Tuesday, October 4, 2016Muharram 3, 1438 AH

BUSINESSGULF TIMES

Singapore home pricesat 7-year low

GOVT CURBS | Page 3

Sterling near 3-decade low at $1.284

BREXIT NEARS | Page 13

Qatar expected to introduce VAT between Jan 2018 and Jan 2019: BDO Qatar

LIMITED OFFICIAL INFORMATION AVAILABLE: Page 16

Ahli Bank (Ahlibank) has announced the “successful” closing of a three-year $195mn club term loan facility. The mandated lead arrangers and bookrunners are Arab Banking Corporation, Barclays Bank, Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft Filiale Luxemburg, First Gulf Bank, HSBC Bank Middle East, Mizuho Bank, and Standard Chartered Bank. Union National Bank is also a mandated lead arranger. The facility will be used for general corporate funding purposes of Ahlibank, the bank said. Ahlibank chairman and managing director Sheikh Faisal bin Abdul-Aziz bin Jassim al-Thani said: “We are extremely pleased to receive the continued balance sheet support of our core relationship banking partners. This club loan assists our important stable funding requirements. We are thankful for the trust given by these leading regional and international institutions in Ahlibank.” The picture shows a view of the Ahlibank head off ice in Doha.

Ahlibank closes $195mn club term loan facility

Qatar outperforms world in sustainable development: BCG

Qatar has outperformed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and the rest of the world in most di-

mensions of sustainable economic devel-opment, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

The Gulf sovereign topped the aver-age scores of both the GCC and the rest of the world, particularly in income, em-ployment, health, infrastructure, income equality, civil society and governance, BCG said, revealing its Sustainable Eco-nomic Development Assessment (SEDA) scores of 163 countries.

The fact-based, comprehensive analy-sis measures the relative well-being of countries — including Qatar — through ten key areas, including economic stabil-ity, health, governance, and environment.

SEDA scores countries in two ways: the current level of well-being and recent progress in well-being from 2006 to 2014. It also assesses how countries convert wealth and growth into well-being.

Although Qatar lagged behind other GCC countries in economic stability,

education, and environment; BCG found that the country showed the strongest recent progress scores in income and gov-ernance — compared to the GCC region and the rest of the world.

The analysis, nevertheless, shows that Qatar is able to translate its economic growth into well-being improvements for its citizens only at an average rate.

“Overall, when looking at Qatar’s cur-rent level of well-being as well as its re-cent progress in that measure, the nation fi nds itself in the ‘good and improving’ category,” BCG said, adding that from a regional perspective, Qatar’s current-level scores are “mostly above par”.

All in all, when assessing Qatar’s per-formance against the rest of the world, it is clear that across various dimensions — such as income, employment, infrastruc-ture, governance, education, and income equality — the nation is higher and mov-ing further ahead, according to the report.

Highlighting that among countries with the same income (gross domestic product per capita) level, those with high-

er levels of fi nancial inclusion are likely to have higher well-being levels; BCG said its study fi nds that two factors are critical to improving fi nancial inclusion: a regu-latory structure that provides safeguards but allows innovation and a solid infra-structure, including communications networks and payment systems.

“With those two elements in place, private-sector innovation in Qatar can fl ourish,” said Douglas Beal, BCG’s Direc-tor of Social Impact and an author of the report.

“We have found a clear and measurable association between fi nancial inclusion — access to basic fi nancial services such as a bank account — and national well-being,” he said.

At present, in the UAE, private sector innovation can play a signifi cant role in improving living standards, but to make meaningful progress in this area, banks must pursue fi nancial inclusion using their core business, and not just pursue typical corporate social responsibility strategies, according to him.

Beal: Private-sector innovation in Qatar can flourish.

