.43%) and transport (0.11%).

Major losers included QNB, Commercial Bank, Qatar Insurance, Ooredoo, Gulf International Services, Qatar First Bank, Qatar Electricity and Water, Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding, Voda-fone Qatar, Nakilat and Medicare Group; even as Industries Qatar, Barwa, Mazaya Qatar, Qatar Islamic Bank, Doha Bank, Masraf Al Rayan and Salam International Investment were among the gainers. The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Coun-

cil) institutions’ net selling grew considerably QR33.81mn against QR18.7mn on Monday.

Local retail investors’ net buying weakened perceptibly to QR1.86mn compared to QR7.5mn the previous day.

The GCC retail investors turned net sell-ers to the tune of QR1.1mn against net buyers of QR1.15mn on February 6.

Non-Qatari individual investors were also net sellers to the extent of QR1.83mn compared with net buyers of QR3.22mn on Monday.

However, domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR17.73mn against net sell-ers of QR1.72mn the previous day.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying increased substantially to QR17.13mn against QR8.58mn on Monday.

Total trade volume fell 4% to 8.49mn shares, while value rose 9% to QR261.47mn and deals by 22% to 3,832.

There was 46% plunge in the real estate sec-tor’s trade volume to 1.71mn equities, 33% in val-ue to QR39.63mn and 1% in transactions to 585.

The transport sector’s trade volume plum-meted 30% to 0.31mn stocks and value by 30% to QR10.23mn, while deals gained 16% to 177. There was 7% decline in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.55mn shares and 14% in value to QR31.56mn but on 22% increase in transac-tions to 404.

However, the consumer goods sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 1.02mm equities, value expanded 10% to QR26.18mn and deals by 79% to 534.

The banks and fi nancial services sector saw 55% surge in trade volume to 1.81mn stocks to more than doubled value to QR108.85mn on 28% jump in transactions to 1,277.

The insurance sector’s trade volume soared 38% to 0.11mn shares and value by 14% to QR8.17mn, while deals declined 29% to 73. The market witnessed 23% expansion in the industri-als sector’s trade volume to 0.98mn equities but on 25% fall in value to QR36.85mn. Transactions shot up 15% to 782.

In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and government bonds.

Corporate earnings boost Egypt, DubaiReutersDubai

Strong corporate earnings in Egypt and Dubai

buoyed those markets yesterday, while Kuwait

continued pulling back on profit-taking after a

bullish run last month. Cairo’s Palm Hills Develop-

ment soared 9.2% to 3.08 Egyptian pounds after

it reported fourth-quarter consolidated net profit

after minority interests of 235mn pounds ($12.7mn)

versus 169mn pounds a year ago, beating many

analysts’ estimates.

Revenue rose to 2.00bn pounds, up 89%.

Analysts at Cairo’s Naeem Brokerage said the

company’s top line results were ahead of their

estimates while rising real estate prices and acceler-

ated construction in recent years would boost the

bottom line in coming quarters.

Other shares in Egypt’s blue chip index were

also robust with two food producers, Arabian Food

Industries and Juhayna Food Industries, jumping by

their 10% daily limits. The index rebounded 2.2%.

A trader at Cairo-based Beltone Securities, Wafik

Dawood, said funds were still looking for the best

times to build long-term positions.

The index has jumped nearly 50 % since the

Egyptian pound was floated on November 3,

although turnover has been shrinking in the last two

weeks. Dubai Financial Market climbed 3.0% after

it made a net profit of 78.5mn dirhams ($21.4mn)

in the fourth quarter, five times what it made in the

prior-year period.

Quarterly revenue increased to 131.2mn dirhams

from 69.3mn dirhams as the market’s trading turno-

ver ballooned late last year, buoyed by a recovery of

oil prices. The Dubai index rose for a third consecu-

tive session and added 0.7%, although it briefly

traded in negative territory early in the day. Amuse-

ment park operator DXB Entertainments, which has

not yet reported quarterly earnings, rose 1.8%.

The operator of Dubai’s Legoland, Motiongate

and Bollywood Parks will report results for the first

time since those facilities opened. Banking shares

helped lift Abu Dhabi’s index 0.5%.

Union National Bank, which is expected to release

earnings on Thursday, jumped 3.5%.

Kuwait’s index, which soared 19% in January,

dropped 1.8% on profit-taking in heavy trading

volume. It is now down 5.2% since January 30.

In Saudi Arabia, the index dipped 0.3% with

decliners outnumbering gainers 93 to 61.

Elsewhere, Oman index edged up 0.2% to 5,825

points and Bahrain index added 0.7% to 1,310 points.

3ISLAMIC FINANCEGULF TIMESWednesday, February 8, 2017

Aramco said to hire banks for fi rst sukuk ahead of IPOHSBC’s local unit, Riyad Capital said to be advising on sukuk; firm plans to sell shares in 2018 in world’s biggest off ering

BloombergDubai

Saudi Arabian Oil Co, the world’s largest oil producer, picked four banks to advise

on its fi rst bond sale, two peo-ple familiar with the matter said, ahead of the world’s largest initial public off ering.

Saudi Aramco, as the company is known, selected HSBC Holdings’ local unit and Riyad Capital to help with the sale of riyal-denominated Islamic bonds, or sukuk, before the end of June, said the people, asking not to be identifi ed as the informa-tion is private.

NCB Capital Co and Alinma In-vestment Co are also working on the deal that could be followed by the sale of dollar-denominated bonds, two other people said. The sukuk is part of Aramco’s plans to raise as much as $10bn in bonds this year, one of the people said.

Aramco and HSBC Saudi Arabia declined to comment, while Riyad Capital, NCB Capital and Alinma Investment didn’t respond to re-quests.

Aramco is selling bonds as it prepares for a share sale in 2018 and follows the Saudi Arabian gov-ernment’s debut off ering in Oc-tober which raised $17.5bn in the biggest-ever emerging-market sale. Middle East and North Afri-can countries sold almost $80bn of bonds last year, the most since Bloomberg started compiling data in 1999, as governments fi nance budget defi cits brought on by low-er oil prices and companies strug-gle with tight liquidity.

Saudi Arabia plans to sell less than 5% of Aramco as part of plans by Deputy Crown Prince Mo-hammed bin Salman to set up the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund and reduce the economy’s reliance on hydrocarbons. The company asked banks including Goldman Sachs Group and HSBC to pitch for an advisory role on the IPO last month, people said at the time.

Aramco’s estimated IPO size of $100bn would make it the largest ever, dwarfi ng the $25bn raised by Chinese Internet retailer Alibaba Group Holding in 2014.

EDUCATION/FAQ on Loan

May one lend money or property when one suspects unlawful usage?It is impermissible to lend money or property when one is certain that it will not be used lawfully, and off ensive when one doubts whether it will be used lawfully.

Is it permissible to intentionally delay repayment of loan?It is impermissible for a debtor possessing the means to pay the creditor to delay payment unnecessarily beyond the agreed upon date.

What guidelines are there for the borrower regarding the consumption of money, replaceable items, and irreplaceable items?The borrower may consume the money or

replaceable goods in any manner he chooses provided this consumption does not hinder his ability to make a timely repayment or to return irreplaceable goods in the condition he borrowed them.

Would it be permissible for the borrower to repay the loan amount with some extra value above the principal?It is permissible for the borrower to repay an amount greater than the size of the loan as a gesture of goodwill (without letting such a gesture become customary practice), but impermissible for the borrower to promise to pay a greater amount at the time of borrowing or for the lender to demand a greater amount.

Is the borrower entitled to any early payment discounts?It is impermissible for the borrower and lender to agree a discount on the loan if the borrower repays before the due date.

May the borrower repay the loan with an amount greater than the borrowed loan (the excess being a gesture of goodwill)?It is permissible for the borrower to repay an amount greater than the size of the loan as a gesture of goodwill (without letting such a gesture become customary practice), but impermissible for the borrower to promise to pay a greater amount at the time of borrowing or for the lender to demand a greater amount.

Can borrowed money be repaid in kind instead of in cash?Provided the lender agrees, the form of repayment can be diff erent from the form of the original loan (e.g. a cash loan repaid in its equivalent in wheat).

If the lender passes away or becomes insane, to whom should the borrower return the borrowed item?If the lender passes away, or becomes insane or incapacitated, the borrower is responsible for returning the item to the lender’s heirs (if the lender passes away) or the lender’s guardian (if the lender becomes insane or incapacitated).

What should the borrower’s intention be at the time of borrowing?At the time of borrowing the borrower must have a firm intention to repay the lender; to borrow without such an intention is impermissible and to benefit from the borrowed item unlawful.

May one borrow from a lender without there being an agreement on a fixed repayment date?It is impermissible to borrow money without both parties agreeing a fixed repayment date (or fixed repayment schedule).

Source: Ethica Institute of Islamic Finance via Bloomberg

Islamic finance and digital currencies: The halal aspectBy Arno MaierbruggerGulf Times Correspondent Bangkok

With the growing utilisation of fintech in

the Islamic finance sector, the question

arises what role digital currencies and

blockchain technologies play in Shariah

banking and – most of all – whether they

are halal or not.

This is such a new topic that not much

had been released on it from Islamic

scholars, and there is no off icial position

yet by large Islamic finance organisations.

But there is an increasing number of fi-

nancial service companies that start using

such modern technologies in a quest to

tap the potential of particularly younger

Islamic investors.

For example, Toronto-based company

Goldmoney Inc, which just recently certi-

fied its gold-based financial products as

Shariah-compliant by implementing the

newly announced halal gold standard, is

the latest firm to utilise blockchain tech-

nology for Islamic finance transactions.

In Malaysia, HelloGold launched a

Shariah-compliant online platform that

uses blockchain, allowing for more direct

transactions and lower costs to give the

company access to millions of Muslim

customers around the region.

In Indonesia, fintech startup Blossom

Finance uses Bitcoin to help Muslim

entrepreneurs and small businesses by

off ering microfinance services. Blossom

Finance collects capital from investors all

over the world and provides the funds to

microfinance institutions for investments

by using cost-saving Bitcoin transac-

tions. After an annual cycle, the company

distributes profits back to investors. And

the list continues.

Blossom Finance is a good example

to illustrate why Bitcoin and related

blockchain transactions fully comply

with Shariah finance. First, Blossom’s

risk-sharing business concept is built on

Mudaraba, does not collect or distribute

interest and does not invest in haram

industries. And this is supported by using

Bitcoin, through which global transactions

are becoming completely transparent,

says Blossom Finance founder and CEO

Matthew J Martin.

“Bitcoin guarantees that the money

invested into small Islamic businesses is

not done on margin, and that its existence

as a real asset is publicly verifiable using

the blockchain,” Martin says, adding that

“Bitcoin ensures ownership of underlying

assets with 100% mathematical certainty.”

However, some scholars have pointed

out that if Bitcoin is seen as a currency

like any other, then Shariah rules with

regards to currency trading need to be

obeyed. According to most stances within

Islam, currencies can only be exchanged

in spot transactions and not with delays

which would constitute speculation; and

the same principles would apply to digital

currencies.

Another issue that Muslim people have

with the concept of digital currency is

that there is no physical representation

of Bitcoin, at least not in tangible form

although its existence proves itself when

a transaction is made because value is

generated. Those who study Bitcoin’s

relation with Islamic finance are quick to

explain that the cryptocurrency’s “intrin-

sic value” comes into play. Since the laws

of Islam require halal currency to have

such intrinsic value and to be backed by

an asset, digital currencies seem to fit that

requirement perfectly. Compared to paper

money, which just has an agreed-upon

value and the real value (of the paper) is

close to nothing and which is prone to

damage, loss, theft and illegal duplication,

Bitcoin’s intrinsic value cannot be modi-

fied in any way.

Moreover, Bitcoin and other digital cur-

rencies are considered asset-based as

opposed to the fiat monetary system in

use today in conventional finance which

is debt-based. The majority of today’s

fiat money is created in the form of

loans from within the banking system,

whereby Bitcoin is created in limited

volume through a mining process with

actual computer power and does not

involve debt creation, seen by some as

“digital gold.” Thus, it can be described as

an asset class and this fits well with the

principles of Islamic finance.

It has even led some Islamic scholars to

express the view that Bitcoin and similar

cryptocurrencies are actually “more

halal” than paper money because of the

lack of debt and the fact that blockchain-

technology based transactions owing

to their crowd character represent the

risk- or profit-loss sharing principle of

Islamic finance far better that paper

money transactions since there is also no

investor-borrower control as with normal

financing.

While in the analogue world most of Is-

lamic banking transactions involve profit-

and-loss sharing contracts, Blockchain

transactions are based on smart contracts

through the blockchain process which

makes Bitcoin & Co an ideal Shariah-com-

pliant financial tool.

‘Kuwait’s Equate set to issue $750mn 7-year sukuk’ReutersDubai

Kuwait’s Equate Petro-chemical will issue a $750mn, seven-year su-

kuk early next week, company representatives told investors on Sunday during the fi rst of a series of fi xed income meetings ahead of the debt sale, sources familiar with the matter told Re-uters on Monday.

With the planned sukuk sale, Equate – a joint venture involv-ing Kuwait’s Petrochemical In-dustries Co and Dow Chemical Co – would be the fi rst Gulf Co-operation Council corporate to tap the international debt capital markets this year, after a slow start dominated by issuers in the banking sector.

The new paper, part of a $2bn sukuk programme, is likely to of-fer about 180 basis points over midswaps, the sources said, adding that the pricing would be very much in line with the com-pany’s existing debt curve.

Telephone calls to Equate’s headquarters in Kuwait seeking comment were not answered.

Equate presented a “good sto-ry” to investors in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on February 5, fund man-agers said.

Roadshow meetings were set to continue in London on February 6 and 7; Hong Kong on February 9; Singapore on February 10 and Kuwait City on February 12.

“Generally in the sukuk space having a corporate coming up with a sizeable deal is quite rare, so it’s a deal which is going to gather signifi cant attention,” said one fi xed income portfolio manager. “It’s a company with a good rating and existing debt which is trading well. So you’re basically dealing almost with a high-grade sukuk.”

Equate is rated Baa2 by Moody’s and BBB+ by Standard & Poor’s.

The sukuk proceeds will be used to refi nance existing debt as the company aims to maintain its net debt to EBITDA ratio, which is currently 2.9 times, said the sources.

Gulf TimesExclusive

A collection of bitcoin tokens stand in front of an illustration of binary code in this arranged photograph in London last month. In Indonesia, fintech startup Blossom Finance uses Bitcoin to help Muslim entrepreneurs and small businesses by off ering microfinance services.

Oil giant to borrow up to ‘6bn riyals with domestic bond’ReutersDubai

A planned domestic sukuk issue by oil giant

Saudi Aramco is likely to be in the region of

3bn to 6bn riyals ($800mn to $1.6bn), Saudi

Arabia-based debt capital market bankers

said yesterday.

It would be the first sukuk issue by the state

entity, which plans to approach the local

investor base first and off er US dollar-de-

nominated sukuk to international investors

at a later stage, the bankers said, declining

to be named because the matter is not yet

public.

The sukuk are expected to be issued over

the next two to three months, said the

sources, adding however that the company

and the banks arranging the transaction

had not yet issued any off icial communica-

tion on the timeline.

Saudi Aramco declined to comment.

The bond proceeds will be used to finance

“new expansion projects”, said a banker

familiar with the matter.

Early last year, Aramco’s board approved

the creation of a programme to issue sukuk,

according to the company’s off icial maga-

zine, Arabian Sun.

The company is considering expanding its oil

and gas production facilities at the Berri oil-

field, a project which could cost approximate-

ly $1.7bn, sources told Reuters this month.

Among other projects, it is developing with

partners a huge ship repair and shipbuild-

ing complex at Ras al-Khair on the east

coast.

Off icials have said that project will cost over

20bn riyals.

Alinma Investment, HSBC Saudi Arabia,

NCB Capital and Riyad Capital have been

appointed lead managers for the planned

sukuk issue, said one of the sources.

Saudi Aramco plans to sell up to 5% of its

shares in next year in what would be the

world’s biggest initial public off er.

The international sukuk issue is unlikely to

happen before the IPO, the sources said.

“An international bond would require a lot

of disclosure in the bond prospectus,” said

one of them, adding that domestic bonds

would be bought by the local investor base

without much questioning.

The Saudi government has suspended its

own issues of domestic bonds since last

October, reducing pressure on liquidity in

the banking system and leaving more room

in the local debt market for an issue by

Aramco.

After years of reliance on oil income, low oil

prices have pushed Gulf Arab governments

and companies to issue debt.

The Saudi government sold a mammoth

debut international bond of $17.5bn last

October and plans to make an international

sukuk issue this year, according to several

bankers.

Attendees walk by a sign for the Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco) on display inside the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture during a tour of the project in Dhahran on November 25, 2016. Aramco is selling bonds as it prepares for a share sale in 2018 and follows the Saudi Arabian government’s debut off ering in October which raised $17.5bn in the biggest-ever emerging-market sale.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, February 8, 20174

Mounting politicalrisk hits EM assetsReutersLondon

Emerging markets took a beating yesterday as a surge in political risks in Europe and a fall in Chinese reserves below $3tn boosted the dollar, with MSCI’s equity index snapping a four-day winning streak.Most emerging currencies fell against the resurgent dollar, especially after data showed Chinese reserves at $2.998bn, the lowest since February 2011, underscoring the country’s capital outflows problem.The Chinese yuan slipped against the dollar on the spot market to two-week lows while the gap against the offshore yuan widened to around 600 pips at one point, with local bank traders reporting “huge and concentrated” dollar demand from individuals.The yuan also weakened against the dollar in the non-deliverable forwards market to 6.9865, the lowest since November.“With $3tn viewed by some as an important threshold, this decline will likely spark renewed debate over how long the People’s Bank (PBoC) can continue intervening to support the renminbi,” Julian Evans-Pritchard at Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients.France’s election campaign added to fears of political risk, with far-right National Front Leader Marine Le Pen pledging to fight globalisation and take France out of the European Union.

This spurned investors to shift money from equities to government bonds, pushing MSCI’s emerging equity index down 0.3% off seven-month highs.In Russia, the rouble weakened half a per cent as authorities started planned daily purchases of up to $100mn to replenish reserves while the rand fell more than 1%, hit by dollar strength as well as fears of a slowing China which would hit metals prices.The rand will weaken more than 7% this year against the dollar, more than most emerging currencies, according to Reuters polls, which also forecast the Brazilian real and Mexican peso to slump around 6%.The lira meanwhile slipped 0.7% off a one-month high and Turkish shares lost half a per cent off two-year highs, dragged down by a 3% loss in white goods maker Arcelik which fell 6% after 2016 results showed a narrowing of EBITDA margins.In Nigeria, five-year credit default swaps traded at 614 basis points, according to Markit data, the highest level since end-September 2016 after hundreds of Nigerians marched through the streets of Lagos calling for a change of government on Monday in a rare show of public dissent.The protests reflected mounting anger over an absentee leader, with President Muhammadu Buhari having been in Britain for unspecified medical treatment, and a sputtering economy as the country has been mired in its first recession in 25 years.

Trump, Europe concerns hurt Asian marketsAFPHong Kong

Asian markets mostly fell yesterday, with concerns about upcoming European elections and Donald Trump’s unpredictable presidency fuelling uncertainty.With investor nerves shredded by a succession of outbursts from the new US president, safe-haven assets rose.Gold pushed higher and while the yen eased from three-month highs against the dollar it continued to hold recent gains.The weakness across markets is in contrast to the two-month rally that followed Trump’s election win in November, when dealers bet that his big-spending, tax-cutting plans would fan US growth and inflation and force interest rates up. Tokyo’s Nikkei ended 0.4% lower as the stronger yen hit exporters.The greenback was hovering around ¥112, up from late Monday but well off Friday’s levels around ¥112.60.The Japanese unit is up about five % against the dollar this year, clawing back most of the losses seen since Trump’s election, after he accused Tokyo and Beijing of currency manipulation to get a trade advantage over the US.Japan’s former vice minister of finance for international aff airs Eisuke Sakakibara said this week that Trump’s desire to boost US jobs means he must boost exports.“In order to do so, Trump is leaning to a weak dollar policy by, for example, criticising Japan for adopting weak yen

policy,” said Sakakibara, who has predicted the dollar would fall below ¥100. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is expected to discuss trade when he meets Trump in the US at the weekend.Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul all ended around 0.1% lower.Wellington, Manila, Jakarta and Bangkok were also down but Singapore added 0.3% and Sydney gained 0.1%.Dealers were given a sombre lead from Wall Street where energy firms were hit by falling oil prices, while European traders are increasingly worried about upcoming polls in Germany and France.Two of Europe’s biggest economies hold general elections this year and there are fears they could succumb to the surge in populist parties that could threaten the break-up of the European Union.Stephen Innes, senior trader at forex firm OANDA, said: “The market’s tone has been one of risk-off , as political fallout in both Europe and the United States is weighing on investor resolve, imposing an unpalatable risk on investor sentiment.”European Central Bank boss Mario Draghi said on Monday that “risks to the euro area outlook remain tilted to the downside and relate predominantly to global factors”, and he stood ready to further ease monetary policy if necessary.In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 down 0.4% to 18,910.78 points; Hong Kong — Hang Seng down 0.1% to 23,331.57 points and Shanghai — Composite down 0.1% to 3,153.09 points at the close yesterday.

Sensex sheds 104 points; rupee weakensAgenciesMumbai

In a climb-down from its four-month high, the Sensex yesterday took its fi rst hit in fi ve sessions by falling over

104 points even as the Nifty slipped be-low the 8,800-mark, weighed down by rate-sensitive banking, realty and other stocks ahead of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) monetary policy.

Investors were anxious concerned about uncertainties over the timing of Federal Reserve rate hike, US policies under President Donald Trump, the up-coming French election and rising crude price that could impact infl ation, going ahead.

A weak closing in Asia tracking over-night losses in the US owing to all these unknowns triggered selling, brokers said.

The 30-share barometer opened a shade higher and rose further before profi t-booking kicked in, but settled at 28,335.16, a loss of 104.12 points, or 0.37%. Over the past four sessions, the index had risen 783.32 points.

The 50-share NSE Nifty broke below the crucial 8,800 level and settled lower by 32.75 points, or 0.37%, at 8,768.30. Intra-day, it traded between 8,809.30 and 8,741.05. The up move in the previ-ous four sessions mostly came on the back of a series of market-friendly budg-etary proposals and expectations that RBI would reduce the policy rate at its policy meet today.

In the 30-share Sensex heatmap, 20 ended with losses and 10 turned higher.

A lower opening in Europe completed the picture. Tata Motors slid the most (3.52%), followed by Coal India (2.88%). Others such as ONGC, Adani Ports, Lu-pin, GAIL, Dr Reddy’s, RIL and Axis Bank added to the fall. Infosys, L&T, Maruti Su-zuki, Asian Paints, HDFC and ITC, among others, rose, keeping the fall limited.

The BSE metal index took the biggest knock, down 1.25%, followed by auto,

oil and gas and healthcare. In line with overall trend, the broader markets ended in negative zone, with the mid-cap index down 0.18% and small-cap 0.09%.

The scrip of rating agency Icra yester-day zoomed 5.96% to Rs4,336.45 after the company said its board will meet later this week to consider a proposal for buyback of shares.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) sold shares worth a net Rs449.52 crore yester-day, as per provisional data.

Shanghai Composite closed 0.12% lower while Japan’s Nikkei was down 0.35% and Hong Kong shed 0.07%. Eu-ropean shares were trading lower before the ECB meeting. Key indices in France, Germany and UK fell by up to 0.30%.

Meanwhile the rupee yesterday weak-

ened against the US dollar, snapping a nine-day rally, tracking losses in the lo-cal equity and Asian currencies markets.

The rupee closed at 67.41 a dollar, down 0.29% from its previous close of 67.22. The local currency opened at 67.29 a dollar and touched a high and a low of 67.28 and 67.44, respectively.

The government will issue index of industrial production data on Friday. Ac-cording to Bloomberg analyst poll, IIP will be at 1.4% in December from 5.7% a month ago.

Bond yield gained for six out of seven trading sessions. India’s 10-year bond yield closed at 6.431% from its Monday’s close of 6.414%. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions.

Since the beginning of this year, the

rupee has gained 0.78%, while foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have bought $201mn from local equity and sold $218.70mn in debt markets.

Asian currencies markets were trading lower amid concerns over political un-certainty including protectionist trade rhetoric coming from the US.

Singapore dollar was down 0.72%, Japanese yen 0.66%, Taiwan dollar 0.56%, South Korean won 0.55%, China off shore 0.54%, Philippines peso 0.41%, China renminbi 0.31%, Malaysian ring-git 0.2%, Indonesian rupiah 0.07%, Thai baht 0.07%.

The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against major currencies, was trading at 100.64, up 0.73% from its previous close of 99.907.

The rupee closed at 67.41 a dollar yesterday, down 0.29% from its previous close of 67.22

Malaysia crackdown on currency saps volatility, discourage investorsBloombergKuala Lumpur

Malaysia’s crackdown on cur-rency speculators has come at a cost. While it has successfully

reduced ringgit volatility, it is threaten-ing to discourage overseas investors.

The central bank’s steps to curb trad-ing in off shore non-deliverable forwards last year made it harder for global funds to hedge their exposure to Malaysia, ac-cording to Macquarie Bank. Global funds cut holdings of Malaysian debt by a combined 25.2bn ringgit ($5.7bn) in No-vember and December, the biggest two months of outfl ows since 2008, central bank data show.

The difference between onshore and forward prices for the ringgit jumped to a record in November, spurring the central bank to crack down on NDF trading. Since then, the currency’s volatility has dwindled to the low-est in four years, while the ringgit slid to the weakest since 1998 even as oil prices stabilised and the central bank dismissed speculation it was about to impose capital controls.

“The initial imposition of the NDF re-strictions did lead to talk of the potential of further restrictions and even capital account closure,” said Julian Wee, a sen-ior market strategist at National Austral-ia Bank in Singapore.

“These sort of measures tend to lead to a loss of confi dence in the market, which was already jittery. However, the overall direction and movement in the dollar-ringgit has been due to the overall dollar trend in addition to BNM’s inability to resist it.”

A measure of one-month volatility for the ringgit has tumbled since mid-November when the central bank warned foreign banks not to engage in NDF-re-lated transactions, turning the currency into emerging Asia’s least volatile, from the most.

Volatility dropped to 2.5% last week, the lowest since December 2012.

“While the foreign-exchange spot market liquidity has consistently been supportive and able to serve the needs of participants, forward market liquid-ity requires further development,” Bank Negara Malaysia said in a statement in response to questions from Bloomberg. “The recent liberalisation measures, both for domestic and foreign investors, will improve overall market liquidity over time.”

The ringgit has fallen 2.1% since No-

vember 15, the region’s worst performer after the yen, and reached 4.5002 per dollar on January 4, the weakest since the Asian fi nancial crisis.

The currency was at 4.4373 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Not everyone is pessimistic. United Overseas Bank predicts the ringgit will strengthen to 4.35 per dollar by June 30 as it regains a positive correlation with crude oil. Oil-related products are Ma-laysia’s second-largest export.

“The ringgit’s previously high-beta or sensitivity to dollar moves is clearly diminished,” said Peter Chia, a currency strategist at UOB in Singapore. “Factors in favour of a fi rmer ringgit include our estimated fair value of 3.90 and a return of the positive correlation to fi rmer oil prices.”

Bank Negara blamed the “opaque” off shore NDF market for worsening the pressure on the ringgit and said the cur-

rency’s pricing should never be discon-nected from real economic activities in the onshore market.

Traders remain wary even after cen-tral bank Governor Muhammad Ibrahim allowed for greater hedging fl exibility in the onshore currency market in an at-tempt to discourage the use of NDFs. In measures that took eff ect in December, Bank Negara pledged to ensure there would be “continuous liquidity of for-eign currency” in the onshore market, and placed a cap on the amount of export proceeds companies can hold in foreign currency.

The central bank said yesterday 16 fund managers, including foreign com-panies, overseeing a total of 46.8bn ring-git had registered under its fl exible hedg-ing framework.

Bank Negara has been engaging with international fund managers and indus-try associations to ensure smooth imple-

mentation of the initiatives to facilitate access to the onshore market, it said.

Malaysia’s dwindling foreign-ex-change reserves mean it has less power to defend its currency. Reserves were $95bn at the end of January, down from as high as $141.4bn in May 2013. They have dropped in each of the past four years.

The ringgit is poised to end this year at 4.80 per dollar, close to the record low of 4.8850 reached in January 1998, ac-cording to Nizam Idris, head of foreign-exchange and fi xed- income strategy at Macquarie Bank in Singapore.

The NDF crackdown has done some harm for market players, he said. “While Bank Negara can say the onshore USD/MYR deliverable forward market could provide that hedge option, it is less liq-uid, certainly for after hours’ trades. The cost of hedging for foreign investors has defi nitely risen at the margin.”

The ringgit has fallen 2.1% since November 15, the region’s worst performer aft er the yen, and reached 4.5002 per dollar on January 4, the weakest since the Asian fi nancial crisis

BUSINESS5Gulf Times

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

BP reports lowest annual net profi t in at least a decade

BP raised the oil price at which it can balance its books this

year to $60 a barrel yesterday due to higher spending follow-

ing a string of investments as annual earnings fell for a second

consecutive year. After the average oil price fell to its lowest in 12

years at $44 a barrel last year, BP said it expected prices to have

found a floor for this year at $50 a barrel following a decision by

major Opec and non-Opec producers to limit output.

The British oil and gas company, whose fourth quarter profits fell

short of street expectations, had previously targeted a breakeven

oil price of $50-55 a barrel.

The new target reflects an uptick in planned spending to $16-17bn

from $16bn in 2016. BP’s annual underlying replacement cost,

its definition of net profit, slumped to its lowest level in at least a

decade to $2.59bn, while fourth-quarter profit of $400mn missed

analysts’ forecasts by around 30% primarily due to $328mn in

one-off charges.

It is the latest oil major to miss forecasts following worse-than-

expected results from Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron and Statoil.

“BP are not covering their dividend and they raised their cash

breakeven point quite considerably,” said Macquarie equities

analyst Iain Reid.

“They are having to pay for what they bought and they are the

only company that actually raised their breakeven number,” he

said. BP has been on a spending spree in recent months, conclud-

ing a string of deals, including in Eni’s giant Zohr off shore gas field

in Egypt, contracts in Abu Dhabi and Azerbaijan and a stake in

exploration areas off Mauritania and Senegal from Kosmos.

BP reported an annual loss of $542mn in its oil and gas produc-

tion division, known as upstream, while profits for the refining

and trading division were down 25% at $5.6bn.

Emerson Electric

Emerson Electric Co reported a higher-than-expected quarterly

profit, helped by strong demand in China for its air conditioning

and refrigeration parts, and the company raised its full-year sales

and earnings forecasts.

Emerson said its commercial and residential solutions division

gained from a 40% sales growth in China, where demand for its

air conditioning and refrigeration components had risen signifi-

cantly over the last two quarters.

China’s economy likely grew around 6.7% in the fourth quarter as

a stimulus-fuelled construction boom breathed new life into its

long ailing “smokestack” heavy industries.

Overall sales in the unit, which makes air conditioning compres-

sors, sensors and thermistors for home appliances and ignition

systems for furnaces, rose 6.3% to $1.25bn in the first-quarter

ended December 31.

However, sales in the automation solutions business fell 9% to

$1.97bn in the quarter. The division accounted for 61.2% of Emer-

son’s quarterly revenue.

The business makes valves and regulators for the oil and gas

industry and has struggled as customers clamped down on

spending due to a slump in oil prices.

However, with a recovery in oil prices, Emerson said it saw im-

proving order rates in the business, particularly in North America,

towards the end of the first quarter.

WellCare Health

WellCare Health Plans’ quarterly profit more than tripled,

handily beating analysts’ estimates, driven by strong growth in

enrolments in its Medicaid plans and lower costs in its Medicare

business.

Like other health insurers focused on government-sponsored

plans for the underinsured or uninsured, WellCare has been

benefiting from the expansion of the Medicaid programme under

the Aff ordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare.

But, such insurers have come under pressure following attempts

by the Republicans to repeal and replace the act.

WellCare, which got two-thirds of its revenue from Medicaid plans

in 2016, said membership in the business increased by 156,000 in

the fourth-quarter ended December 31.

The additions were mainly due to the company’s acquisition of

Care1st Arizona.

However, the amount WellCare spent on medical claims out of

the premiums it earned, a key measure of costs known as medical

benefits ratio (MBR), rose in the Medicaid business.

The metric increased to 87.2% from 86.3% in the business.

The company’s MBR fell to 85.8% from 88.7% in Medicare and

to 58.9% from 67.3% in the Medicare Prescription Drug Plans

businesses. The company in November agreed to buy smaller

rival Universal American Corp for about $600mn, in a deal that

will add Medicare Advantage members in Texas and New York.

WellCare’s net income rose to $44.9mn, or $1 per share, in the

three months ended December 31, from $13.0mn, or 29 cents per

share, a year earlier.

Cardinal Health

Drug distributor Cardinal Health reported lower-than-expected

quarterly revenue yesterday, hurt in part by pricing pressure for

generic drugs, and cut its full-year adjusted earnings forecast for

the second straight quarter.

Rival McKesson Corp slashed its fiscal year earnings forecast in

October as it raised concerns about aggressive pricing tactics

from competitors and the moderating pace of branded drug price

increases.

McKesson’s comments sparked fear of a pricing war rippling

through the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Drug pricing has become a lightning rod for criticism with several

drugmakers coming under federal investigations.

Cardinal Health’s quarterly revenue came in at $33.15bn, missing

estimates of $31.04bn. “While management tends to be conserva-

tive, we suspect that price competition will have a negative im-

pact on margins over the coming quarters,” William Blair analysts

wrote in a client note. Cardinal Health, which also makes surgical

apparel and gloves, cut its 2017 forecast for adjusted earnings

from continuing operations to $5.35-$5.50 per share from $5.40-

$5.60. Analysts had expected 2017 earnings of $5.44 per share,

according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

“Pricing in the generic pharmaceutical market was a significant

headwind for our pharmaceutical segment profit,” George Bar-

rett, CEO of Cardinal Health said.

The pharmaceutical unit’s profit fell 14% to $537mn, due to ge-

neric pharmaceutical pricing and loss of a large pharmaceutical

distribution customer. Net income attributable to the company

fell to $324mn, or 1.02 cents per share, for the second quarter

ended December 31, compared with $326mn, or 98 cents per

share, a year earlier.

Michael Kors

Michael Kors Holdings reported a bigger-than-expected drop in

comparable sales for the holiday quarter and forecast current-

quarter profit well below estimates as the company continues to

off er discounts on its handbags.

Revenue in the Americas region fell 7.4%, while Europe sales were

down 7%. The company said weakness in the two regions, which

together account for nearly all of Michael Kors’ sales, would con-

tinue through spring, partly due to lower traff ic in shopping malls

and a cutback in promotions in North America.

Kors, like rival Coach, is trying to regain its brand value by reduc-

ing supplies to department stores, which have been heavily

discounting its products to drive traff ic.

“While the reduction in wholesale shipments was supposed to

aid consolidated gross margin, 3Q results were disappointing,”

Mizuho analyst Betty Chen said, noting that operating expenses

rose during the quarter. Net income attributable to the company

fell to $271.3mn, or $1.64 per share, from $294.6mn, or $1.59 per

share, a year earlier. Total revenue fell 3.2% to $1.35bn.

Archer Daniels

US agricultural trader Archer Daniels Midland Co yesterday re-

ported a 41% drop in quarterly profit from a year earlier, when the

company recorded one-time gains of nearly $400mn.

Net earnings attributable to the company fell to $424mn, or 73

cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended December 31, from

$718mn, or $1.19 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding items, ADM earned 75 cents per share, missing the av-

erage analyst estimate of 77 cents a share, according to Thomson

Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose marginally to $16.50bn. A record-large US corn

and soybean harvest and brisk US crop exports boosted results

for ADM’s agricultural services segment, its largest in terms of

revenue.

But the Chicago-based company reported losses at its global

trading desk, citing “poor execution and limited forward mer-

chandising opportunities.”

The agricultural services unit makes money buying, selling, stor-

ing, transporting and processing crops.

Intercontinental Exchange

Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock

Exchange, yesterday reported lower fourth-quarter earnings as

higher expenses outweighed a doubling of data services revenue.

Net income attributable to the exchange and clearing house op-

erator dropped to $352mn, or 59 cents per share, from $370mn,

or 66 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding acquisition-related expenses and other one-time items,

the profit was 71 cents a share, topping the analysts’ average

estimate by 2 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue increased to $1.1bn from $875mn as data services rev-

enues rose to $515mn from $257mn.

Operating expenses rose to $580mn from $457mn.

Vattenfall

Swedish utility Vattenfall slumped to an operating loss of 2.8bn

crowns ($315mn) in the fourth quarter after booking provisions

for nuclear waste storage in Germany and other one-off charges.

Vattenfall had already taken a $3.5bn charge in the second

quarter, mainly for German lignite mines and power plants sold in

September, and it ended 2016 with a record annual loss of 21.2bn

crowns.

The company, which has struggled for years due to low energy

prices and financially disastrous overseas expansion, said it

would not pay an annual dividend to its owner, the Swedish gov-

ernment, for a fourth straight year.

“We entered 2016 with a number of fundamental issues that

needed to be resolved in order to support the transition of the

energy system and to shape a Vattenfall that is ready to take on

the future,” Chief Executive Magnus Hall said in a statement.

“Looking back, we can conclude that significant progress has

been made with a positive outcome for the company and our

customers and, not least, reduced risk.”

Vattenfall said higher provisions for future nuclear waste storage

due to new legislation in Germany, which is phasing out nuclear

power, accounted for 5.6bn crowns of the 9.9bn of net charges

in the fourth quarter. Underlying profit from continuing opera-

tions rose to 7.1bn crowns in the fourth quarter from 6.4bn a year

earlier, the company said.

Mosaic Co

Mosaic Co reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit as it

kept a tight leash on costs, and the company slashed its annual

dividend as it expected only a “gradual” improvement from a

prolonged slump in the fertiliser market.

The company’s shares were down 6.6% at $29.90 in light pre-

market trading yesterday.

The world’s largest producer of finished phosphate products said

it would cut its annual dividend by 45.4% to 60 cents per share,

eff ective with the next declaration.

A capacity glut and soft crop prices have pushed potash and

phosphate prices to multi-year lows. “While we are confident the

market bottom is behind us, the pace of improvement is expected

to be gradual,” Chief Executive Off icer Joc O’Rourke said in a

statement.

Potash MOP (muriate of potash) cash production costs dropped

28% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, while phosphate

conversion costs fell 15%. Net earnings attributable to Mosaic fell

to $12mn, or 3 cents per share, in the three months ended Decem-

ber 31, from $155mn, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier.

On a per share basis, the company recorded a charge of 23 cents,

compared with 16 cents a year earlier.

Centene Corp

Centene Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly revenue

and profit yesterday, helped by growth in its Obamacare indi-

vidual business and as the health insurer’s eff orts to turn around

recently acquired Health Net paid off .

Investors have increasingly focused on Health Net, which has

weighed on the Centene’s results in the past few quarters.

Centene bought rival Health Net for $6.3bn last year and set aside

a reserve of $300mn related to Health Net’s operations in July.