Margin trading to begin on QSE from tomorrowBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

Margin trading will begin on the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) from tomorrow, a move that will stimulate trading volumes and liquidity as well as extend new financing sources for investors.The Group Securities, one of the11 stock intermediaries, will be allowed to execute margin trading on the QSE after completing the preparations necessary to put the decision into practice in collaboration with the Qatar Central Securities Depository, a bourse spokesman said.“This new service would enhance the stock market performance and stimulate trading volumes, adding that the implementation of this initiative primarily aims to boost liquidity in the market and provide new financing channels for investors, especially those who are willing to buy large amounts of stocks for their portfolios,” the QSE chief executive Rashid bin Ali al-Mansoori said.Through margin trading, which will be applicable only for 20 stocks in the main index, a financial services company funds a percentage of the securities’ market value purchased for its client, pursuant to the agreement governing the relation between them. Margin trading will allow investors to purchase securities that are partially financed by a loan or credit facility made available by a margin lender, a member licensed to provide such services.It is understood that Qatar has adopted a 60:40 method wherein a financial services company funds 40% of the securities’ market value purchased for its client pursuant to the agreement governing the relation between them.The customers would have to open a new margin trading

account with the brokerage firm. As per the Qatar Financial Market Authority rules, it is not permissible to open more than one margin trading account per person at more than one financial services company.The margin trading account is used to deal in securities traded in the market, and must not be used for subscription in new securities’ issuances, as per the guidelines of the financial market regulator.The move (of introducing margin trading) would help facilitate greater transaction volume and diversity, which could influence price formation in the market. This, in turn, has the potential to improve liquidity and further facilitate fair and smooth price discovery, market sources said.It is seen as a precursor to the advent of derivatives trading such as futures and options. The move also comes in the backdrop of Qatar being upgraded to ‘emerging’ market by global index compilers such as MSCI, Standard and Poor’s-Dow Jones and more recently FTSE Russell.In light of its policy to promote investment knowledge and awareness, the QSE had already held several introductory seminars on the margin trading service that allows investors to purchase securities that are partially financed by a brokerage firm licensed to provide margin trading service.

Al-Mansoori: New service.

Qatar Airways celebrates induction into TTG Travel Hall of Fame

Qatar Airways has been inducted into the ‘TTG Travel Hall of

Fame’, having been crowned as the ‘Best Middle Eastern Airline’ for the 11th consecu-tive time at this year’s TTG Travel Awards.

The honour establishes Qatar Airways as the fi rst Middle Eastern carrier to be recognised for its “com-mitment” to best-in-class hospitality and customer satisfaction and places it among some of Asia’s most renowned and reputable brands.

The TTG Travel Hall of Fame represents the “best” of the travel industry — the induction criteria to join this elite circle include winning the same TTG Travel Award at least 10 consecutive times — a testament to the organi-sation’s continued dedica-tion to excellence.

Its entry into the TTG Travel Hall of Fame further cements Qatar Airways’ reputation as a world-class carrier and a leading force in regional and global aviation.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker said, “We are delighted to be

inducted into the TTG Travel Hall of Fame — this bears tes-tament to the consistency of our performance day in, day out, on all our fl ights over the last decade and count-ing. These are exciting times for our industry and our air-line, which now, more than ever before, is committed to delivering great service, as our guests travel farther and more frequently than ever before. I would like to thank the entire Qatar Air-ways team for continuously delivering a high standard of service and meeting the ever-changing needs of our passengers both in the air and on the ground.”

This latest award comes at a time when Qatar Airways is experiencing remarkable growth. A new aircraft joins the fl eet every 15 days, and the carrier is committed to expanding its global network of destinations.

Qatar Airways senior vice-president (Asia Pacifi c) Mar-wan Koleilat, who received the award on behalf of the airline, said: “We are hum-bled to know that our eff orts are recognised by our col-leagues and peers in the in-

dustry throughout the past decade. We are very proud to have been awarded this hon-orary title and will continue bringing to life our brand promise of ‘Going Places To-gether’.”

Soon to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Qatar Airways has become one of the avia-tion industry’s largest suc-cess stories. The airline con-stantly scales new heights and has grown exponentially to be one of the fastest grow-ing airlines with one of the youngest aircraft fl eet in the world.

In December 2015, Qatar Airways launched its brand campaign ‘Going Places To-gether’ to refl ect its core val-ues as a contemporary and innovative company that wants to encourage passen-gers to take journeys that will help them achieve their dreams and ambitions.

The TTG Travel Awards are the region’s most prestig-ious annual travel industry awards, honouring the con-tributions and achievements of organisations and individ-uals as voted by the readers of TTG Asia and those who work in the travel industry. Qatar Airways senior vice-president (Asia Pacific) Marwan Koleilat (middle) receiving the award on behalf of the airline.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, October 4, 20162

Ooredoo delivers progress throughglobal projectsOoredoo has continued to build

on the power of mobile broad-band to enrich people’s lives and

make a diff erence in the communities where it operates a year after pledging its commitment to the United Nations’ Global Goals for Sustainable Develop-ment.