Centene has benefited from the expansion of Medicaid under

the Aff ordable Care Act like other health insurers that focus on

government-sponsored plans for the under-insured or uninsured.

Republicans and President Donald Trump have promised not to

pull the rug out from under Americans who were newly insured

under former President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform law,

even as they seek to “repeal and replace” the law as soon as

possible.

“We believe Centene is the most undervalued growth name in

the group and believe multiples will begin to expand as investors

become more comfortable that contract growth and Medicaid

expansion will continue despite repeal and replace,” Piper Jaff ray

analyst Sarah James said in a note.

Net earnings attributable to Centene rose to $261mn, or $1.49 per

share, in the fourth quarter ended December 31, from $111mn, or

90 cents per share, a year earlier.

Centene said total revenue rose 89% to $11.91bn, ahead of ana-

lysts’ average estimate of $10.94bn.

WestJet Airlines

WestJet Airlines reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit

as the Canadian carrier flew more passengers.

Load factor, which measures how eff ectively the airline filled

seats, rose to 80.2% in the fourth quarter, from 78.4% a year ear-

lier. Available seat mile (ASM), rose 11.2% in the quarter, while cost

per available seat mile, a measure of how much an airline spends

to fly a passenger, fell 0.8% to 12.86 Canadian cents.

However, the company’s fuel expenses, typically an airline’s larg-

est variable cost, rose 15.5% to C$210.5mn.

The company’s net earnings fell to C$55.2mn ($41.80mn), or 47

Canadian cents per share, in the fourth quarter ended December

31, from C$63.4mn, or 51 Canadian cents per share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 41 cents per share,

according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 6.2% to C$1.02bn, in line with estimates.

Munich Re

German reinsurer Munich Re reported net profit for 2016 below

expectations yesterday after large losses from natural catastro-

phes in the fourth quarter, sending its shares to the bottom of

Germany’s DAX index.

The world’s largest reinsurer held out the prospect of a further

share buyback, however, continuing a trend of recent years as

reinsurers struggle to put money to work against a backdrop of

declining prices.

“We still have wiggle room for another share buyback on top

of the dividend,” Chief Financial Off icer Joerg Schneider told a

media call, adding a decision would be made by March.

Munich Re launched share buyback programmes totalling €1bn

($1.07bn) in 2015 and 2016.

Schneider said its insurance arm Ergo could expand outside Ger-

many through acquisitions, but that Munich Re was not looking to

make any large purchases.

Competition in insurance and reinsurance and a few large merg-

ers in recent years have fuelled speculation of further deals.

Preliminary net profit for 2016 was around €2.6bn ($2.8bn), down

16% from a year earlier and below the consensus for 2.7bn in a

company-compiled forecast.

But Munich Re said it had met its profit target of “well over

€2.3bn”, and it raised its dividend for 2016 by more than 4% to an

above-forecast €8.60 per share.

BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas, one of Europe’s largest banks, set out plans yester-

day to improve profitability in the coming three years, after re-

porting results that showed large parts of its business struggling

in 2016, disappointing investors.

The bank’s annual results were boosted by cost cutting and the

sale of a stake in Visa Europe, but profits in the final three months

of last year missed analysts’ forecasts, sending its shares down

about 5%.

“The group is ready to accelerate,” Chief Executive Jean-Laurent

Bonnafe told journalists, while summing up plans for 2017-2020,

including investments in technology the bank has dubbed a

digital transformation.

Last year, BNP’s revenues edged up about 1% to €43.4bn ($46bn),

while net income rose to €7.7bn from €6.7bn in 2015.

But revenues and pretax income in its French retail banking

operation fell, despite its assets growing in size.

France’s economy is growing, albeit modestly.

BNP has said it is taking a conservative view, when making its

plans.

Low interest rates, which have been around zero for more than

four years in the euro zone, make it harder to profit from the

bank’s vast pool of deposits.

Parking this money with the European Central Bank even incurs a

penalty charge. “Revenues are up despite a lacklustre environ-

ment,” Bonnafe said, adding costs had been kept under control.

Fourth-quarter net income rose to €1.44bn, more than doubling

from €665mn a year ago, but below analysts’ average estimate

of €1.5bn in a Reuters poll. A surge in trading helped quarterly

revenues rise 2%.

Statoil

Norway’s Statoil plunged to an unexpected loss in the fourth

quarter of last year, as it cut its long-term assumptions for the

price of oil and took a $2.3bn impairment charge on the value of

its assets as a result.

But the state-controlled company cheered some analysts with a

higher than expected production forecast for 2017, with plans to

cut another $1bn in costs and by saying the average break-even

price for its new projects had fallen sharply.

“We guess the market will like Statoil’s 2017 guidance and prob-

ably forgive the major Q4 earnings miss,” said Teodor Sveen-

Nilsen at Swedbank.

Though oil prices have recovered in recent months, helped by

output cuts by major producers, they remain well below levels of

more than $100 a barrel earlier in the decade.

Statoil said yesterday it now expected benchmark Brent crude to

reach $75 a barrel in 2020, compared with a previous forecast of

$83, and $80 in 2030, compared with $100 before.

Statoil said it made a net operating loss of $1.9bn for the quarter,

versus an operating profit of $152mn in the same period of 2015

and analysts’ average forecast of a $2.1bn profit.

The company’s adjusted operating profit fell to $1.66bn from

$1.78bn a year earlier, missing analysts’ forecast for a rise to

$2.27bn as its international unit’s performance fell short of

expectations.

Twenty-First Century Fox

Twenty-First Century Fox reported a quarterly profit that beat

analysts’ expectations, as its television and cable units benefited

from hosting the World Series and its cable news channel enjoyed

strong ratings during the US presidential campaign.

However, the Rupert Murdoch-controlled parent of Fox News and

FX posted second-quarter revenue that fell short of expectations.

Fox’s shares were down slightly 0.32% in after-hours trading on

Monday. The second quarter results demonstrate the importance

of live news and sports for media companies as Fox generated

higher ad revenue from the World Series, higher political ad

spending during the US presidential election and higher aff iliate

revenue. On an analysts’ call Monday, Fox Executive Chairman

Lachlan Murdoch noted that the Super Bowl, which Fox hosted on

Sunday night, marked the company’s first $500mn dollar revenue

day. He told analysts that he expects aff iliate revenue growth to

accelerate in the second half of the year. Fox said revenue at its

cable division, which houses the Fox channels among others, rose

7.1% to $3.97bn in the quarter ended December 31.

Domestic advertising sales in the cable business rose 12% in the

quarter, the company said.

Twenty-First Century Fox said revenue in its film division de-

creased nearly 4%. The company’s total revenue increased 4.2%

to $7.68bn. Net income attributable to Fox shareholders rose to

$856mn, or 46 cents per share, from $672mn, or 34 cents per

share, a year earlier.

CBOE Holdings

CBOE Holdings, the operator of the largest US options exchange,

reported better-than-expected quarterly profit and revenue,

helped by a rise in transaction fees. The Chicago-based company,

whose shares were up marginally in after-hours trading, said it

saw record trading in S&P 500 options and CBOE Volatility Index

futures in the fourth quarter.

CBOE, which agreed to buy Bats Global Markets Inc for $3.2bn last

year, said its operating expenses rose about 10% to $88.1mn.

The higher costs weighed on profits. The company’s net income

allocated to common shareholders fell 10.8% to $44.8mn, or 55

cents per share, in the quarter ended December 31.

However, the company earned 63 cents per share, excluding

items, beating the average analyst estimate of 60 cents, accord-

ing to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

CBOE’s operating revenue rose 4.7% to $163.24mn, brushing past

analysts’ estimate of $160.10mn. Total trading volumes rose 12.6%

to 305.8mn.

General Motors

General Motors Co yesterday reported that fourth-quarter net

income dropped partly from $500mn in foreign exchange losses,

and the automaker forecast flat 2017 profit per share despite

hefty stock buybacks.

The stock tumbled 4.7% in early trading in part because Wall

Street fretted over GM’s higher US inventories.

The company said profits were pressured in 2016 because it

launched several car models at a time when consumers are turn-

ing away from cars to buy SUVs. Inventories of unsold vehicles at

its US dealers rose by one-third to 845,000 vehicles at the end of

2016. GM Chief Financial Off icer Chuck Stevens said the company

had built up stocks ahead of product launches, and intends to

bring inventories down through the year.

Its North American adjusted profit margins declined to 8.4% in

the fourth quarter from 10% a year earlier.

Adjusted profit margins for full-year 2016 were 10.1%, down from

10.3% in 2015. Stevens said the company does not expect to break

even in Europe this year, but will push to “get to that point in

2018.” GM’s fourth-quarter net income fell to $1.8bn, or $1.19 per

share, from $6.3bn, or $3.92 a share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, GM earned $2.4bn, or $1.28 a share, in

the latest quarter, down 14% from a year earlier.

The adjusted result beat analysts’ expectations of $1.17 per share.

GM forecast adjusted earnings per share for all of 2017 at $6.00 to

$6.50 a share, compared with $6.12 for all of 2016.

Most of the currency impact was caused by the decline in the

value of the British pound after Britain’s vote to leave the Euro-

pean Union, GM said.

CORPORATE RESULTS

Zad Holding CoWidam Food CoVodafone Qatar

United Development CoSalam International Investme

Qatar & Oman Investment CoQatar Navigation

Qatar National Cement CoQatar National Bank

Qatar Islamic InsuranceQatar Industrial Manufactur

Qatar International IslamicQatari Investors Group

Qatar Islamic BankQatar Gas Transport(Nakilat)Qatar General Insurance & ReQatar German Co For Medical

Qatar Fuel QscQatar First Bank

Qatar Electricity & Water CoQatar Cinema & Film Distrib

Qatar Insurance CoOoredoo Qsc

National LeasingMazaya Qatar Real Estate Dev

Mesaieed Petrochemical HoldiAl Meera Consumer Goods Co

Medicare GroupMannai Corporation Qsc

Masraf Al RayanAl Khalij Commercial Bank

Industries QatarIslamic Holding Group

Gulf Warehousing CompanyGulf International Services

Ezdan Holding GroupDoha Insurance Co

Doha Bank QscDlala Holding

Commercial Bank QscBarwa Real Estate Co

Al Khaleej Takaful GroupAamal Co

86.00

68.00

9.20

22.55

11.96

10.10

94.00

93.00

146.30

54.40

47.60

68.40

55.00

109.00

24.10

41.00

9.84

158.00

9.51

230.00

28.10

83.80

104.80

15.60

14.50

15.53

176.40

65.00

84.90

41.05

16.15

111.00

57.00

55.30

27.30

15.21

18.25

37.00

20.76

32.00

35.75

20.25

15.00

-2.71

-1.02

-0.54

0.00

1.61

1.00

0.97

0.22

-1.87

0.74

0.63

0.29

-0.90

1.58

-0.41

0.00

0.20

-0.50

-1.04

-1.08

0.00

-1.18

-0.66

-0.32

0.35

-0.58

0.23

-0.91

1.07

0.37

0.62

0.45

0.00

-0.36

-4.21

0.13

1.67

1.09

-2.49

-0.62

1.56

0.25

0.33

250

11,341

2,465,301

309,589

831,281

32,813

28,444

4,572

370,654

145

51,591

16,408

9,200

130,072

264,544

285

4,381

36,801

228,377

24,364

-

93,900

84,511

25,932

283,133

135,452

7,642

125,588

530

355,504

2,209

78,270

9,714

20,962

579,800

552,947

2,300

288,344

1,297

349,060

566,813

11,819

97,103

QATAR

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

United Wire Factories CompanEtihad Etisalat Co

Dar Al Arkan Real Estate DevSaudi Hollandi Bank

Rabigh Refining And PetrocheBanque Saudi Fransi

Saudi Enaya Cooperative InsuMediterranean & Gulf Insuran

Saudi British BankMohammad Al Mojil Group Co

Red Sea Housing Services CoTakween Advanced Industries

Sabb TakafulSaudi Arabian Fertilizer Co

National GypsumSaudi Ceramic Co

National Gas & IndustrializaSaudi Pharmaceutical Industr

ThimarNational Industrialization C

Saudi Transport And InvestmeSaudi Electricity Co

Saudi Arabia Refineries CoArriyadh Development Company

Al-Baha Development & InvestSaudi Research And MarketingAldrees Petroleum And Transp

Saudi Vitrified Clay Pipe CoJarir Marketing Co

Arab National BankYanbu National Petrochemical

Arabian CementMiddle East Specialized Cabl

Al Khaleej Training And EducAl Sagr Co-Operative Insuran

Trade Union Cooperative InsuArabia Insurance Cooperative

Saudi Chemical CompanyFawaz Abdulaziz Alhokair & C

Bupa Arabia For CooperativeWafa Insurance

Jabal Omar Development CoSaudi Basic Industries Corp

Saudi Kayan Petrochemical CoEtihad Atheeb Telecommunicat

Co For Cooperative InsuranceNational Petrochemical Co

Gulf Union Cooperative InsurGulf General Cooperative Ins

Basic Chemical IndustriesSaudi Steel Pipe Co

Buruj Cooperative InsuranceMouwasat Medical Services Co

Southern Province Cement CoMaadaniyah

Yamama Cement CoJazan Development Co

Zamil Industrial InvestmentAlujain Corporation (Alco)

Tabuk Agricultural DevelopmeUnited Co-Operative Assuranc

Qassim Cement/TheSaudi Advanced Industries

Kingdom Holding CoSaudi Arabian Amiantit Co

Al Jouf Agriculture DevelopmSaudi Industrial Development

Bishah AgricultureRiyad Bank

The National Agriculture DevHalwani Bros Co

Arabian Pipes CoEastern Province Cement Co

Al Qassim Agricultural CoFiling & Packing Materials M

Saudi Cable CoTihama Advertising & Public

Saudi Investment Bank/TheAstra Industrial Group

Saudi Public Transport CoTaiba Holding Co

Saudi Industrial Export CoSaudi Real Estate Co

Saudia Dairy & Foodstuff CoNational Shipping Co Of/The

Methanol Chemicals CoAce Arabia Cooperative Insur

Mobile Telecommunications CoSaudi Arabian Coop Ins Co

Axa Cooperative InsuranceAlsorayai Group

Weqaya For Takaful InsuranceBank Albilad

Al-Hassan G.I. Shaker CoWataniya Insurance Co

Abdullah Al Othaim MarketsHail Cement

25.20

21.73

5.93

0.00

12.30

24.70

17.80

26.86

21.91

12.55

27.26

13.37

31.80

71.74

14.02

30.97

37.26

39.88

35.92

16.21

58.16

23.04

38.30

22.35

13.50

32.22

36.74

61.31

128.88

20.20

58.41

38.45

8.61

19.39

40.32

19.76

14.39

36.49

31.85

128.25

22.19

68.70

96.36

8.49

3.51

109.23

20.95

14.19

18.41

26.59

18.88

34.36

139.75

71.75

24.45

19.51

11.60

30.66

19.31

11.70

16.33

59.75

14.31

11.35

7.56

33.90

10.59

69.75

10.94

22.53

58.25

17.00

32.60

9.24

36.39

5.75

25.96

13.77

17.08

15.28

40.00

35.59

25.02

115.50

37.01

7.19

52.54

8.80

23.17

20.26

12.14

19.39

19.26

16.45

34.39

101.50

11.84

1.78

-0.05

-0.34

0.00

3.10

-0.40

2.95

3.27

-1.31

0.00

-0.07

2.85

-0.31

-0.71

-0.50

-1.18

2.50

0.55

-1.35

-0.92

0.95

4.02

0.45

0.00

0.00

0.34

0.00

0.51

0.23

-0.49

-1.37

1.48

0.35

-0.56

0.52

1.13

-0.83

-1.46

-0.90

0.00

7.67

-0.33

-0.18

-0.12

-2.50

-0.65

-0.48

2.53

-1.07

0.34

-0.58

1.09

-0.71

-0.54

-0.77

0.21

-0.60

-0.71

-1.83

2.36

3.16

0.42

1.71

1.16

2.86

-0.96

-1.30

0.00

0.09

-0.31

-0.43

1.74

-0.06

-0.65

-0.52

0.00

-0.35

2.38

-0.81

2.41

0.00

-0.64

0.08

-0.65

-0.78

1.55

3.85

0.11

1.22

6.24

0.25

0.00

-1.13

0.37

-0.72

-1.21

-0.59

365,128

313,679

31,297,545

-

3,074,255

18,239

1,801,938

2,054,603

26,055

-

132,852

6,402,077

726,014

133,548

387,788

246,680

219,256

920,153

304,813

1,317,469

655,008

3,636,906

151,644

294,424

-

204,367

175,181

57,269

52,917

15,001

233,698

879,977

2,093,069

97,148

1,147,014

1,321,745

2,188,678

541,556

143,141

42,869

9,114,321

140,854

2,723,234

4,028,434

1,955,868

71,240

191,507

1,463,756

1,885,945

1,659,805

83,802

3,779,331

4,896

108,430

355,693

161,988

1,035,533

43,880

387,356

4,952,613

2,497,452

16,056

1,004,581

201,184

2,220,660

136,575

1,463,817

-

238,001

142,262

5,753

446,000

93,048

672,758

154,481

-

364,467

61,284

164,548

3,968,941

106,938

201,912

227,589

37,435

1,292,018

1,196,254

603,582

2,704,033

1,052,424

3,698,598

3,576,873

-

161,811

679,885

1,035,814

7,199

175,338

SAUDI ARABIA

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Saudi Re For Cooperative ReiSolidarity Saudi Takaful Co

Amana Cooperative InsuranceAlabdullatif Industrial Inv

Saudi Printing & Packaging CSanad Cooperative Insurance

Saudi Paper Manufacturing CoAlinma Bank

Almarai CoFalcom Saudi Equity Etf

United International TranspoHsbc Amanah Saudi 20 Etf

Saudi International PetrocheFalcom Petrochemical Etf

Saudi United Cooperative InsBank Al-Jazira

Al Rajhi BankSamba Financial Group

United Electronics CoAllied Cooperative Insurance

Malath Cooperative & ReinsurAlinma Tokio Marine

Arabian Shield CooperativeSavola

Wafrah For Industry And DeveFitaihi Holding Group

Tourism Enterprise Co/ ShamsSahara Petrochemical Co

Herfy Food Services Co

7.45

10.05

8.98

15.55

18.34

15.23

10.29

14.24

68.00

27.70

30.02

27.60

18.94

26.20

28.25

13.44

65.55

21.75

28.27

16.47

8.45

20.32

60.67

37.85

26.08

13.29

33.50

15.35

78.27

2.05

0.30

0.56

-0.19

-0.33

0.00

-0.10

-0.07

-1.05

0.00

-0.37

0.00

-0.32

0.00

4.67

0.30

-0.76

-1.14

-0.77

1.04

0.72

0.84

4.30

0.13

-0.76

0.45

-0.56

0.39

-0.61

14,037,914

2,656,039

2,086,552

191,464

418,660

-

1,178,701

27,451,437

123,607

125,222

376,163

-

492,665

-

1,563,979

712,248

2,454,455

178,668

149,756

1,045,930

970,515

1,253,841

954,988

117,417

575,812

434,516

196,342

1,342,300

22,433

SAUDI ARABIA

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Securities Group CoSultan Center Food Products

Kuwait Foundry Co SakKuwait Financial Centre Sak

Ajial Real Estate EntmtGulf Glass Manuf Co -Kscc

Kuwait Finance & InvestmentNational Industries Co Ksc

Kuwait Real Estate Holding CSecurities House/The

Boubyan Petrochemicals CoAl Ahli Bank Of Kuwait

Ahli United Bank (Almutahed)National Bank Of Kuwait

Commercial Bank Of KuwaitKuwait International Bank

Gulf BankAl-Massaleh Real Estate Co

Al Arabiya Real Estate CoKuwait Remal Real Estate Co

Alkout Industrial Projects CA’ayan Real Estate Co Sak

Investors Holding Group Co.KAl-Mazaya Holding Co

Al-Madar Finance & Invt CoGulf Petroleum Investment

Mabanee Co SakcCity Group

Inovest Co BscKuwait Gypsum Manufacturing

Al-Deera Holding CoAlshamel International Hold

Mena Real Estate CoNational Slaughter House

Amar Finance & Leasing CoUnited Projects For Aviation

National Consumer Holding CoAmwal International Investme

Jeeran HoldingsEquipment Holding Co K.S.C.C

Nafais HoldingSafwan Trading & Contracting

Arkan Al Kuwait Real EstateGfh Financial Group Bsc

Energy House Holding Co KscpKuwait Slaughter House Co

Kuwait Co For Process PlantAl Maidan Dental Clinic Co K

National Ranges CompanyAl-Themar Real International

Al-Ahleia Insurance Co SakpWethaq Takaful Insurance Co

Salbookh Trading Co KscpAqar Real Estate Investments

Hayat CommunicationsKuwait Packing Materials Mfg

Soor Fuel Marketing Co KscAlargan International RealBurgan Co For Well Drilling

Kuwait Resorts Co KsccOula Fuel Marketing Co

Palms Agro Production CoIkarus Petroleum Industries

Mubarrad Transport CoAl Mowasat Health Care Co

Shuaiba Industrial CoHits Telecom Holding

First Takaful Insurance CoKuwaiti Syrian Holding Co

National Cleaning CompanyEyas For High & Technical EdUnited Real Estate Company

AgilityKuwait & Middle East Fin Inv

Fujairah Cement IndustriesLivestock Transport & Tradng

International Resorts CoNational Industries Grp Hold

Marine Services Co KscWarba Insurance Co

Kuwait United Poultry CoFirst Dubai Real Estate Deve

Al Arabi Group Holding CoKuwait Hotels Sak

Mobile Telecommunications CoAl Safat Real Estate Co

Tamdeen Real Estate Co KscAl Mudon Intl Real Estate Co

Kuwait Cement Co KscSharjah Cement & Indus Devel

Kuwait Portland Cement CoEducational Holding Group

Bahrain Kuwait InsuranceAsiya Capital Investments Co

Kuwait Investment CoBurgan Bank

Kuwait Projects Co HoldingsAl Madina For Finance And In

Kuwait Insurance CoAl Masaken Intl Real Estate

Intl Financial AdvisorsFirst Investment Co Kscc

Al Mal Investment CompanyBayan Investment Co Kscc

Egypt Kuwait Holding Co SaeCoast Investment Development

Privatization Holding CompanKuwait Medical Services Co

Injazzat Real State CompanyKuwait Cable Vision Sak

Sanam Real Estate Co KsccIthmaar Holding Bsc

Aviation Lease And Finance CArzan Financial Group For Fi

Ajwan Gulf Real Estate CoKuwait Business Town Real Es

Future Kid Entertainment AndSpecialities Group Holding C

Abyaar Real Eastate DevelopmDar Al Thuraya Real Estate C

Al-Dar National Real EstateKgl Logistics Company Kscc

Combined Group ContractingZima Holding Co Ksc

Qurain Holding Co

100.00

84.00

340.00

108.00

188.00

325.00

47.00

218.00

48.50

51.00

580.00

320.00

440.00

720.00

510.00

220.00

250.00

56.00

44.00

60.00

690.00

75.00

28.50

132.00

0.00

50.00

850.00

0.00

102.00

95.00

37.50

0.00

28.00

42.00

57.00

820.00

0.00

37.50

54.00

58.00

194.00

410.00

86.00

234.00

45.50

162.00

196.00

0.00

30.50

112.00

455.00

57.00

73.00

69.00

108.00

0.00

124.00

198.00

95.00

87.00

126.00

95.00

35.50

75.00

250.00

310.00

50.00

70.00

50.00

52.00

0.00

106.00

730.00

34.00

87.00

220.00

34.00

146.00

60.00

100.00

180.00

78.00

79.00

0.00

510.00

0.00

470.00

53.00

480.00

89.00

1,060.00

206.00

0.00

38.00

98.00

325.00

540.00

57.00

275.00

80.00

45.00

58.00

25.00

47.50

212.00

51.00

51.00

0.00

83.00

47.50

54.00

57.00

250.00

43.00

73.00

53.00

120.00

93.00

32.00

0.00

0.00

73.00

500.00

63.00

0.00

0.00

-5.62

-2.86

1.89

0.00

0.00

-5.05

0.00

-1.02

-8.93

-1.69

1.59

-1.12

0.00

6.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

-5.38

-1.64

0.00

-2.60

-8.06

-7.04

0.00

-5.66

-2.30

0.00

-5.56

0.00

-6.25

0.00

-8.20

6.33

0.00

6.49

0.00

-2.60

0.00

-7.94

0.00

0.00

-4.44

2.63

-5.21

0.00

0.00

0.00

-7.58

0.00

0.00

0.00

-5.19

0.00

-3.57

0.00

1.64

0.00

0.00

-2.25

1.61

0.00

-6.58

-5.06

0.00

0.00

-5.66

7.69

-9.09

0.00

0.00

3.92

0.00

-6.85

-1.14

-4.35

-6.85

-5.19

-7.69

0.00

0.00

-6.02

-5.95

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.04

1.14

-1.85

0.00

0.00

1.33

-1.01

0.00

0.00

-3.39

-8.33

-5.88

-5.26

-3.33

-7.41

-5.00

0.00

-3.77

-5.56

0.00

-1.19

0.00

0.00

-8.06

0.00

-1.15

-2.67

-8.62

0.00

-3.13

-7.25

0.00

0.00

-3.95

0.00

-7.35

0.00

51,099

106,500

285,274

2,000

415,479

200

7,900

320,085

613,460

11,729,570

553,774

5

36,779

1,278,716

2,314

1,001,918

1,109,288

50

8,042,584

4,011,454

14,946

207,610

45,664,227

15,437,335

-

6,149,357

794,298

-

16,145,726

6,645

1,292,020

-

4,483,643

506

300

10

-

642,700

100

3,468,320

8,500

200

5,528,066

4,097,638

939,860

1,000

8,000

-

10,018,288

9,020

11,150

144,556

1,064,984

8,707

99,912

-

158,240

1,199,900

2,200

1,830,643

42,991

220,468

841,205

112,861

24,377

21,257

11,006,682

771,400

10,457,859

1,980,438

-

31,808

535,900

298,500

1,372,000

2,993

1,496,550

3,673,374

152,000

3,713

35,652

1,432,048

260,001

-

8,845,958

-

500

10,188,472

392,681

99,000

49,121

500

-

783,821

443,563

265,447

188,440

8,933,319

5,000

100,000

4,648,960

1,677,319

10,557,010

6,371,429

20,000

8,534,338

1,928,068

-

76,500

2,600

3,875

31,698,049

228,600

372,838

164,330

11,518,762

24,755

1,058,620

50,208,323

-

-

1,720,740

41,904

5,567,927

-

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Voltamp Energy SaogUnited Power/Energy Co- Pref

United Power Co SaogUnited Finance Co

Ubar Hotels & ResortsTakaful Oman

Taageer FinanceSweets Of OmanSohar Power Co

Sohar PoultrySmn Power Holding Saog

Shell Oman Marketing - PrefShell Oman Marketing

Sharqiyah Desalination Co SaSembcorp Salalah Power & Wat

Salalah Port ServicesSalalah Mills Co

Salalah Beach Resort SaogSahara Hospitality

Renaissance Services SaogRaysut Cement Co

Port Service CorporationPhoenix Power Co Saoc

Packaging Co LtdOoredoo

OminvestOman United Insurance Co

Oman Textile Holding Co SaogOman Telecommunications Co

Oman Refreshment CoOman Packaging

Oman Orix Leasing Co.Oman Oil Marketing Company

Oman National Engineering AnOman Investment & Finance

Oman Intl MarketingOman Hotels & Tourism CoOman Foods International

Oman Flour MillsOman Fisheries CoOman Fiber Optics

Oman Europe Foods IndustriesOman Education & Training In

Oman ChromiteOman Chlorine

Oman Ceramic ComOman Cement Co

Oman Cables IndustryOman Agricultural Dev

Oman & Emirates Inv(Om)50%Natl Aluminium Products

National SecuritiesNational Real Estate Develop

National PharmaceuticalNational Mineral Water

National Hospitality InstituNational Gas Co

National Finance CoNational Detergent Co Saog

National Biscuit IndustriesNational Bank Of Oman Saog

Muscat Thread Mills CoMuscat National Holding

Muscat Gases Company SaogMuscat Finance

Majan Glass CompanyMajan College

Hsbc Bank OmanHotels Management Co Interna

Gulf StoneGulf Plastic Industries Co

Gulf Mushroom CompanyGulf Investments Services

Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-SharGulf International Chemicals

Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co LtdGlobal Fin Investment

Galfar Engineering&ContractGalfar Engineering -Prefer

Financial Services Co.Financial Corp/The

Dhofar UniversityDhofar Tourism

Dhofar PoultryDhofar Intl Development

Dhofar InsuranceDhofar Fisheries & Food Indu

Dhofar Cattlefeed

0.51

1.00

3.40

0.16

0.13

0.17

0.13

1.34

0.23

0.21

0.70

1.05

2.00

4.50

0.25

0.63

1.48

1.38

2.50

0.24

1.48

0.25

0.15

2.21

0.62

0.52

0.38

0.31

1.43

2.16

0.30

0.14

1.86

0.16

0.22

0.52

0.40

0.00

0.81

0.11

4.57

1.00

0.13

3.64

0.49

0.42

0.49

1.60

0.00

0.15

0.18

0.10

5.00

0.11

0.05

0.00

0.54

0.16

0.70

3.75

0.25

0.11

1.77

0.61

0.14

0.19

0.51

0.13

1.25

0.11

0.00

0.34

0.12

0.11

0.29

10.50

0.17

0.09

0.39

0.17

0.10

1.49

0.49

0.18

0.36

0.21

1.28

0.22

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.75

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

6.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.46

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.41

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.67

0.00

-0.35

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

4

-

-

-

-

5,709

10,000

-

15,420

-

-

-

17,456

-

-

-

-

-

-

534,257

-

-

140,386

-

241,178

93,627

-

-

196,089

-

-

-

-

2,501

243,213

-

-

-

4,284

424,460

-

-

-

-

-

-

202,400

-

-

-

5,160

-

-

-

-

-

42,087

-

-

-

154,102

-

-

150

50,000

-

-

245,000

-

-

-

-

14,915

-

38,700

-

9,300

493,057

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

OMAN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Dhofar Beverages CoConstruction Materials Ind

Computer Stationery IndsBankmuscat Saog

Bank SoharBank Nizwa

Bank Dhofar SaogAreej Vegetable Oils

Aloula CoAl-Omaniya Financial Service

Al-Hassan Engineering CoAl-Fajar Al-Alamia Co

Al-Anwar Ceramic Tiles CoAl Suwadi Power

Al Shurooq Inv SerAl Sharqiya Invest Holding

Al Maha Petroleum Products MAl Maha Ceramics Co SaocAl Madina Takaful Co Saoc

Al Madina Investment CoAl Kamil Power Co

Al Jazerah Services -PfdAl Jazeera Steel Products Co

Al Jazeera ServicesAl Izz Islamic Bank

Al Buraimi HotelAl Batinah PowerAl Batinah Hotels

Al Batinah Dev & InvAl Anwar Holdings Saog

Ahli BankAcwa Power Barka Saog

Abrasives Manufacturing Co SA’saff a Foods Saog

0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref

0.26

0.03

0.26

0.46

0.16

0.09

0.27

4.05

0.53

0.29

0.06

0.75

0.17

0.19

1.04

0.14

1.59

0.49

0.09

0.07

0.31

0.55

0.27

0.19

0.07

0.88

0.19

1.13

0.10

0.19

0.20

0.72

0.05

0.80

0.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.38

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

2.48

0.00

0.00

0.72

0.32

0.00

-2.08

-2.78

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.53

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.53

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-

84,701

-

2,304,200

350,000

315,000

179,255

-

-

2,873

1,950

-

893,624

-

-

77,690

12,000

-

996,333

5,225,384

-

-

154,809

101,146

-

-

-

-

-

134,821

30,354

-

-

-

-

OMAN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Waha Capital PjscUnited Insurance Company

United Arab Bank PjscUnion National Bank/Abu Dhab

Union Insurance CoUnion Cement Co

Umm Al Qaiwain Cement IndustSharjah Islamic Bank

Sharjah Insurance CompanySharjah Group

Sharjah Cement & Indus DevelRas Al-Khaimah National Insu

Ras Al Khaimah White CementRas Al Khaimah Ceramics

Ras Al Khaimah Cement Co PscRas Al Khaima Poultry

Rak PropertiesOoredoo Qsc

Oman & Emirates Inv(Emir)50%Nbad Oneshare Msci Uae Ucits

National Takaful CompanyNational Marine Dredging Co

National Investor Co/TheNational Corp Tourism & Hote

National Bank Of Umm Al QaiwNational Bank Of Ras Al-Khai

National Bank Of FujairahNational Bank Of Abu Dhabi

Methaq Takaful InsuranceManazel Real Estate Pjsc

Invest BankIntl Fish Farming Co Pjsc

Insurance HouseGulf Pharmaceutical Ind Psc

Gulf Medical ProjectsGulf Cement Co

Fujairah Cement IndustriesFujairah Building Industries

Foodco Holding PjscFirst Gulf BankFinance House

Eshraq Properties Co PjscEmirates Telecom Group Co

Emirates Insurance Co. (Psc)Emirates Driving Company

Dana GasCommercial Bank Internationa

Bank Of SharjahAxa Green Crescent Insurance

Arkan Building Materials CoAlkhaleej InvestmentAldar Properties Pjsc

Al Wathba National InsuranceAl Khazna Insurance Co

Al Fujairah National InsuranAl Dhafra Insurance Co. P.S.

Al Buhaira National InsurancAl Ain Ahlia Ins. Co.

Agthia Group PjscAbu Dhabi Ship Building Co

Abu Dhabi Natl Co For BuildiAbu Dhabi National Takaful C

Abu Dhabi National InsuranceAbu Dhabi National Hotels

Abu Dhabi National Energy CoAbu Dhabi Islamic Bank

2.25

2.00

2.00

4.40

1.86

1.19

1.00

1.54

3.85

1.50

1.06

4.10

1.17

2.32

0.87

3.11

0.79

97.00

1.16

6.26

0.55

4.60

0.52

2.80

3.20

5.00

3.50

9.90

0.91

0.67

2.25

2.15

0.74

2.13

3.10

1.03

1.22

1.56

6.55

13.10

1.72

1.13

17.80

5.20

8.07

0.53

1.80

1.47

0.85

0.91

1.18

2.59

12.75

0.42

300.00

4.05

2.35

55.00

6.85

2.88

0.66

4.50

2.40

3.14

0.50

3.84

0.45

0.00

0.00

3.53

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

6.00

0.00

-8.59

-1.28

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

4.60

0.00

0.10

0.00

0.00

0.00

-4.44

0.00

0.00

0.32

-0.96

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.16

0.00

0.00

-0.28

0.00

0.00

-1.85

0.00

5.00

0.00

3.41

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-10.00

0.00

0.00

-0.58

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.96

1.05

1,501,347

-

-

95,387

-

-

-

1,126,413

-

-

50,000

-

20,000

601,083

-

-

9,114,362

-

-

-

-

25,879

-

5,097

-

1,563,444

-

1,688,720

2,285,313

8,666,516

-

3,062,878

-

-

15,000

20,000

-

-

-

5,685,832

-

54,055,550

1,575,591

-

-

5,033,266

-

690,272

-

12,575,453

-

23,000,735

-

62,381

-

19,000

-

-

398,899

-

-

-

-

-

34,241

1,219,241

UAE

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Zain Bahrain BsccUnited Paper Industries Bsc

United Gulf Investment CorpUnited Gulf BankTrafco Group Bsc

Takaful International CoTaib Bank -$Us

Seef PropertiesSecurities & Investment Co

National Hotels CoNational Bank Of Bahrain Bsc

Nass Corp BscKhaleeji Commercial Bank

Ithmaar Holding BscInvestcorp Bank -$Us

Inovest Co BscGulf Monetary Group

Gulf Hotel Group B.S.CGfh Financial Group Bsc

Esterad Investment Co B.S.C.Delmon Poultry Co

Bmmi BscBmb Investment Bank

Bbk BscBankmuscat Saog

Banader Hotels CoBahrain Tourism CoBahrain Telecom Co

Bahrain Ship Repair & EnginBahrain National Holding

Bahrain Kuwait InsuranceBahrain Islamic Bank

Bahrain Flour Mills CoBahrain Family Leisure Co

Bahrain Duty Free ComplexBahrain Commercial Facilitie

Bahrain Cinema CoBahrain Car Park Co

Arab Insurance Group(Bsc)-$Arab Banking Corp Bsc-$Us

Aluminium Bahrain BscAlbaraka Banking Group

Al-Salam BankAl-Ahlia Insurance Co

Ahli United Bank B.S.C

0.10

0.30

0.00

0.36

0.23

0.00

0.00

0.22

0.00

0.00

0.76

0.14

0.11

0.18

8.15

0.28

0.00

0.63

0.76

0.15

0.32

0.82

0.00

0.39

0.00

0.07

`

0.28

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.13

0.00

0.08

0.80

0.66

1.29

0.15

0.37

0.39

0.28

0.50

0.12

0.00

0.72

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

7.04

0.70

0.00

-10.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.56

0.00

-3.03

1.86

0.00

2.63

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

2.63

0.00

0.00

5.08

0.00

0.00

278,000

1,483,887

-

5,000

10,000

-

-

50,000

-

-

15,901

169,100

1,837,918

350,000

94,500

33,248

-

7,000

6,000

22,442

13,944

107,000

-

101,000

-

212,910

-

20,000

-

-

-

50,000

-

200,000

1,040,000

192,500

5,591

-

50,000

335,000

140,000

300,000

334,098

-

552,500

BAHRAIN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Boubyan Intl Industries HoldGulf Investment House Ksc

Boubyan Bank K.S.CAhli United Bank B.S.C

Osos Holding Group CoAl-Eid Food Ksc

Qurain Petrochemical IndustrAdvanced Technology Co

Ekttitab Holding Co SakKout Food Group Ksc

Real Estate Trade Centers CoAcico Industries Co Kscc

Kipco Asset Management CoNational Petroleum ServicesAlimtiaz Investment Co Kscc

Ras Al Khaimah White CementKuwait Reinsurance Co Ksc

Kuwait & Gulf Link TransportHuman Soft Holding Co Ksc

Automated Systems Co KsccMetal & Recycling Co

Gulf Franchising Holding CoAl-Enma’a Real Estate Co

National Mobile TelecommuniAl Bareeq Holding Co Kscc

Housing Finance Co SakAl Salam Group Holding Co

United Foodstuff IndustriesAl Aman Investment Company

Mashaer Holdings Co KscManazel Holding

Mushrif Trading & ContractinTijara And Real Estate Inves

Kuwait Building MaterialsJazeera Airways Co Ksc

Commercial Real Estate CoFuture Communications Co

National International CoTaameer Real Estate Invest C

Gulf Cement CoHeavy Engineering And Ship B

Refrigeration Industries & SNational Real Estate Co

Al Safat Energy Holding CompKuwait National Cinema CoDanah Alsafat Foodstuff Co

Independent Petroleum GroupKuwait Real Estate Co Ksc

Salhia Real Estate Co KscGulf Cable & Electrical IndAl Nawadi Holding Co Ksc

Kuwait Finance HouseGulf North Africa Holding Co

Hilal Cement CoOsoul Investment Kscc

Gulf Insurance Group KscKuwait Food Co (Americana)

Umm Al Qaiwain Cement IndustAayan Leasing & Investment

Alrai Media Group Co KscNational Investments CoCommercial Facilities Co

Taiba Kuwaiti Holding Co KscAfaq Educational Services Co

Kuwait Pillars For FinancialYiaco Medical Co. K.S.C.C

25.00

44.50

415.00

220.00

190.00

0.00

300.00

0.00

45.50

0.00

41.00

300.00

85.00

820.00

172.00

99.00

186.00

60.00

3,020.00

234.00

76.00

35.50

47.50

1,240.00

0.00

0.00

51.00

0.00

51.00

0.00

41.00

0.00

60.00

180.00

670.00

86.00

0.00

77.00

35.00

84.00

238.00

300.00

114.00

55.00

1,180.00

86.00

380.00

73.00

390.00

560.00

0.00

610.00

42.00

170.00

70.00

620.00

2,620.00

0.00

45.50

168.00

138.00

174.00

0.00

156.00

0.00

255.00

-5.66

-5.32

0.00

-0.90

0.00

0.00

3.45

0.00

-2.15

0.00

0.00

1.69

0.00

0.00

-5.49

-1.00

3.33

-6.25

0.67

4.46

-6.17

-6.58

-5.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-8.93

0.00

-7.27

0.00

-5.75

0.00

-3.23

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.28

-6.67

-2.33

0.00

-3.23

-8.06

1.85

0.00

-5.49

2.70

-5.19

0.00

-1.75

0.00

-1.61

-5.62

0.00

-6.67

-1.59

0.00

0.00

-5.21

1.20

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-3.77

4,811,500

2,558,032

370,189

2,070,490

131,701

-

1,409,737

-

2,384,176

-

8,000

232,110

175,150

75,736

19,203,120

31,997

6,025

981,677

615,206

11,000

37,378

208,172

1,061,700

18,399

-

-

8,311,208

-

6,557,173

-

5,909,451

-

38,375

1,000

11,736

2,105,077

-

224,500

4,639,500

316,900

126,730

791,555

6,045,104

2,892,678

10

3,445,650

50,500

3,297,337

252,500

187,795

-

2,691,491

3,116,363

20,000

252,886

10,000

8,530

-

5,626,190

732,383

2,506,485

56,400

-

1,906

-

33,470

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES

Gulf Times Wednesday, February 8, 2017

BUSINESS6

CURRENCIESDOLLAR QATAR RIYAL SAUDI RIYAL UAE DIRHAMS BAHRAINI

DINARKUWAITI

DINAR

Europe stock markets rise onstrong dollar, upbeat earningsAFPLondon

Global stock markets headed higher yesterday, driven by a stronger dollar and a crop of

upbeat earnings reports on Wall Street, traders said.