Responding to the fi rst anniversary of the launch of the Global Goals in 2015, Ooredoo provided an update on its on-going initiatives across its international footprint. It also pledged to build on and further the reach of these programmes, and continue to innovate as they work to transform the UN’s mission statements into reality.

Ooredoo’s initiatives align with three of the 17 Global Goals — Goal 3: Good Health; Goal 5: Gender Equality, and Goal 9: Innovation & Infrastructure.

One of Ooredoo’s fl agship projects, ‘MayMay’, is an example of the direct contribution mobile technology can make to improve the lives of people and create an all-round healthier world for tomorrow.

MayMay is Myanmar’s fi rst mo-bile app for maternal and child health, which is bridging the mobile and health sectors to help ensure that a wealth of useful maternal, child health and well-ness information is readily available to women across the country both dur-ing and after pregnancy. There is fast-growing demand for the service, which is a great example of the benefi ts of having a mobile phone in today’s digital world.

Achieving gender equality by em-powering women is another key area for Ooredoo, and one that sits at the heart of its own corporate culture. Ooredoo’s companies are proud to take the lead in providing award-winning services for women in markets ranging from Iraq to Indonesia, bringing more women online, boosting national GDP, and helping create fair and equal ac-cess.

Indosat Ooredoo’s Wobe (short for ‘Women Benefi t’), a micro-business app with e-wallet, was developed pre-cisely with that vision. By facilitating access to mobile phones and improv-ing fi nancial literacy and business skills, Wobe’s ultimate goal is to empower women in Southeast Asia and provide them with new opportunities.

Ooredoo Group CEO Sheikh Saud

bin Nasser al-Thani said: “The mobile sector has an important role to play in helping the UN achieve the Global Goals. Across our footprint, we are witnessing how we can make a real difference around some of the funda-mental issues that the Goals address. The social impact of mobile technol-ogy in general is unprecedented, and is driving extraordinary economic growth and new ways of delivering education, health and rural develop-ment.

“Over the past year we have worked hard to contribute to the sustainable development of the communities where we operate. Today, we look back with great satisfaction at our achievements, but also aware that there is still a long way ahead of us. At Ooredoo we are determined to continue playing our part to achieve the Global Goals.”

The latest State of Broadband report, released last week, concluded that while Internet access is approaching satura-tion in richer nations, connectivity is still not advancing fast enough to help bridge development gaps in areas like education and healthcare for those in poorer parts of the world.

The report highlighted how the po-tential of mobile technology towards achieving the UN’s targets is yet to be fully unleashed, but this requires fur-ther combined investments in access, skills, and education.

Sheikh Saud added: “The report reconfi rms that we are heading in the right direction. According to the latest fi gures, 3.5bn people will be using the Internet by the end of this year, up from 3.2bn in 2015 and equating to 47% of the global population.

“However, more still needs to be done to ensure the full potential of broad-band connectivity is fully unleashed, particularly if we want to maximise the contribution it could actually have to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.”

The State of Broadband 2016 is the sixth edition of the commission’s broadband connectivity report. Re-leased annually, it is the only report that features country-by-country rankings based on access and aff ordability for over 160 economies worldwide. http://www.broadbandcommission.org/pub-lications/Pages/SOB-2016.aspx

Saudi Telecom may lose, others win from industry shake-upGovernment keen to boost competition, drive investment; part of sweeping economic reforms to cut oil dependence; shares in Saudi Telecom plunge on fears it may lose out; Zain Saudi, Mobily, Atheeb could be winners

ReutersDubai

Shares in Saudi Telecom Co (STC), the kingdom’s largest telecommunica-

tions operator, tumbled as much as 8.5% yesterday as investors feared it could lose market share because of government plans to foster more competition.

As part of economic reforms to cut Saudi Arabia’s depend-ence on oil, the government will provide operators with “unifi ed licences” allowing them to of-fer a full range of telecommu-nications services, the Capital Market Authority (CMA) said on Sunday.

Telecommunications analysts said this represented a major shake-up of the industry — and that there might be losers as well as winners.

Previously, operators had to apply for separate licences to of-fer services such as mobile and fi xed-line.

Now they will need only a sin-

gle licence, making it easier for fi rms to challenge STC, the main operator of fi xed-line services, said Nishit Lakhotia, head of research at Securities & Invest-ment Co.