And the weaker pound and euro also helped European stock markets bounce back – at least for now – from jitters about upcoming elections, analysts said.

“A strong open on Wall Street saw the Dow Jones hit a fresh record high,” said Jasper Lawler of London Capital Group.

“So far any moments of doubt over the policies (of US President Donald Trump) have been a buy-the-dip op-portunity.”

The FTSE-100 index in London rose

0.2% at 7,186.22 and Frankfurt’s blue-chip DAX 30 closed 0.3% higher at 11,549.44 yesterday.

Stock prices in London have ben-efi ted in recent months from a sharp drop in sterling following Britain’s vote for Brexit.

This is because the FTSE-100 index is loaded with multinationals earning in currencies other than the pound.

But in France, the CAC 40 index slipped in face of uncertainty about the outcome of its upcoming presidential election.

“The increasing popularity of (far-right leader) Marine Le Pen ahead of the French elections, coupled with growing disapproval towards the mainstream parties and general anti-establishment feeling in the US and Europe over the last 12 months could seriously add to the po-litical instability in Europe,” said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

“This is adding to the feeling of un-certainty and may continue to do so as the elections approach,” he added.

Le Pen on Sunday vowed that she would be a president who puts France fi rst as she formally launched a cam-paign echoing many of the themes that propelled Trump to the White House.

Germany will also hold a general election this year where a surge in sup-port for populist parties might also be observed.

“Traders are maintaining some cau-tion given the increasing political risk environment in both the US and Eu-rope,” said Oanda’s Erlam.

European Central bank boss Mario Draghi on Monday said that “risks to the euro area outlook remain tilted to the downside and relate predomi-nantly to global factors”, and he stood ready to further ease monetary policy if necessary.

Traders at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The DAX 30 closed 0.3% higher at 11,549.44 points yesterday.

BUSINESS7Gulf Times

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Apple IncMicrosoft Corp

Exxon Mobil CorpJohnson & JohnsonGeneral Electric Co

Jpmorgan Chase & CoProcter & Gamble Co/The

Wal-Mart Stores IncVerizon Communications Inc

Pfizer IncVisa Inc-Class A Shares

Chevron CorpCoca-Cola Co/The

Intel CorpMerck & Co. Inc.

Cisco Systems IncHome Depot Inc

Intl Business Machines CorpWalt Disney Co/The

Unitedhealth Group Inc3M Co

Mcdonald’s CorpNike Inc -Cl B

United Technologies CorpBoeing Co/The

Goldman Sachs Group IncAmerican Express Co

Du Pont (E.I.) De NemoursCaterpillar Inc

Travelers Cos Inc/The

131.97

63.56

82.99

113.26

29.67

87.12

87.74

66.72

47.91

32.28

86.09

112.03

41.78

36.46

64.61

31.60

136.99

178.48

109.38

160.65

176.14

125.34

52.96

111.45

166.77

240.91

78.12

76.34

93.99

117.73

1.29

-0.13

-0.38

-0.12

0.03

0.40

0.39

0.49

-0.25

0.14

0.31

-0.84

0.52

0.51

-0.51

0.95

0.37

1.49

-0.17

0.09

0.59

0.72

0.29

0.70

1.70

0.39

0.39

0.07

1.21

0.05

12,062,951

5,314,867

3,613,383

1,358,999

6,535,594

3,028,600

1,908,470

1,422,482

4,465,850

5,667,964

2,668,028

1,314,585

3,792,778

4,503,597

2,027,989

5,665,139

691,807

1,203,051

2,164,023

679,455

283,622

1,024,234

2,065,743

660,191

1,314,070

970,291

543,504

263,392

2,049,288

322,414

DJIA

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Wpp PlcWorldpay Group Plc

Wolseley PlcWm Morrison Supermarkets

Whitbread PlcVodafone Group Plc

United Utilities Group PlcUnilever Plc

Tui Ag-DiTravis Perkins Plc

Tesco PlcTaylor Wimpey Plc

Standard Life PlcStandard Chartered Plc

St James’s Place PlcSse Plc

Smith & Nephew PlcSky Plc

Shire PlcSevern Trent Plc

Schroders PlcSainsbury (J) Plc

Sage Group Plc/TheSabmiller Plc

Rsa Insurance Group PlcRoyal Mail Plc

Royal Dutch Shell Plc-B ShsRoyal Dutch Shell Plc-A Shs

Royal Bank Of Scotland GroupRolls-Royce Holdings Plc

Rio Tinto PlcRexam Plc

Relx PlcReckitt Benckiser Group Plc

Randgold Resources LtdPrudential Plc

Provident Financial PlcPersimmon Plc

Pearson PlcPaddy Power Betfair Plc

Old Mutual PlcNext Plc

National Grid PlcMondi Plc

Merlin EntertainmentMediclinic International Plc

Marks & Spencer Group PlcLondon Stock Exchange Group

Lloyds Banking Group PlcLegal & General Group PlcLand Securities Group Plc

Kingfisher PlcJohnson Matthey Plc

Itv PlcIntu Properties Plc

Intl Consolidated Airline-DiIntertek Group Plc

Intercontinental Hotels GrouInmarsat Plc

Informa PlcImperial Brands Plc

Hsbc Holdings PlcHargreaves Lansdown Plc

Hammerson PlcGlencore Plc

Glaxosmithkline PlcGkn Plc

Fresnillo PlcExperian Plc

Easyjet PlcDixons Carphone Plc

Direct Line Insurance GroupDiageo Plc

Dcc PlcCrh Plc

Compass Group PlcCoca-Cola Hbc Ag-Di

Centrica PlcCarnival Plc

Capita PlcBurberry Group Plc

Bunzl PlcBt Group Plc

British Land Co PlcBritish American Tobacco Plc

Bp PlcBhp Billiton Plc

Berkeley Group Holdings/TheBarratt Developments Plc

Barclays PlcBae Systems Plc

Babcock Intl Group PlcAviva Plc

Astrazeneca PlcAssociated British Foods Plc

Ashtead Group PlcArm Holdings Plc

Antofagasta PlcAnglo American Plc

Admiral Group Plc3I Group Plc

#N/A

1,850.00

280.60

4,992.00

243.80

3,966.00

193.25

925.50

3,315.50

1,185.00

1,489.00

194.90

171.40

356.20

794.10

1,069.00

1,511.00

1,209.00

1,007.00

4,567.50

2,283.00

2,981.00

265.60

638.00

0.00

589.00

412.20

2,264.50

2,166.50

227.10

704.50

3,430.00

0.00

1,465.00

7,140.00

7,455.00

1,585.00

2,712.00

1,967.00

671.00

8,575.00

208.60

3,866.00

941.60

1,778.00

482.00

807.00

336.70

3,149.00

66.34

240.10

1,010.00

334.50

3,178.00

204.20

268.60

474.40

3,504.00

3,790.00

638.00

671.00

3,745.50

690.10

1,373.00

554.50

317.05

1,574.00

344.80

1,556.00

1,569.00

924.50

312.30

358.90

2,235.00

6,750.00

2,764.00

1,446.00

1,803.00

229.20

4,322.00

498.70

1,631.00

2,178.00

308.20

596.50

5,002.00

459.65

1,395.00

2,874.00

498.10

226.70

598.00

890.00

494.00

4,468.50

2,439.00

1,633.00

0.00

836.50

1,343.00

1,865.00

707.50

0.00

1.04

0.61

0.65

1.84

0.69

0.21

1.09

1.61

0.42

1.50

0.96

0.94

1.57

-1.18

0.47

1.55

0.67

0.10

2.68

1.47

1.50

2.15

1.03

0.00

0.77

1.33

-0.72

-0.39

1.43

3.53

1.33

0.00

1.45

1.64

4.34

0.09

1.35

1.50

4.19

0.18

0.68

0.60

0.87

0.57

0.42

0.37

0.48

-0.32

0.42

1.87

1.05

-0.12

-0.03

0.69

0.79

0.02

1.01

1.01

1.35

2.44

0.77

0.52

0.81

1.19

2.01

1.16

0.26

4.57

0.71

-0.86

2.29

1.64

0.81

5.88

-1.78

1.19

0.84

1.51

0.26

2.36

0.93

2.25

0.44

1.45

0.34

-3.55

0.69

1.41

0.93

-0.31

1.70

0.11

0.80

1.85

1.67

-0.49

0.00

2.32

1.02

0.97

1.95

0.00

1,680,099

4,495,190

354,971

9,805,189

234,551

29,026,923

766,332

1,401,762

480,290

713,428

24,969,026

17,313,949

2,795,657

4,417,027

352,234

1,419,276

1,243,438

2,794,168

1,447,490

316,446

187,283

5,735,787

1,398,620

-

1,174,473

1,846,327

3,522,550

2,900,651

8,372,109

4,635,037

2,563,253

-

1,481,415

1,039,372

620,453

2,834,966

188,305

935,112

2,628,550

18,811

4,886,240

261,446

3,677,030

679,072

966,922

804,972

2,595,637

498,836

81,734,652

7,519,245

1,032,923

4,724,934

413,553

8,863,848

2,402,121

2,986,247

168,069

259,893

3,063,626

1,508,162

1,281,133

9,189,063

676,843

1,008,191

32,653,987

4,624,951

2,698,054

809,387

646,168

1,974,218

3,595,379

2,271,267

1,961,710

402,777

1,545,497

1,591,446

371,493

8,019,467

391,611

1,805,746

573,886

389,486

10,549,233

3,031,666

2,114,744

35,684,055

5,788,591

662,853

4,248,195

17,335,005

2,617,463

493,199

5,847,331

2,016,443

727,798

690,209

-

1,825,122

2,712,709

599,082

630,464

-

FTSE 100

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

East Japan Railway CoItochu Corp

Fujifilm Holdings CorpYamato Holdings Co Ltd

Chubu Electric Power Co IncMitsubishi Estate Co Ltd

Mitsubishi Heavy IndustriesToshiba Corp

Shiseido Co LtdShionogi & Co Ltd

Tokyo Gas Co LtdTokyo Electron Ltd

Panasonic CorpFujitsu Ltd

Central Japan Railway CoT&D Holdings Inc

Toyota Motor CorpKddi Corp

Nitto Denko Corp

9,995.00

1,583.50

4,252.00

2,253.50

1,500.00

2,194.50

468.40

240.10

3,146.00

5,605.00

498.30

11,290.00

1,175.50

677.30

17,995.00

1,702.50

6,346.00

2,947.00

9,259.00

-0.40

0.13

0.40

0.20

0.98

2.12

-0.97

-0.46

0.29

-0.69

-0.02

1.30

-0.38

-0.95

-0.42

-2.35

-2.26

-0.19

-0.56

852,000

6,505,700

1,322,000

1,497,200

1,527,900

5,158,000

16,886,000

57,480,000

768,000

828,000

4,683,000

728,400

4,440,200

6,461,000

424,700

4,494,700

10,372,300

4,552,400

528,900

TOKYO

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Rakuten IncKyocera Corp

Nissan Motor Co LtdHitachi Ltd

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co LtdJfe Holdings Inc

Ana Holdings IncMitsubishi Electric Corp

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial GrHonda Motor Co Ltd

Fast Retailing Co LtdMs&Ad Insurance Group Holdin

Kubota CorpSeven & I Holdings Co Ltd

Inpex CorpResona Holdings Inc

Asahi Kasei CorpKirin Holdings Co Ltd

Marubeni CorpMitsubishi Ufj Financial Gro

Mitsubishi Chemical HoldingsFanuc Corp

Daito Trust Construct Co LtdOtsuka Holdings Co Ltd

Oriental Land Co LtdSekisui House Ltd

Secom Co LtdTokio Marine Holdings Inc

Aeon Co LtdMitsui & Co Ltd

Kao CorpDai-Ichi Life Holdings Inc

Mazda Motor CorpKomatsu Ltd

West Japan Railway CoMurata Manufacturing Co Ltd

Kansai Electric Power Co IncDenso Corp

Sompo Holdings IncDaiwa House Industry Co Ltd

Jx Holdings IncNippon Steel & Sumitomo Meta

Suzuki Motor CorpNippon Telegraph & Telephone

Ajinomoto Co IncMitsui Fudosan Co Ltd

Ono Pharmaceutical Co LtdDaikin Industries Ltd

Bank Of Yokohama Ltd/TheToray Industries IncAstellas Pharma Inc

Bridgestone CorpSony CorpHoya Corp

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust HoldinJapan Tobacco Inc

Osaka Gas Co LtdSumitomo Electric Industries

Daiwa Securities Group IncSoftbank Group Corp

Mizuho Financial Group IncNomura Holdings Inc

Daiichi Sankyo Co LtdFuji Heavy Industries Ltd

Ntt Docomo IncSumitomo Realty & Developmen

Sumitomo Metal Mining Co LtdOrix Corp

Asahi Group Holdings LtdKeyence Corp

Nidec CorpIsuzu Motors Ltd

Unicharm CorpShin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd

Smc CorpMitsubishi CorpNintendo Co Ltd

Eisai Co LtdSumitomo Corp

Canon IncJapan Airlines Co Ltd

1,090.00

6,037.00

1,123.00

672.30

5,021.00

2,090.50

332.60

1,608.50

4,479.00

3,541.00

35,290.00

3,773.00

1,822.00

4,428.00

1,074.50

593.20

1,052.00

1,839.00

695.40

751.20

774.90

21,565.00

15,595.00

5,243.00

6,150.00

1,801.00

8,149.00

4,705.00

1,624.50

1,654.00

5,863.00

2,092.00

1,556.00

2,770.50

7,159.00

15,385.00

1,198.50

4,867.00

4,021.00

3,033.00

530.90

2,750.00

4,400.00

4,874.00

2,288.50

2,595.00

2,446.00

11,245.00

0.00

974.60

1,490.50

4,054.00

3,599.00

4,879.00

4,052.00

3,632.00

431.10

1,769.50

706.50

8,664.00

208.50

737.10

2,564.50

4,329.00

2,690.00

3,034.00

1,626.00

1,707.50

3,910.00

43,880.00

10,405.00

1,466.00

2,582.50

9,505.00

30,880.00

2,541.00

23,230.00

6,139.00

1,444.00

3,252.00

3,525.00

0.00

-0.30

0.27

1.14

0.44

1.11

0.30

-0.03

-0.13

1.37

-1.45

-0.32

0.75

-0.52

-1.33

0.39

2.19

-0.51

0.77

-0.46

1.37

-0.44

0.61

-0.72

-0.18

-0.52

-0.69

-0.65

0.37

0.36

0.57

-1.51

-0.73

-1.21

-0.18

-0.26

0.84

-2.41

-0.59

0.50

0.63

0.33

-1.70

0.45

0.02

0.19

-1.23

1.08

0.00

-0.50

0.24

-0.22

0.28

0.06

-0.56

-1.65

-0.23

-0.03

-0.60

0.13

-0.48

-0.55

0.25

-0.09

0.00

0.20

3.70

1.07

-1.68

-0.30

-1.75

-1.25

0.62

-0.89

0.03

0.24

-2.13

-1.08

1.44

0.22

1.15

TOKYO

Company Name Lt Price % Chg

Aluminum Corp Of China Ltd-HBank Of East Asia Ltd

Bank Of China Ltd-HBank Of Communications Co-H

Belle International HoldingsBoc Hong Kong Holdings Ltd

Cathay Pacific AirwaysCk Hutchison Holdings Ltd

China Coal Energy Co-HChina Construction Bank-H

China Life Insurance Co-HChina Merchants Port Holding

China Mobile LtdChina Overseas Land & Invest

China Petroleum & Chemical-HChina Resources Beer Holdin

China Resources Land LtdChina Resources Power Holdin

China Shenhua Energy Co-HChina Unicom Hong Kong Ltd

Citic LtdClp Holdings Ltd

Cnooc LtdCosco Shipping Ports Ltd

Esprit Holdings LtdFih Mobile Ltd

Hang Lung Properties LtdHang Seng Bank Ltd

Henderson Land Development

4.04

32.75

3.55

5.70

5.12

30.60

10.76

91.60

3.96

5.80

23.50

20.90

88.40

22.90

6.08

17.04

19.40

13.36

16.00

9.45

11.38

77.85

9.65

8.15

6.05

2.58

19.58

161.00

43.25

-0.74

-0.30

0.28

-0.52

2.81

-1.29

2.87

-0.05

-0.75

0.00

2.17

0.24

-0.45

0.00

-1.62

4.54

0.00

0.30

-1.11

2.61

0.18

1.17

-0.52

2.52

1.17

-0.39

0.82

0.00

1.05

31,668,681

2,036,202

223,356,143

14,495,695

34,317,857

10,780,217

15,760,090

4,830,763

5,654,764

198,063,453

158,064,347

1,674,309

11,403,307

15,292,835

76,457,890

9,796,043

6,493,838

5,210,174

15,738,656

91,884,471

4,353,279

2,945,241

34,281,811

4,826,763

2,778,658

6,851,644

2,932,659

1,073,038

1,872,896

HONG KONG

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Hong Kong & China GasHong Kong Exchanges & Clear

Hsbc Holdings PlcHutchison Whampoa Ltd

Ind & Comm Bk Of China-HLi & Fung Ltd

Mtr CorpNew World Development

Petrochina Co Ltd-HPing An Insurance Group Co-H

Power Assets Holdings LtdSino Land Co

Sun Hung Kai PropertiesSwire Pacific Ltd - Cl ATencent Holdings Ltd

Wharf Holdings Ltd

14.82

186.70

66.20

0.00

4.76

3.35

40.20

9.23

6.05

41.10

75.80

12.82

108.50

78.70

205.40

57.90

0.82

-0.27

-0.23

0.00

0.42

0.30

0.25

1.54

-0.33

0.12

0.73

0.31

0.28

0.90

-0.96

0.17

8,105,789

2,347,121

17,331,142

-

194,992,247

37,761,223

2,585,091

22,775,381

90,055,182

55,284,655

3,289,047

5,780,253

3,533,586

838,584

11,540,961

2,142,620

HONG KONG

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Zee Entertainment EnterpriseYes Bank Ltd

Wipro LtdVedanta Ltd

Ultratech Cement LtdTech Mahindra Ltd

Tata Steel LtdTata Power Co Ltd

Tata Motors LtdTata Consultancy Svcs Ltd

Sun Pharmaceutical IndusState Bank Of India

Reliance Industries LtdPunjab National Bank

Power Grid Corp Of India LtdOil & Natural Gas Corp Ltd

Ntpc LtdMaruti Suzuki India Ltd

Mahindra & Mahindra LtdLupin Ltd

Larsen & Toubro LtdKotak Mahindra Bank Ltd

Itc LtdInfosys Ltd

Indusind Bank LtdIdea Cellular Ltd

Icici Bank LtdHousing Development Finance

Hindustan Unilever LtdHindalco Industries Ltd

Hero Motocorp LtdHdfc Bank Limited

Hcl Technologies LtdGrasim Industries Ltd

Gail India LtdDr. Reddy’s Laboratories

Coal India LtdCipla Ltd

Cairn India LtdBosch Ltd

Bharti Airtel LtdBharat Petroleum Corp Ltd

Bharat Heavy ElectricalsBank Of Baroda

Bajaj Auto LtdAxis Bank Ltd

Asian Paints LtdAmbuja Cements Ltd

Adani Ports And Special EconAcc Ltd

502.25

1,396.80

458.55

248.05

3,696.00

470.85

472.80

81.20

506.80

2,244.60

669.60

277.90

1,030.90

151.65

199.90

193.30

173.00

6,213.20

1,258.95

1,466.15

1,500.30

773.35

277.10

942.25

1,324.25

107.35

288.10

1,407.25

855.25

185.90

3,259.80

1,307.15

815.70

950.35

476.20

3,065.10

315.05

597.55

272.55

22,479.85

353.15

716.65

152.10

187.05

2,769.80

493.40

999.30

234.85

303.65

1,456.20

-0.35

-0.12

-0.55

-1.08

-1.57

-1.39

-0.13

-1.28

-3.62

0.17

-0.82

0.31

-1.03

1.64

-0.60

-2.86

-0.35

1.03

-0.55

-2.01

1.11

0.87

0.11

0.75

0.55

-0.97

-0.76

0.50

-0.62

-2.21

-0.33

-0.53

-1.02

0.55

-1.30

-1.02

-3.08

-0.67

-0.96

-0.35

-0.59

1.60

5.59

1.33

-1.06

-0.98

0.69

-1.98

-1.79

-1.62

SENSEX

Company Name Lt Price % Chg

WORLD INDICESIndices Lt Price Change

GCC INDICESIndices Lt Price Change

Dow Jones Indus. AvgS&P 500 Index

Nasdaq Composite IndexS&P/Tsx Composite Index

Mexico Bolsa IndexBrazil Bovespa Stock Idx

Ftse 100 IndexCac 40 Index

Dax IndexIbex 35 Tr

Nikkei 225Japan Topix

Hang Seng IndexAll Ordinaries Indx

Nzx All IndexBse Sensex 30 Index

Nse S&P Cnx Nifty IndexStraits Times Index

Karachi All Share IndexJakarta Composite Index

20,139.99

2,298.19

5,687.98

15,509.41

46,935.03

64,539.77

7,212.07

4,765.22

11,585.89

9,359.90

18,910.78

1,516.15

23,331.57

5,672.59

1,318.15

28,335.16

8,768.30

3,071.64

33,810.41

5,381.48

+87.57

+5.63

+24.42

+52.47

-290.07

+546.84

+39.92

-12.86

+76.05

+2.60

-65.93

-4.27

-16.67

+7.19

-4.52

-104.12

-32.75

+14.73

+100.46

-14.52

Doha Securities MarketSaudi Tadawul

Kuwait Stocks ExchangeBahrain Stock Exchage

Oman Stock MarketAbudhabi Stock MarketDubai Financial Market

10,584.94

7,038.62

6,583.05

1,310.25

5,824.68

4,545.11

3,718.51

-24.70

-23.73

-118.68

+9.36

+9.97

+23.53

+27.17

“Information contained herein is believed to be reliable and had been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. The accuracy and completeness cannot be guaranteed. This publication is for providing information only and is not intended as an off er or solicitation for a purchase or sale of any of the financial instruments mentioned. Gulf Times and Doha Bank or any of their employees shall not be held accountable and will not accept any losses or liabilities for actions based on this data.”

4,083,700

811,500

7,850,800

19,894,000

2,183,300

4,288,400

8,892,000

5,759,000

4,833,600

5,851,000

466,100

1,294,200

2,207,200

2,129,700

4,316,000

8,373,600

5,609,000

1,597,500

15,189,600

73,147,800

5,574,600

784,800

636,200

1,334,100

691,600

2,189,800

376,300

1,191,900

1,398,100

4,406,200

1,735,700

6,256,200

6,535,100

2,802,300

454,300

595,200

2,059,100

2,229,000

548,900

1,070,700

15,416,500

2,078,900

2,355,100

2,221,100

1,291,500

2,560,000

3,079,100

887,200

-

4,480,000

6,214,100

1,698,800

7,352,800

730,600

1,672,100

6,631,200

4,066,000

2,834,500

6,922,000

5,033,900

100,933,100

19,056,700

2,709,400

3,511,400

2,709,700

1,589,000

8,806,000

5,722,200

1,674,300

212,600

988,100

3,811,900

906,900

1,654,800

403,100

4,562,000

1,210,000

624,800

6,173,600

2,574,600

2,329,900

1,748,682

1,589,350

939,254

9,740,200

176,171

1,913,976

5,490,315

3,230,405

8,714,098

968,441

4,689,568

13,489,162

2,375,466

53,889,414

3,803,081

12,076,553

5,753,730

490,013

1,392,660

1,210,953

1,841,411

3,333,518

26,425,686

4,888,453

1,566,078

17,813,515

12,328,030

2,757,098

947,231

11,551,764

228,150

908,761

1,492,359

611,178

2,538,113

215,702

5,963,227

1,195,342

1,725,442

20,789

3,748,024

2,472,334

50,977,128

11,518,594

339,573

5,718,053

619,299

1,597,326

1,941,662

320,323

BUSINESS13Gulf Times

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

ReutersTokyo

Honda Motor Co and Hitachi Ltd’s auto parts subsidiary plan to form a joint venture to

develop, produce and sell motors for electric vehicles (EV), joining forces to better compete in the highly specialised “green” car segment.

Automakers are increasingly team-ing up with parts suppliers to build components for the fast-growing EV segment as a way to expand product line-ups while containing high devel-opment costs. “Producing motors is capital intensive, so rather than just manufacturing them for our own pur-poses, we would like to produce in large volumes with the possibility of supply-ing a variety of customers,” Honda chief executive offi cer Takahiro Hachigo told reporters at a news briefi ng yesterday.

“In pairing up with Hitachi, we’re hoping to tap into its expertise in vol-ume production.”

The venture will be established in July with an investment of ¥5bn ($44.69mn), and will be 51% owned by Hitachi Automotive Systems and 49% held by Honda, the two companies said.

It will build motors to be used in pet-rol hybrids, plug-in hybrids and bat-tery-electric cars, and will have sales and manufacturing functions in the United States and China in addition to Japan, they said.

Hitachi Automotive Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd

and longtime supplier of components including engine and brake parts to Honda. It counts the alliance of Nissan Motor Co Ltd and Renault SA as its big-gest client, accounting for around one-third of annual sales.

Other customers include Toyota Mo-tor Corp, Ford Motor Co and Volkswa-gen AG. The tie-up highlights Honda’s willingness to join with other industry

players as it competes to develop more lower-emission cars.

It comes after Honda’s announce-ment last week that it was teaming up with General Motors Co to produce hy-drogen fuel cell power systems in the United States from around 2020.

“It’s a refl ection that a lot of the new technologies being developed for auto-mobiles are not cheap, so companies are

fi nding partners that they can share the burden with to reduce their risk,” said Janet Lewis, managing director of equity research at Macquarie Capital Securities Japan. “Nobody knows exactly where the industry is going to go, so everybody has to have a variety of solutions. It’s a way of preparing for the unknown.”

The latest joint ventures by Japan’s third-biggest automaker are part of its

strategy for new-energy cars to com-prise two-thirds of its vehicle line-up by 2030 from around 5% now.

Honda is planning to launch battery-powered and plug-in petrol hybrid ver-sions of its Clarity fuel-cell vehicle later this year. It does not currently market a battery-electric vehicle after discontin-uing a limited production electric ver-sion of its Fit mini MPV model in 2014.

Honda, Hitachi Automotive to form EV motor joint venture

Honda chief executive off icer Takahiro Hachigo (right) and his Hitachi Automotive counterpart Hideaki Seki attend a news conference in Tokyo yesterday. The two companies are planning to form a joint venture to develop, produce and sell motors for electric vehicles.

Indian Oil says crude processing to edge up in 2017-18ReutersNew Delhi

Indian Oil Corp, the coun-try’s largest refi ner, expects its crude processing to inch

up in 2017/18 despite planned maintenance at some plants.

The company’s head of refi n-eries told Reuters in an interview late on Monday that “high runs” at one of its biggest plants, on the east coast, would off set the impact of maintenance work at other facilities.

IOC, which accounts for over a third of India’s 4.6mn barrels per day (bpd) of refi ning capac-ity, is likely to process 1.4mn bpd in the fi scal year that starts in April, said Sanjiv Singh.

That would be up from 1.34-1.36mn bpd in the current year.

IOC plans to completely shut its 160,000 bpd Mathura re-fi nery in northern India for a month for planned maintenance in 2017/18, Singh said, with-out specifying when that would happen.

It also expects to carry out maintenance on units at its 120,000 bpd Barauni refi nery in the eastern state of Bihar and Koyali facility in the western state of Gujarat, which can re-fi ne 274,000 bpd. But he said that IOC’s 300,000 bpd Paradip plant would ramp up to 100% of capacity in 2017/18.

The refi nery is currently oper-ating at 90%.

“Barauni and Gujarat will see some shutdown, so these refi n-eries will be on marginally lower throughput, while Paradip will pick up,” Singh said.

He added that the return of full-scale operations at Paradip would enhance IOC’s heavy oil processing capability.

“Out heavy oil intake will go up in the next fi scal year,” he said. IOC currently processes small amounts of heavy grades from Latin America, with the Middle East meeting the bulk of its demand. The company has renewed a deal with Iraq to buy about 312,000 bpd oil for 2017.

For 2016/17 it has a deal to purchase 114,000 bpd from Saudi Aramco, and 100,000 bpd each from Kuwait and Iran.

It also has a term deal with the United Arab Emirates to buy 50,000 bpd oil.

IOC could buy more South American oil if prices drop as “the transportation cost from there is also heavy”, he added.

The company will invest about Rs40bn ($594mn) on in-stalling an isomerisation and hydrogent unit at Paradip to produce Euro VI compliant fuels from April 2020.

ReutersNew Delhi

South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp is close to fi nalising the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as the site for its

fi rst factory in the country, as it speeds up eff orts to start production in the fast-grow-ing market, a source familiar with the matter said.

Reports of Kia looking to pick a site have been doing the rounds for a while, but an of-fi cial with the Andhra Pradesh administra-tion had told Reuters last year that the state was the frontrunner given its proximity to Tamil Nadu state – home to plants of Kia’s affi liate, Hyundai Motor Co.

The Korean fi rms, jointly the world’s No 5 car maker, are chasing new business after missing targets over the past two years.

And now, there are worries sales to the United States, one of their biggest markets, could be aff ected by protectionist trade pol-icies under President Donald Trump.

India, however, remains a bright spot, with Hyundai – the country’s No 2 auto-maker by sales – reporting growth there.

Kia is hoping to leverage its affi liate’s sup-ply chain network built over nearly two dec-ades to gain a foothold in the market that is tipped to become the world’s third largest by 2020. This month, Kia is likely to choose a site in the district of Ananthapur, And-hra Pradesh, for its factory, the source said,

adding the state had off ered about 600 acres (242.81 hectares) of land to the automaker.

A second source also said that Kia was likely to pick Andhra Pradesh as its factory site. The sources did not want to be named as they were not authorised to talk to media.

Kia intends to produce small sedans and small sport utility vehicles at the plant from July 2019, although the plan is subject to change, a third person said.

The CEO of Kia Motors, Park Han-woo, said the automaker was in the process of picking a site for an Indian factory, without giving any details on location.

“Preparations are going well. We are ready to break ground on the factory anytime,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry event in Seoul yesterday.

The states of Maharashtra and Gujarat have also been wooing Kia for the factory, Reuters reported last year.

Kia is likely to compete with its affi liate Hyundai, Tata Motors, Honda Motor Co and Maruti Suzuki India Ltd in India, a mar-ket skewed towards cars costing less than $7,000. Hyundai is one of a handful of suc-cessful foreign car makers in India.

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp is trying to expand in the country and this week an-nounced a partnership with Suzuki Motor Corp, which dominates the Indian market via its Maruti Suzuki venture. “Kia cannot aff ord to miss the India market,” said Ko Tae-bong, an auto analyst at Hi Investment & Securities.

SK Hynix, Micron bid for Toshiba chip stake

Kia Motor’s Morning compact car is seen during its unveiling ceremony in Seoul. The company is hoping to leverage its aff iliate, Hyundai Motor’s, supply chain network built over nearly two decades to gain a foothold in Indian market that is tipped to become the world’s third largest by 2020.

ReutersSeoul/Tokyo

Toshiba Corp favours private eq-uity bidders in the sale of a stake in its chip business, as suitors

including rivals SK Hynix Inc and Mi-cron Technology Inc vie with fi nancial investors like Bain Capital, sources said yesterday.

Toshiba needs to raise funds by the end of March to off set an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown on its US nuclear power business, meaning there may not be enough time to con-clude a deal with another chipmaker, said one of the sources with direct knowledge of the company’s strategy.

That plan, initially at least, would confound attempts by other chipmak-ers to buy a slice of a business that may provide an edge in the booming market for NAND fl ash memory chips used for long-term data storage.

Another of the sources said Toshiba could eventually seek investment from other chipmakers once its fi nancial cri-sis had passed.

South Korea’s Hynix, the world’s No 2 chipmaker, yesterday said it had sub-mitted a non-binding bid although it

gave no details on the size of the stake it wanted to acquire.

SK Hynix and Bain Capital declined to comment and Toshiba said it could not comment on specifi cs of the sale process.

US chip group Micron Technology was not immediately available for com-ment.

Toshiba’s chip rivals would benefi t from the Japanese fi rm’s technological know-how in high-end NAND prod-ucts and a boost in chip supply, analysts said.

Toshiba is the world’s second-largest maker of fl ash memory.

Interest in the stake is heating up with sources telling Reuters that bids had also come from investment funds, California-based data storage company Western Digital Corp and Micron Tech-nology, amid a surge in memory chip prices.

The world’s biggest maker of fl ash memory, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, was not among the bidders, the sources said.

As smartphones and data servers de-mand ever more processing fi repower, chip suppliers are struggling to keep pace with demand.

Nomura estimates global memory

sales will grow 56.7% this year to a record $116bn, and the NAND segment to expand 51.2% to $51bn.

Toshiba aims to raise more than ¥200bn ($1.7bn) from the less-than 20% stake in its memory business, sources have said.

Selling the stake to an investment fund could speed up the process by eliminating anti-trust concerns sur-rounding other chipmakers, particular-ly Western Digital which is both a rival of Toshiba’s and a business partner.

While a handful of fi rms includ-ing Samsung, SK Hynix and Toshiba control the memory industry, SK Hy-nix’s overall market share was not high enough to pose an antitrust hurdle, said Claire Kyung-min Kim, analyst at Daishin Securities.

Investing in Toshiba could allow the South Korean fi rm to defend its turf against potential Chinese rivals, she said.

Tsinghua Unigroup Ltd, China’s top state chip manufacturer, in January un-veiled a plan to build a $30bn memory chip factory and tried unsuccessfully in 2015 to acquire Micron Technology.

“If a Chinese fi rm buys a stake in Toshiba it would be a risk for all other memory makers,” Kim said.

SK Hynix reported record quarterly revenue in October-December and is now South Korea’s second-largest fi rm by market capitalisation behind Sam-sung Electronics.

In December it announced a 2.2tn

won ($1.94bn) investment in a new NAND plant in South Korea, hoping to catch up with rivals’ more advanced production technologies.

SK Hynix shares rose 0.3% yesterday, while Toshiba’s were down by 0.3%.

The logo of Toshiba is seen on its flash memory factory in Yokkaichi. The company needs to raise funds by the end of March to off set an imminent multi-billion dollar writedown on its US nuclear power business.

Kia planning to set up its 1st India car factory in Andhra Pradesh

Australia central bank holdsrates at record low of 1.5%

ReutersSydney

Australia’s central bank held rates

steady at its first policy meeting

of the year yesterday, playing

down a recent soft patch in

economic growth as a temporary

hiccup that would not prevent a

pick up to a healthy 3% pace over

time.

The Reserve Bank of Australia’s

(RBA) optimistic tone lifted the

local currency 20 ticks to $0.7662

as markets widened the odds on

another policy easing.

The central bank kept rates at

a record low of 1.5% for a seventh

straight month, following easings

in August and May last year.

All 72 economists in a Reuters

poll expected a steady outcome

this week.

Notably, governor Philip Lowe

said the economy looked to have

bounced back to “reasonable

growth” after a surprise contrac-

tion in the third quarter of last

year. “The bank’s central scenario

remains for economic growth

to be around 3% over the next

couple of years,” Lowe said, wav-

ing aside fears Australia may have

slipped into its first recession in

25 years.

He also reiterated the bank’s

forecasts for a gradual pick-up

in underlying inflation, which is

currently pinned at a record low

of 1.5%. The RBA will release its

latest forecasts for the economy

in a quarterly policy statement

due on Friday.

With Lowe accentuating the

positive, investors trimmed bets

on another rate cut for the near

term with interbank futures

implying around a 16% of a move

by June.

Lowe again noted that prices

for Australia’s key commodity

exports had risen sharply in past

months, which blessed the coun-

try with its largest trade surplus

on record in December.

Analysts expect that windfall to

percolate through profits, wages

and tax receipts in a boon for

nominal growth and an argument

against further rate cuts.

Adding to the case against

stimulus has been an acceleration

in house prices in Australia’s two

largest cities, Sydney and Mel-

bourne, driven by an unwelcome

revival in borrowing for invest-

ment properties.

Home prices rose at an annual

pace of 10.7% in January, with

Sydney running red-hot at 16%,

data from property consultant

CoreLogic showed last week.

Minutes of the December RBA

meeting showed the board was

mindful of balancing the benefits

of easy policy against the risks of

encouraging a renewed borrow-

ing binge by households, many of

which are already heavily in debt.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Wednesday, February 8, 201714

China’s FX reserves fall below $3tn in JanReutersBeijing

China’s foreign exchange reserves unexpectedly fell below the closely watched $3tn level in January for

the fi rst time in nearly six years, though tighter regulatory controls appeared to making some progress in slowing capital outfl ows.