In particular, Zain Saudi Ara-bia and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily), an affi liate of the United Arab Emirates’ Etisalat, which now mainly operate in the mobile market, will be able to expand into fi xed services, he said.

“STC should get ready for

competition in the fi xed-line business. For consumers, this should provide more options and kinds of services and better prices.”

The economic reform plan includes goals such as stimulat-ing investment in broadband by telecommunications providers and doubling the contribution of the information technology in-dustry to non-oil gross domestic product to 2.24% by 2020.

The CMA’s statement did

not give details of the new li-cences or say when they would be awarded, and offi cials of the Communications and Informa-tion Technology Commission could not be contacted to com-ment.

STC, a former monopoly, is-sued a brief statement saying the licensing changes would give it and other operators opportu-nities to grow, but added that it was too early to determine the fi nancial impact.

Shares in Saudi Arabia’s three other listed telecommu-nications fi rms were suspended pending their statements on the reform.

Zain said the unifi ed licences would enable it “to off er all tel-ecommunication services, in-cluding fi xed services”, while Mobily said they would improve its positioning in the market; neither company elaborated.

Lakhotia said the new policy could also be positive for the smallest operator, Atheeb Tel-ecommunication Co, which currently operates mainly in the fi xed-line business and might now be able to launch mobile services.

The CMA said the commis-sion would extend licensing periods for the companies by 15 years, in exchange for 5% of each company’s annual net income during the extension period.

Zain Saudi said the exten-sion would reduce its annual amortisation charge by 433mn riyals ($115.4mn), while Mobily predicted a positive annual im-pact of up to 260mn riyals and Atheeb estimated an annual sav-ings of 9.7mn riyals.

However, Lakhotia said he understood the extensions would only begin to take eff ect when the companies’ current licence periods expired, in 2028 for STC, 2033 for Zain Saudi and 2029 for Mobily.

STC has issued a statement saying the licensing changes would give it and other operators opportunities to grow, but added that it was too early to determine the financial impact.

Iran oil exports hitpre-sanctions highReutersSingapore/Beijing

Iran’s total crude oil and condensate sales likely reached around 2.8mn barrels per day in September, two sources with knowledge of the matter said, nearly matching a 2011 peak in shipments before sanctions were imposed on the Opec producer.The run-up from shipments of around 2.5mn bpd in August comes mainly from condensate, a light oil excluded from Opec supply quotas that is often produced with natural gas and can be used to make naphtha for petrochemical production.Iran sold 600,000 bpd of condensate for September, including about 100,000 bpd shipped from storage, to meet robust demand in Asia, the two sources said.September crude exports increased slightly from the previous month to about 2.2mn bpd, they said.Iran, along with Libya and Nigeria, is allowed to produce “at maximum levels that make sense” as part of any output limits in a surprise deal reached last week by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec).Still, the Middle Eastern producer has surprised the market by ramping up its oil output faster than expected, to 3.63mn bpd in August, according to Opec, up a quarter from end-2015 since sanctions were lifted in January.“Iran cannot produce much more than the present, so around 3.7mn bpd may be the max,” said Fereidun Fesharaki, chairman of consultancy FGE.Even if Iran’s output hit 3.8mn bpd — as an oil off icial said it had in September — it would

not be able to sustain that volume as decline rates at its oilfields are about 400,000 bpd each year, Fesharaki said.National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) off icials did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.Iran has said it plans to raise its output to 4mn bpd, although other analysts agreed production has probably peaked for now because investments to pump out more oil are lagging.Condensate instead of crude oil will drive Iran’s export growth for the remainder of 2016, thanks to developments at its giant South Pars gas field, the sources said.NIOC drew on condensate stocks from floating storage and onshore tanks in September to help meet growth in demand from China, South Korea, Japan and India.Iranian ports loaded 2.153mn barrels of crude and 486,000 bpd of condensate in September, according to Thomson Reuters Supply Chain and Commodities Research.That put the month’s total at 2.639mn bpd — excluding the condensate loaded out of storage — up from 2.472mn bpd in August, the Reuters data showed.Condensate sales could reach 800,000 bpd in October, in excess of production at about 550,000 bpd, one of the sources said, suggesting further draws from floating tankers.“Korea was the main demand driver for the growth. Japanese and Indian plants were also raising imports,” said one of the two sources with knowledge of the matter from Beijing, adding that China’s Sinopec has also boosted its off take of condensate since August.