China has taken a raft of steps in recent months to make it harder to move money out of the country and to reassert a grip on its faltering currency, even as US Pres-ident Donald Trump steps up accusations that Beijing is keeping the yuan too cheap.

Reserves fell $12.3bn in January to $2.998tn, more than the $10.5bn that economists polled by Reuters had ex-pected.

While the $3tn mark is not seen as a fi rm “line in the sand” for Beijing, con-cerns are swirling over the speed at which the country is depleting its ammunition, sowing doubts over how much longer authorities can aff ord to defend both the currency and its reserves.

Some analysts fear a heavy and sus-tained drain on reserves could prompt Beijing to devalue the yuan as it did in 2015, which could throw global finan-cial markets into turmoil and stoke po-litical tensions with the new US admin-istration.

While Beijing quickly downplayed the fall below the $3tn level, the breach could bolster China’s argument that it not de-liberately devaluing its currency, ahead of the US Treasury’s semi-annual report in April on currency manipulators.

To be sure, the January decline was much smaller than the $41bn reported in December, and was the smallest in seven months, indicating China’s renewed crackdown on outfl ows appears to be working, at least for now.

Economists expect more forceful po-licing of existing regulatory controls after the latest slide, though China’s fi nancial system is notoriously porous, with spec-ulators quickly able to fi nd new channels to get funds out of the country.

“With FX reserves below $3tn, we can expect capital controls as well as tight-ening yuan liquidity to continue, as the authorities try to avoid a further draw-down,” said Chester Liaw, an economist at Forecast Pte Ltd in Singapore, referring the central bank’s surprise hike in short-term interest rates on Friday.

While the world’s second-largest economy still has the largest stash of fo-rex reserves by far, it has burned through over half a trillion dollars since August

2015, when it stunned global investors by devaluing the yuan. The yuan fell 6.6% against a surging dollar in 2016, its big-gest annual drop since 1994.

The crackdown is threatening to squeeze legitimate business outfl ows from China as well, with some European companies reporting recently that divi-dend payments have been put on hold and Chinese fi rms having a tougher time win-ning approval for overseas acquisitions.

“In their eff orts to reduce outfl ows, the authorities have so far avoided conten-tious, high profi le measures such as for-mally re-imposing restrictions on out-fl ows or re-introducing rules on the sale of US dollar receipts by exporters, for fear of damaging the reputation of China’s reform process,” said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia Economics at Oxford Economics.

“Our analysis suggests, however, that they are likely to end up taking such steps eventually.”

The drop in January’s reserves would have been worse if not for a sudden re-versal in the surging US dollar in Janu-ary, some analysts said. The softer dollar boosted the value of non-dollar curren-

cies that Beijing holds. “Based on our calculation, the FX valuation eff ect alone would lead to a sizeable increase of re-serves by US$28bn,” economists at Citi said in a note.

However, despite tighter capital curbs and a bounce in the yuan, Citi estimated net capital outfl ows still intensifi ed to nearly $71bn in January from $51bn in December. Adding to the pressure, many Chinese may have exchanged yuan for dollars and other currencies to travel overseas during the long Lunar New Year holidays.

“Today’s FX reserve number suggests that the authorities are willing to trade a relatively stable yuan-dollar exchange rate for falling FX reserves because of fi -nancial stability concerns,” the econo-mists at Citi added.

The yuan has gained nearly 1% against the dollar so far this year.

But currency strategists polled by Reuters expect it will resume its descent soon, falling to near-decade lows, espe-cially if the US continues to raise interest rates, which would trigger fresh capital outfl ows from emerging economies such

as China and test Beijing’s enhanced capital controls. The drop in reserves in January was mainly due to interventions by the central bank as it sold foreign cur-rencies and bought yuan, China’s foreign exchange regulator, the State Adminis-tration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), said in a statement.

But SAFE said that changes in China’s reserves were normal and the market should not pay too much attention to the $3tn level. While estimates vary widely, some analysts believe China needs to re-tain a minimum of $2.6tn to $2.8tn un-der the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) adequacy measures.

If the dollar’s rally gets back on track, fears of a yuan devaluation would likely spark more intense capital fl ight.

“The fact that China holds less than $3tn in reserves right now means that China has to rethink its intervention strat-egy,” said Zhou Hao, a senior emerging markets economist at Commerzbank in Singapore. It does not make much sense to keep sharply draining reserves if market expectations of further yuan weakness are unlikely to change, he added.

Euro, Hong Kong dollar, US dollar, yen, pound and yuan banknotes are seen at a bank in Beijing. China’s foreign exchange reserves fell $12.3bn in January to $2.998tn, more than the $10.5bn that economists polled by Reuters had expected.

S Korea to dispel ‘misunderstanding’ on US trade pactBloombergSeoul

South Korea’s trade minister said his country will seek to explain the benefi ts of

its free-trade agreement with the US to the Trump administration, as the pact enacted in 2012 comes under fresh scrutiny.

US President Donald Trump has already ditched a broader Pa-cifi c pact that was not yet ratifi ed by Congress and chided South Korea’s neighbours Japan and China for their trade policies, raising concern its agreement could come into his cross-hairs. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is meeting Trump in the US later this week in part to defuse tensions over trade.

During his campaign, Trump called the accord with Seoul – the biggest for the US since the North American Free Trade Agreement took eff ect in 1994 – a destroyer of US auto industry jobs. He hasn’t said if he plans to abolish the FTA outright. The countries can agree in writing to amend the deal, while terminating it would require a six-month notice pe-riod. South Korea will push back against protectionism, minister Joo Hyung-hwan said in a state-ment yesterday announcing a new committee that will draft measures to help the auto indus-try. The government “will dispel the US’s misunderstanding on the eff ectiveness of the US-Korea FTA by explaining the growth of exports of US vehicles to Korea and job creation as a result of Ko-rean companies’ investments,” he said.

Since 2011, when the agree-ment was ratifi ed by lawmak-ers, trading volume between the nations increased by 15%, while global trading volume fell 10%, Joo said in November. The pact prompted Korean companies to invest more in the US, the min-ister said, adding Korean compa-nies hired 45,000 US workers in 2015, up from 35,000 in 2011.

The US was South Korea’s larg-est trading partner after China in 2015, with total trade of $116bn, while South Korea was the US’s sixth-biggest trading partner, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Despite the pact, the overall US trade in goods defi cit with South Korea widened 60% to $26.5bn

in 2016 from $16.6bn in 2012, ac-cording to the US Census Bureau. And the automotive sector, as in Japan, remains one of the biggest points of trade tension between the countries.

South Korea argues that auto-mobiles are a small fraction of to-tal exports to America. The coun-try sent 964,432 vehicles there in 2016, down 9.5% from the previ-ous year, according to the Korea Automobile Manufacturers As-sociation. Imports of US cars rose 22% to 60,099 units, it said.

If Trump wants to walk away from the pact he can, said Kim Jong-hoon, a former Korea trade minister who was a key nego-tiator on the deal. Still, “in reality it’s hard for any government to push for amendments or termi-nation of a trade agreement alone without backing by lawmakers.”

Data from the past fi ve years show the deal helped both na-tions, he said, adding the US trade gap with Korea “isn’t even comparable” to that of countries like Mexico and China.

In a preemptive move to ad-dress Trump’s criticism, Hyundai Motor Co and affi liate Kia Motors Corp announced last month an investment of $3.1bn in the US over the next fi ve years, about 50% more than the $2.1bn they spent in the previous fi ve-year period.

Automakers including Toyota Motor Corp, Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have said they’ll spend on US factories in response to pres-sure from Trump to create jobs in America. Toyota will invest $10bn in the US over the next fi ve years, maintaining its pace of spending during the last half decade.

South Korea’s largest auto-maker has warned of increasing uncertainties from protectionism and competition. Hyundai Motor will continue to monitor the poli-cies of Trump’s administration, which are expected to put pres-sure on countries that have trade surpluses with the US, Koo Za-yong, a vice president at the au-tomaker, said on January 25, after the company reported a decline in quarterly earnings.

If US tariff s on Korean goods are restored to pre-FTA levels, Korea could lose $13bn in exports to the US and shed 127,000 jobs in the three years to 2020, according to a January report from Hyundai Research Institute.

Indian billionaire senses bonanza from Trump’s tax agenda

BloombergBangkok

Billionaire Aloke Lohia sees the possibility of a major boost for his petrochemi-

cal company Indorama Ventures, courtesy of President Donald Trump’s tax agenda.

The Bangkok-based maker of plastics used in items such as Coca-Cola bottles gener-ates about 40% of revenue from its North American factories. Trump’s push to cut corporate taxes and curb imports could be a boon for Indorama’s US earn-ings, according to Lohia.

“Economically, what he’s say-ing will help our businesses in the US,” Lohia, 58, said in an in-terview in Bangkok on Monday. “I can’t complain economically if he reduces corporate tax. We produce regionally. We don’t re-ally export from Asia to the US. We get a benefi t if protectionist measures are put in place.”

Indorama Ventures joins the long list of businesses trying to gauge the impact of Trump’s in-cipient overhaul of taxation and trade policies. Republican law-makers in the US have proposed a 20% border-adjusted levy on companies’ domestic sales and imports. The measure would re-place the current 35% corporate tax rate and exempt exports. The plan faces opposition from busi-nesses who say they’d have to pass higher import costs on to con-sumers.

Indian passport-holder Lohia set up his company in 1994 in Thailand, where he has perma-nent residency. It now operates factories globally, under a strat-

egy of localised manufacturing to serve regional markets.

Products range from plastics to worsted wool yarns. In the US, Lohia said his plants compete with imports from Taiwan, Chi-na, India and Indonesia. Curbing them would enable American factories to reduce idle capacity, he said. More than half of Indo-rama Ventures’ earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation stem from North America, where the bulk of ca-pacity is in the US.

The shares have surged about 77% since early January last year, when the fi rm announced the purchase of a BP petrochemical complex in Alabama. That’s the second-biggest gain in Bloomb-erg’s global equity index of large basic and diversifi ed chemicals companies. Indorama plans to invest as much as $5bn through 2021 to expand production and double operating income. Lohia also intends to repay some debt. Net income probably rose 63% to 9.4bn baht ($268mn) in 2016, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

A 10 percentage point reduc-tion in the US corporate tax rate would boost the manufacturer’s net income by several hun-dred million baht, said Naphat Chantaraserekul, the head of research at Krungsri Securities Co in Bangkok. One challenge for the company is its puri-fi ed terephthalic acid business, where prices are weak, Naphat said. Lohia and his immedi-ate family indirectly hold about 50% of Indorama Resources Ltd, which controls 64% of Indorama Ventures, according to the lat-ter’s website.

As China’s doors open, foreigninvestors worry about exitsBloombergHong Kong

China’s doors to foreign investors may be

opening ever wider, but that’s not enough

for many worried about finding an exit.

Fourteen months after qualifying for

off icial reserve-currency status, and after a

series of steps opening up domestic markets

to overseas funds, the take-up remains

below estimates. For all China’s attraction

as the second-largest economy with large

and expanding domestic capital markets,

regulators’ eff orts to tamp down on outflows

of money have stoked concerns.

“There’s no return lower than not getting

your money back,” Brad Holzberger, chief

money manager of QSuper Ltd, an Australian

pension fund that oversees the equivalent of

$47bn, said in a January 13 interview. “We’re

worried about understanding the transpar-

ency of decision making – as well as property

rights, rule of law, transmission of capital

controls and those sorts of things.”

It’s another case of China’s conflicting

goals, alongside the Communist leadership’s

pursuit of both growth and leverage reduc-

tion across the economy. By taking increas-

ingly aggressive steps to curtail domestic

money from flowing abroad – such as more

stringent vetting of cross-border transac-

tions – regulators are eff ectively counteract-

ing market-opening steps that have included

allowing all types of medium to long-term

investors into the interbank bond market.

In a sign of how far China has to go to

stoke appetite for its assets, Australia’s QSu-

per is happy to put money into Brazil – an

emerging market with a turbulent financial

past that’s featured bailouts from the Inter-

national Monetary Fund – but not China.

“There’s too much discretion by the policy

makers, giving foreign investors a lack of a

rule-based system,” said Shen Jianguang,

chief Asia economist at Mizuho Securities

Asia Ltd in Hong Kong, who previously

worked at the IMF and European Central

Bank. “It’s not a very favourable signal” to

implement curbs on money leaving the

country, he said. But “for Chinese authorities,

the priority is to prevent a financial crisis.”

The State Administration of Foreign

Exchange, or SAFE, actively protects the

legitimate rights and interests of foreign

enterprises, the agency said. Dividends and

profits can be transferred without restriction,

SAFE said. Foreign-invested groups can also

transfer shares and withdrawals from banks,

with the authentic and complete documents

required, it said.

Broader participation by foreign investors

in Chinese markets could help balance its

capital flows, off setting moves by domestic

funds and households to diversify some of

their holdings overseas. That in turn could

reduce longer term downward pressure on

the yuan, which slid the most against the dol-

lar last year in more than two decades.

In a chicken-and-egg situation, more bal-

anced flows would also give regulators space

to follow through on the goal set in 2015 to

make the yuan convertible by 2020.

For now, while the inflow of foreign funds

shows impressive growth rates, the data are

flattered by low starting points. Relative to

other big economies, foreign participation in

China’s financial markets remains limited.

Overseas holdings of Chinese shares rose

41% last year to 649bn yuan ($94bn) – less

than half of what Norway’s sovereign wealth

fund alone holds in American equities as of

September. China has expanded access for

global funds to its onshore equities, launch-

ing two stock exchange links with Hong

Kong since 2014.

Bonds held by foreign investors climbed

12% to 853bn yuan last year, central bank

data show. That’s little more than India’s

stockpile of Treasuries as of November, and

less than one-eighth of what China off icially

owns in US government debt.

Overseas investors in January were net

sellers of Chinese bonds for the first time

since October 2015, which was a month

before the IMF gave approval to the yuan

to join its Special Drawing Right basket of

off icial currencies. “The accelerated yuan

depreciation in the fourth quarter and tight-

ening capital controls are aff ecting overseas

investors’ interest,” said Larry Hu, head of

China economics at Macquarie Securities

Ltd in Hong Kong. Even so, some foreign

investors see curbs on outflows as a worthy

price to pay for currency stability. After what

Bloomberg estimates as $1.6tn left China

from 2015 through last November, the latest

indicators suggest a slowing in the outflows.

Foreign-exchange reserves fell $12.3bn in

January, the least since July, to $2.998tn,

data yesterday showed. Along with dollar

weakness, outflow curbs have helped the

yuan rebound 1% so far this year.

“More barriers on capital flows always

make it more diff icult for investors to know

what the real price of the currency is,” said

Rajeev De Mello, head of Asian fixed income

in Singapore at Schroder Investment Man-

agement Ltd, which has onshore Chinese

bonds among its holdings. “That’s what

keeps the market calmer though. They don’t

have too many policy choices right now.”

One concern De Mello does have is the

cost of hedging his China holdings. Moves by

China to squeeze speculation in the off shore

yuan market, part of off icials’ eff orts to avert

continual declines in the exchange rate,

have involved big swings in money market

rates, making it costlier to hedge. China is

still in the process of developing an onshore

market where all foreign asset managers can

hedge. Another worry among some inves-

tors abroad is anecdotes they hear about

others having diff iculty getting money out.

One case involving a regulator’s reported

discussions on a withdrawal of funds was

linked to Deutsche Bank. When the German

lender was selling its stake in a Chinese

bank, SAFE proposed that the proceeds be

remitted in batches, rather than in one go,

Bloomberg News reported in September,

citing people with knowledge of the matter.

SAFE said that media accounts of its talks

with Deutsche Bank were untrue.

Also limiting foreign appetite is China’s

continuing exclusion from major global

indexes – a reversal of which could see as

much as $180bn go onshore, according to

HSBC Holdings estimates. A senior off icial

at China’s securities regulator has said the

nation is in no rush to win inclusion into

an MSCI stock-index and entry into bond

indexes isn’t a priority.

Chinese fi rms urged to takeprecautions over UK’s exit from EU

Chinese companies

operating in Britain,

especially in the financial

sector or whose European

headquarters are in Britain,

need to take “precautions”

due to uncertainly over

Brexit, China’s ambassador

to London said.

Prior Britain’s vote to

exit the European Union

in June last year, China

had not directly stated

an opinion, viewing it as

an internal matter and

saying only that it wanted

to see a strong and stable

Europe.

Diplomatic sources,

however, said that was

coded support for the

defeated “remain” camp,

as the bloc – China’s larg-

est trading partner – will

lose around a sixth of its

economic output and an

important supporter of free

trade in the EU.

British Prime Minister

Theresa May set out her

vision for Brexit in a speech

in mid-January, outlining

plans to leave the EU single

market in a clean break

with the bloc.

In an interview with the

off icial China Daily pub-

lished yesterday, Chinese

ambassador Liu Xiaoming

repeated China’s position

that Beijing respects

Britain’s choice and hopes

for an early arrangement

between Britain and the EU

acceptable to both.

“I believe, when there is

a problem, there is always a

solution,” he said.

Britain has worked

hard to attract Chinese

investment, including in

the financial sector, giving

Chinese companies a

London-based entry into

the EU market.

BUSINESS15Gulf Times

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

UK faces austerity as Brexit weighs on deficit, says IFSBloombergLondon

Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Ham-

mond will need to maintain austerity if

he is to achieve his aim of eliminating

Britain’s budget deficit in the next parlia-

mentary term, as Brexit creates “unprec-

edented” economic uncertainty, according

to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Erasing the deficit no later than 2024-

25, years beyond the goal set by Ham-

mond’s predecessor George Osborne,

will still require spending cuts and tax

increases of as much as £34bn ($42bn),

the research group said in its annual

Green Budget, published in London

yesterday.

Britain’s plan to exit the European Union

could add to this figure, according to the

IFS, which estimated tax as a share of

national income is set to rise to its highest

level in 30 years.

“The new chancellor may not find it all

that easy to meet his target of eliminating

the budget deficit in the next parliament,”

IFS director Paul Johnson said. “If the

economy does less well than hoped then

we may see yet another set of fiscal rules

consigned to the dustbin.”

While Britain’s economy has so far

shown resilience since June’s Brexit ref-

erendum, a weaker pound is pushing up

inflation, dimming the outlook for growth

in the next two years, according to Oxford

Economics, which collaborated with the

IFS on the report. Off icial forecasts sug-

gest Brexit will take a heavy toll on public

finances in coming years.

Hammond is seeking to reduce the

structural deficit to no more than 2%

of national income in 2020–2021, a

much easier target than Osborne’s goal

of balancing the books by the end of

the decade. Still, the IFS estimates he

has a one-in-three chance of missing

even this looser goal. Beyond then, the

aim is to return the public finances to

balance as soon as possible in the next

parliament.

“I wouldn’t put a lot of money” on

Britain achieving a balanced budget by

2024, Johnson told a briefing in London.

“But I don’t think it would be a disaster if

we didn’t.”

The IFS also warned that pressure on

health and social-care spending may add

to the risks facing the public finances,

as services come under pressure from a

growing and ageing population.

“The government is committed to

repairing the public finances and living

within our means so that we can build an

economy that works for all,” the Treasury

said in response to the IFS report. “That

has required some diff icult decisions

on spending, but we are determined to

deliver eff icient public services which

provide maximum value for every pound

of taxpayers’ money.”

With inflation set to erode real

incomes, Oxford Economics sees GDP

growth slowing to 1.6% in 2017 and 1.3%

in 2018. Prime Minister Theresa May’s

plan to leave the single market and the

customs union could reduce output by

3% by 2030, its UK economist Andrew

Goodwin estimates, although agreeing

a transitional arrangement with the EU

while making progress on a free-trade

agreement may mean Brexit has a “mod-

est” impact until 2021.