Qatar’s Ras Laffan 2 condensate splitter to launch this month: Sources

ReutersDoha/Singapore

Qatargas, the world’s larg-

est LNG producer, will start

operations at its new Ras Laff an

2 condensate splitter by the

end of this month, doubling the

Gulf state’s capacity to process

condensate, two sources with

knowledge of the matter said

yesterday.

The 146,000 barrel per day

(bpd) facility had been due to

open in September but was

delayed due to technical prob-

lems, traders said.

It will process deodorised field

condensate (DFC) and low sul-

phur field condensate to extract

mostly naphtha and middle

distillates.

Condensate exports from Qatar

will drop from 500,000 bpd

to about 350,000 bpd when

the 146,000-bpd splitter starts

operating, an off icial at Qatar

Petroleum, Qatargas’s state-

owned majority shareholder,

has said.

That will enable the Gulf state to

soak up some of its condensate

at home as it faces growing

competition for condensate

sales overseas from US and

Iranian light oil shipments.

Commissioning of the new

splitter is “99 percent” complete

and an imminent handover to

operator Qatargas is likely to

see the plant start up “within

the next two weeks,” a Doha-

based source, who declined to

be named because he was not

authorised to speak publicly,

told Reuters.

Japan’s Chiyoda Corp is building

the refinery in a joint venture

with Taiwan’s CTCI Corp. “We

are at the final moment. There

were no technical problems

from our end,” Chiyoda’s gen-

eral manager in Qatar, Toshiyuki

Ito, told Reuters, but would not

confirm a start-up date.

Qatari state-marketer Tasweeq

withdrew off ers for at least

1.5mn barrels of prompt

November-loading DFC last

week, traders with knowledge

of the matter said, possibly

indicating the splitter is likely to

open imminently.

Initial off ers for November-

loading cargoes had indicated

that the condensate splitter was

more likely to start operations

in November than October.

BUSINESS3Gulf Times

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

BloombergSingapore

Singapore home prices dropped by the most in more than seven years as developers off ered discounts

amid signals from the government that it won’t roll back property curbs initiated in 2009.

An index tracking private residential prices fell 1.5% in the three months ended September 30 from the previous quarter, the biggest decline since June 2009. Prices fell for the 12th straight quarter, the long-est streak of quarterly losses since prices were fi rst published in 1975, according to

preliminary data from the Urban Redevel-opment Authority yesterday. The head of Singapore’s central bank, Ravi Menon, said last month that the city-state doesn’t plan to ease property curbs anytime soon, even as home prices have fallen 11% from a peak in September 2013 and sales have halved. That’s increasing the pressure on develop-ers to off er discounts, payment programmes and other incentives to stoke sales.

“The haemorrhage continues for home prices,” said Nicholas Mak, an executive di-rector at SLP International Property Con-sultants in Singapore. “The prices could be taking into account the delayed discounts off ered in creative marketing by developers, which could be coming in with a lag.”

For example, developer OUE Ltd of-fers four payment plans for its Twin Peaks condominium project off the prime Or-chard Road shopping belt. The most pop-ular of those is the deferred payment pro-gram where the home buyer pays a small amount upfront and the rest over the next two years, according to its website.

The existing stock of unsold homes may take three years to sell, according to Au-gustine Tan, President of the Real Estate Developers’ Association of Singapore. In addition to the oversupply, home vacancy rates are at their highest in more than 11 years, Tan said last month.

The residential curbs have included a cap on debt-repayment costs at 60% of a bor-

rower’s monthly income and higher stamp duties on home purchases, after low interest rates and demand from foreign buyers raised concerns prices had risen too far too fast.

Apartment prices fell 1.8% in prime dis-tricts in the three months ended Septem-ber 30, reversing a 0.3% gain in the previ-ous quarter, Monday’s data showed. Those in the suburbs slid 1.2%, while areas near prime districts declined 1.3% from the previous quarter.

Still, Singapore remains a high-end housing market in Asia. The city was ranked the most expensive to buy a luxury home after Hong Kong in the region, ac-cording to a 2016 Knight Frank wealth report.

Singapore home prices slide by most in 7 years

An index tracking private residential prices in Singapore fell 1.5% in the three months ended September 30 from the previous quarter, the biggest decline since June 2009.