The Brexit path chosen by May is “one

of the economically more damaging” op-

tions, with her goal of “frictionless” trade

after Britain leaves the bloc unlikely to be

achieved, he said.

“With spending power set to come

under significant pressure from higher

inflation and the welfare squeeze, the

consumer will not be able to keep contrib-

uting more than its fair share,” Goodwin

said. “Should we fail to secure a free-trade

agreement then the outcome is likely to

be worse still.”

VW said to rein in executive pay as govt targets bonusesBloombergFrankfurt

Volkswagen is considering a cap on pay for top executives, react-ing to criticism in the wake of

the diesel-cheating scandal as political pressure grows ahead of German elec-tions later this year.

The supervisory board at VW, which is partially state owned, plans to vote on February 24 on a revised compensation system geared more to share performance than the com-pany’s results, according to people fa-miliar with the matter. As part of the proposal, remuneration for the chief executive offi cer would be capped at €10mn ($10.7mn) and limits would be placed on compensation for other management-board members as well, said the people, who asked not to be identifi ed because the plan has not yet been approved.

Talks haven’t been fi nalised as it’s unclear to what extent the contracts of current board members can be adapt-ed. That might mean that the changes will only apply as new members join the board, according to the people. Handelsblatt reported on the compen-sation changes earlier.

Volkswagen’s generous manage-ment pay came under fi re in the after-math of the emission-cheating scan-dal, which triggered more than €20bn in damages.

Former VW chief executive offi cer Martin Winterkorn, who was forced out after the crisis erupted in Septem-ber 2015, was Germany’s best-paid executive for years as the company raked in record profi ts. The opulent pay was backed by the government of the German state of Lower Saxony, VW’s second-largest shareholder, as well as labour leaders. Outside inves-tors eff ectively had no say as the ma-jority of the manufacturer’s voting stock is controlled by Lower Saxony and members of the Porsche-Piech family.

VW has been working for months on a new remuneration system, the com-pany said, declining to comment on the status of the plan.

Even with the emissions-cheating scandal raging in 2015, VW was ex-tremely generous toward top execu-tives, paying €63.2mn to 12 manage-ment-board members, according to

its annual report. By contrast, Ger-man peer Daimler paid its nine top managers €37.3mn that year, while BMW’s management board earned €34.8mn.

VW’s payouts have prompted calls for change from the country’s politi-cians as Germany heads for federal election in September. Volker Kauder, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s caucus leader in the lower house, has lashed out at VW for slashing jobs while at the

same time signing off on management bonuses.

New rules from Germany’s fi nancial regulator will take eff ect next month that allow for the clawback of execu-tive bonuses in the case of losses from mismanagement.

VW had started reining in remu-neration amid a board reshuffl e that was triggered by the scandal. The only board member who earned more than the planned €10mn threshold in 2015

was trucks chief Andreas Renschler, who made €15.6mn, which included compensation for giving up his previ-ous post at Daimler.

The abrupt departure last month of VW’s compliance chief, Chris-tine Hohmann-Dennhardt, included a payout of around €13mn after just one year on the job, according to peo-ple familiar with the matter. Matthias Mueller, who succeeded Winterkorn as CEO, was paid for €4.76mn in 2015.

“An overhaul of executive compensa-tion, alongside a competitive fi nancial target system, are of utmost impor-tance in order to restore confi dence in management and deal with some of the shortcomings in VW’s corpo-rate governance,” Arndt Ellinghorst, an analyst with Evercore ISI, said in a note. The diesel crisis and other scan-dals in the past “all come down to the same issue: management targets and accountability.”

Volkswagen employees arrive ahead of a meeting with members of the company’s management board at the automaker’s headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany, in March 2016. The supervisory board at VW, which is partially state-owned, plans to vote on February 24 on a revised compensation system geared more to share performance than the company’s results, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ericsson plans to cut 400 jobs in ItalyBloombergMilan

Ericsson plans to cut an initial 400 jobs, or 10% of its workforce, in Italy after losing out on a contract to manage the country’s largest wireless network, according to a senior union off icial.Nunzio Mirtillo, Ericsson’s president for the Mediterranean region, announced the reductions on Monday in a meeting with unions in Rome, said Marco Del Cimmuto, a senior off icial at the SLC-CGIL, in a phone interview.“We are strongly concerned because we think this may be just a first round of job cuts in Italy,” Del Cimmuto said.The 400 job cuts, a result of Ericsson’s loss of a contract to merge the Italian networks of CK Hutchison Holdings and VimpelCom last year, may mark the beginning of further reductions in the country, according to a person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.Bloomberg News reported in December that Ericsson was

considering eliminating about 1,000 positions in Italy.Ericsson shared with Italian unions “the need to adjust the operation to current business volumes,” the Swedish company said in an e-mailed statement. “As required by local laws and regulations, Ericsson and the unions will initiate a discussion roundtable to evaluate the current situation. At this point we don’t have further information.”Shares of Ericsson rose 0.3% to 50.55 kronor at 9:55 a.m. in Stockholm. They have lost 5% this year after dropping 35% in 2016.Ericsson wasn’t selected to merge and run the network of Hutchison and VimpelCom, people familiar with the matter said in December. The staff reductions are a result of the loss of the contract, valued at about $1bn, according to the people.Hutchison’s 3 Italia and VimpelCom’s Wind Telecomunicazioni received European Union approval in September for their merger, which will create Italy’s largest mobile-phone network. Ericsson currently manages Hutchison’s network and a part of Wind’s, one of the people said.

Draghi says euro is irreversible as Le Pen urges French exitBloombergFrankfurt

Mario Draghi reaffi rmed that the euro is irre-versible in a defence of the single currency against populists who reject it.

“L’euro e’ irrevocabile, the euro is irrevocable,” the European Central Bank president said at the Euro-pean Parliament on Monday, using both his native Italian and English. “Questo e’ il trattato, this is the treaty.”

Draghi has made the claim multiple times before, but the issue of whether and how a country can leave the single currency returned to the fore after French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen said she would take France out of the euro if elected. Even after Greece and its European partners stepped back from the brink of a split in the summer of 2015, the proce-dures for a euro exit remain undefi ned and the reper-cussions of such a move are near impossible to gauge.

The question of a euro exit has also fl ared in Italy, where the Five Star Movement — which is running close to the leading Democrat Party in polls — fa-vours a referendum on membership.

In his testimony, Draghi declined to say what the cost would be for a country that decided to leave the

19-nation bloc — a debate sparked by a January 18 letter he sent to European Union lawmakers Marco Valli and Marco Zanni.

“If a country were to leave the Eurosystem, its national central bank’s claims on or liabilities to the ECB would need to be settled in full,” Draghi wrote then. Zanni said that response acknowledged that countries can leave.

“I wanted to bring up the issue of exit from the euro and how it can happen,” he said in an inter-view before the testimony. “Draghi has now clearly

admitted that such an exit is possible and now there is need to have more clarity about the cost. I’m sure that in case of Italy’s exit from the euro, benefi ts ex-ceed costs.”

Leaving the euro would “threaten savings and jobs in France” and lead to a “to a rise in interest rates,” ECB Executive Board member Benoit Coeure said in an interview with Le Parisien yesterday. “It would be to choose impoverishment.”

His words were echoed by Governing Council member Francois Villeroy de Galhau, who wrote in an op-ed in Le Figaro that abandoning the single cur-rency would increase France’s debt-servicing costs by over €30bn ($32bn) a year.

In the European Parliament, Valli asked whether the “liabilities” that Draghi referred to are the im-balances in the euro-area payment-settlement sys-tem, known as Target2. Such imbalances were seen by some commentators during the region’s sover-eign debt crisis as a sign of the unsustainable ten-sion between debtor and creditor countries. Draghi demurred.

“I cannot answer a question that is based on hy-potheses, on assumptions which are not foreseen” by the EU treaties, he said. “What I could do is send you a written answer which compares our Target2 system with the Federal Reserve-based system.”

German industrial output falls most in 8 yearsBloombergFrankfurt

German industrial produc-tion unexpectedly fell in December as the timing

of Christmas holidays damped manufacturing and construc-tion.

Output, adjusted for seasonal swings and infl ation, dropped 3% from November, when it advanced a revised 0.5%, the Economy Ministry in Berlin said yesterday. The volatile indicator’s worst reading since early 2009 compares with a median estimate for a 0.3% increase in a Bloomb-erg survey. Production was down 0.7% from a year earlier.

The ministry confi rmed econ-omists’ assumptions that the de-cline was largely due to reduced workdays during the holiday season and said the data don’t alter the government’s positive economic outlook. While busi-ness confi dence slipped in Janu-ary, unemployment dropped to a record low and a gauge of factory activity rose to a three-year high.

But even Europe’s largest economy, the region’s growth driver, faces a series of risks that may damp output in the com-ing months. Protectionist trade policies under the new US ad-ministration and complicated negotiations about the UK’s post-Brexit relationship with the European Union threaten to weigh on sentiment, just as a na-tional election in September pits Chancellor Angela Merkel’s rul-ing party against a strengthening populist movement.

Output in December was damped by a 3.4% decline in manufacturing, the min-istry said. Construction fell 1.7%, while energy production dropped 0.9%.

“As early as January, pro-duction will probably come in noticeably higher again, as is also signalled by available auto-production data,” said Ralph Solveen, an economist at Com-merzbank in Frankfurt.

Draghi: “This is the treaty.”

BUSINESSWednesday, February 8, 2017

GULF TIMES

Five listed companies have won the second investor relations (IR) award, instituted by the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), which is now toying with the idea of a mandatory IR disclosure.Ooredoo won the award for best Qatari company overall and also for best investor relations website.QNB won under the category of large cap company and its chief financial off icer Ramzi Mari and investor relation manager Mohamed al-Namla also won the awards.The awards for the best mid and small cap companies were bagged by Commercial Bank and Salam International respectively. The other entities that won for best investor relations website also included Al Khaliji and Mannai Corporation.The awards were presented by the QSE chief executive Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori, in the presence of its listing director Abdul Aziz al-Emadi.Developed and executed by Iridium, the IR Programme surveyed the expert opinion of the domestic and international investment community. It also featured a detailed ranking of corporate investor relations websites.“The IR Excellence Programme reflects the QSE’s desire to achieve best international practice among our listed companies for a transparent investment environment.

We want to see our listed companies committed to improving the flow of information in the market, because they are the corporate ambassadors for Qatar,” al-Mansoori said.Oliver Schutzmann, chief executive of Iridium, said the QSE’s IR Excellence Programme is a testament to the exchange’s commitment towards achieving quality investor relations to improve market accessibility and support the development of successful capital markets. “We witnessed a good number of companies that upgraded their IR as a direct result of the excellence programme. We look forward to seeing a stronger engagement from the remaining companies, in order to further improve the IR standards across all Qatar listed companies,” al-Emadi said.“The management and board of listed companies require an eff ective financial communications strategy for a challenging environment where our competitor markets are making advances,” he said.Although some regional markets have recently introduced a mandatory IR requirements system in their regulations; Qatar has not yet gone down that route, but “we are in consultation with market participants to evaluate whether some form of mandatory IR disclosure would be beneficial for the market overall”, he added.

Five companies win QSE’s second investor relations award

QFC ‘at the forefront’ of fi ntech discussionsThe Qatar Financial Cen-

tre (QFC) Authority has hosted its fi rst fi nancial

technology (fi ntech) event of 2017 in collaboration with the global strategy consultancy fi rm, Roland Berger.

The session, which was held at the QFC’s headquarters, at-tracted business and fi nancial professionals from Qatar’s pub-lic and private sector. It aimed to identify and explain the key trends in the fi nancial services sector and clarify how fi ntech is disrupting current practices and creating a completely digitalised method of banking and fi nanc-ing.

Kamal Naji, the QFC Author-ity’s chief strategy and business development offi cer, highlighted how fi ntech has transformed the fi nancial services industry over the past few years.

He said: “Now more than ever before, the financial in-dustry is relying on cutting-edge technology and techno-logical innovation to provide its consumers with the highest levels of service.

“For so long, the financial industry refrained from resort-ing to technology as it contin-ued using traditional methods to manage assets, provide com-mercial and retail loans, raise funding and transfer money.

All of this is now changing across the globe.”

He added: “In the UK, reports show that the 11 leading start-ups in the robo-advice space currently manage over $15.7bn in client assets.”

During a presentation on the opportunities of digitisation and fi ntech for fi nancial services companies, David Lecea, Roland

Berger’s head of Banking Middle East, said: “We are now moving into a new era of fi ntech where collaboration of fi nancial insti-tutions and fi ntech startups will be the norm — it is exciting to see the QFC being at the fore-front of such discussions.”

Peter Tavener, CFO and COO of Beehive, the GCC’s fi rst peer-to-peer fi nancing platform,

said: “We found the event very engaging and look forward to continuing the discussion of how Beehive can contribute to the nascent fi ntech ecosystem in Qatar. We would like to thank the QFC and Roland Berger for inviting us.”

The event concluded with a group discussion on the diff er-ent methods and uses of bring-

ing the power of fi ntech to bear in Qatar and how these methods would benefi t and strengthen the local economy and provide additional support for SMEs. The event comes as part of the QFC’s continuous eff orts to de-velop human capital as a driver for economic growth and pros-perity in line with Qatar Nation-al Vision 2030.

QFCA’s chief strategy and business development off icer Kamal Naji delivering a presentation during the fintech discussions.

Qatar SMEs urged to forge niche in renewable energy, clean technologyBy Peter AlagosBusiness Reporter

Renewable energy and clean technology (clean tech) could be a “good

niche” for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Qa-tar, but it has its challenges, a representative of the European Union (EU) said.

Instead of taking large-scale projects such as power plants, SMEs here could provide clean tech solutions that address cost and energy effi ciency issues of companies or residential and commercial projects.

However, the road towards clean energy still has its chal-lenges, especially for Qatar’s SME sector, according to Lucie Berger, head of Trade Delega-tion of EU to the GCC.

“Renewable energy may be challenging, especially in Qa-tar, but there is actually a good niche for small enterprises to look at clean energy and en-ergy effi ciency solutions. Rath-er than building huge power plants because energy is quite cheap, SMEs could be a source of these solutions.

“To provide solutions for companies or households and help them save money on ener-gy bills is perhaps the way for-ward for clean energy in Qatar,” Berger told Gulf Times.

Berger further explained that SMEs could provide clean tech solutions in the areas of air conditioning, heating, energy effi ciency in industrial proc-esses, or renewable energy for water heating during the winter season, among others.

She added that SMEs could also take advantage of Qatar’s thrust towards building smart cities. “I think this is exactly part of the smart city concept,” Berger stressed, citing Lusail City, which she described as the “future of smart cities” in Qatar.

Aside from smart cit-ies, Berger also described the drop in oil prices as “a bless-ing for the Gulf” region, and that SMEs can maximise on diversifi cation opportunities, which, she said, can help pro-mote environment-friendly solutions.

Berger also noted the sig-nifi cant role played by the Paris Agreement in promoting en-ergy effi ciency in the construc-tion and infrastructure indus-try. She added that 60% of greenhouse gases from the Gulf is produced by the construction and building sector.

The trend among “green countries” in the EU is to tap into other renewable sources of energy as part of the European Commission’s ‘Renewable En-ergy Directive’, which requires buildings and houses in Europe to achieve category six or zero CO2 emission level.

“The Renewable Energy Di-rective establishes an overall policy for the production and promotion of energy from re-newable sources in the EU. It requires the EU to fulfi l at least 20% of its total energy needs with renewables by 2020... All EU countries must also ensure that at least 10% of their trans-port fuels come from renewable sources by 2020,” the European Commission said.

“To provide solutions for companies or households and help them save money on energy bills is perhaps the way forward for clean energy in Qatar,” says Berger. PICTURE: Nasar TK

Qatar committed to VW: Official

ReutersDoha

Qatar is committed to its investment in Volkswagen, Hessa al-Jaber, Qatar’s representative on the car maker’s supervisory board, said yesterday.“I believe VW is a great company. When we invested in VW, that was the right decision. We are really committed to VW,” al-Jaber

told reporters in her first public statement on the company since she joined the board last year.On the diesel emissions test-cheating scandal that hit VW, she said: “They are taking steps to mitigate any future risks on emissions.”Qatar Holding, a subsidiary of sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority, owns over 17% of Volkswagen and is the company’s top shareholder.

Al-Mansoori and al-Emadi along with the awardees.

QSE to introduce environment, social and corporate governance guidance this year

By Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

The Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) will be introducing ESG (environment, social and corporate governance) guidance this year to assist listed companies wishing to incorporate ESG reporting into their existing reporting processes.“The publication of this ESG guidance is a first step in what we hope will be the start of a transformative process in our market. The ESG guidance encourages issuers to publicly share ESG information on a recurring basis,” QSE chief executive Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori told the second Investor Relations Award, instituted by the

QSE, in association with Iridium.Stressing that adherence to the ESG Guidance would be based on voluntary participation, he said ESG comes as part of the sustainable stock exchanges (SSE) initiative of the United Nations.The SSE initiative is a peer-to-peer learning platform for exploring how exchanges, in collaboration with investors, regulators, and companies, can enhance corporate transparency — and ultimately performance — on ESG issues and encourage sustainable investment.The SSE — organised by the UN Conference on Trade and Development the UN Global Compact, the UN Environment Programme Finance

Initiative and the Principles for Responsible Investment — works through three main pillars of consensus building, research and capacity building.“We are committed to promoting sustainable practices in our markets in the belief that businesses will only be successful in the long run if their models respect the triple bottom line of ‘profit, planet and people’,” al-Mansoori said.Highlighting that investors are increasingly communicating their need for greater disclosure and transparency from publicly-listed companies, SSE said stock exchanges have a strategic role to play in this shift: they can encourage responsible investments by off ering sustainability indices and other relevant

financial instruments. “Moreover, by encouraging their listed companies to measure and publicly report their ESG performance and impacts, stock exchanges can promote better business practices within their capital markets,” it added.A number of UN member countries are now adopting sustainability frameworks for their capital markets. Many have ‘comply or explain’ rules that help to guide disclosure for listed companies (and even non-listed companies). There are various challenges to the design, implementation, capacity and awareness of these initiatives and there is no “one size fits all” approach for markets around the world.

QNB wins ‘Most Innovative Bancassurance Product’ award

QNB has won the ‘Most Innovative Bancas-surance Product Qatar

2016’ award during a ceremony held by the International Fi-nance Magazine (IFM) in Du-bai.

The recognition was given based on the “innovative, top-of-the-line” insurance prod-ucts that QNB off ers to help its customers protect themselves and their loved ones against the unexpected, while, at the same time, helping them to enjoy an aff ordable, trusted, and reliable way of saving for the future.

QNB Bancassurance provides quality products and service to its customers. These exclusive products are designed to help them accumulate wealth and provide them and their fami-

lies with insurance protection. The products are also versatile and can be tailored to suit each customer’s individual require-ments.

The bank off ers a full suite of products that meet the various needs of its customer base, in line with QNB’s business phi-losophy of “customer centric-ity,” through the identifi cation and understanding of each customer’s fi nancial needs (fi -nancing, investments, transac-tion, and protection).

QNB currently provides a comprehensive wide range of insurance products and serv-ices under the “One Stop Shop Solution for all your banking and insurance needs” model across its international net-work. The products are de-

signed to help its customers realise their dreams and off er them protection against the unexpected.

To positioning itself as a competitor in Qatar’s strong insurance market, QNB part-nered with renowned insurance companies as a leading global provider of all type of insurance solutions.

The group’s presence through its subsidiaries and as-sociate companies extends to more than 30 countries across three continents providing a comprehensive range of ad-vanced products and services. The total number of employees is more than 28,000 operating through more than 1,200 loca-tions with an ATM network of more than 4,300 machines.

QNB received the recognition based on the “innovative, top-of-the-line” insurance products that the bank off ers its customers.