ReutersTokyo

Japan’s small fi rms, many of which are “mom-and-pop” operations, are dy-ing out as their ageing owners struggle

to fi nd successors, in another sign that the fast-ageing population is taking its toll on the world’s third-largest economy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has targeted more business start-ups as a crucial part of regenerating activity, but the impact has been minimal so far, with the number of small fi rms that are closing their doors at a near record high.

Takayasu Watanabe, 72, has closed a chalk-making business in Nagoya, central Japan, that his family had operated for more than 80 years. He sold technology, equip-ment and trademark rights to a South Ko-rean company last year.

“My physical condition has been deteri-orating. I was unable to fi nd a successor and

business performance was not good,” Wa-tanabe said, adding that none of his three daughters wanted to take over the fi rm.

The Bank of Japan’s tankan business sur-vey showed yesterday that small manufac-turers remained pessimistic in September as the economy continues to fl ounder more than three years after the prime minister pledged to reboot it with refl ationary poli-cies which markets have dubbed “Abenom-ics”. Shutdowns among small fi rms that serve as subcontractors for big fi rms and employ seven out of 10 workers could pose the risk of a prolonged low growth, some analysts say.

The rate of startups among manufac-turers has hovered well below shutdowns – at 3.4% versus 5.5% in 2014. “Ageing of business owners and diffi culty in securing successors are becoming a serious prob-lem for Japanese fi rms,” said Yumi Tanaka of Teikoku Databank, a private corporate credit research fi rm. “From cars to elec-tronics, more and more companies may

start seeking overseas subcontractors, which could accelerate industrial hollowing out and hamper technology transfer.”

The construction industry is facing a se-vere shortage of workers as well as ageing owners. Small hospitals, clinics and sake breweries are also facing acute shortages.

In the last fi scal year that ended in March, about 26,700 fi rms shut down voluntarily as owners could not fi nd successors or faced a dim business outlook, according to Tokyo Shoko Research. The number of voluntary closures has tripled that of bankruptcies, hovering above 25,000 cases since the 2008 global fi nancial crisis, compared with some 16,000 at the start of this decade.

The average age of company owners is at an all-time high of 59.2 years old, versus 54 years in 1990. About two-thirds of them lack successors and the ratio is on the rise.

“It is futile to expand the factory with high interest loans,” said Hitoshi Iwai, 80, who works alone in his factory in Tokyo’s Ota ward, once bustling with small fac-

tories considered the foundations of Ja-pan’s post-war industrial strength. Iwai and some other small factories in the area have survived this long by producing high-quality, specialty products and working to-gether.

“Only those who have a technological edge can survive,” said Toshiaki Funakubo, chairman of machine-tool manufacturer Showa Seisakusho Co Ltd, which his son has taken over.

In his neighbourhood in Tokyo’s manu-facturing hub, a metal mould factory closed down in July and another business owner gave up last year – both having failed to nurture talented people to succeed them.

“These back street workshops may be the smallest part of the supply chain. Still, even one screw they produce may be crucial for products of their clients,” said Masashi Seki of Tokyo Shoko Research. “Two decades of defl ation has sapped owners’ appetite for business, many of whom have not benefi ted from ‘Abenomics’.”

Small Japan fi rms dying out as ageing owners struggle to fi nd successors

Birla sees India raid bringing stock pricesto attractive levels

BloombergMumbai

Pricey stock valuations had

prompted Birla Sun Life Asset

Management Co to double its

cash levels. Now, India’s fourth-

biggest money manager says it

will reduce the hoard as declines

after the nation’s attacks on ter-

rorists camps in Pakistan present

a buying opportunity.

“We will look to deploy into this

correction as we don’t want to

hold cash for long,” Mahesh Patil,

who oversees $22.4bn in assets

as co-chief investment off icer,

said in an interview in Mumbai.

Birla Sun Life over the past few

months boosted its cash to about

8% of assets from 4% it usu-

ally holds as Indian stocks neared

record highs and concerns about

weakness among European banks

buff eted markets. While US stocks

posted a second monthly drop, the

S&P BSE Sensex capped its worst

week since February on concern

tensions between India and Paki-

stan may sour sentiment among

foreign funds who bought the most

shares last quarter since March

2015. “It doesn’t look like the

conflict will escalate but if there’s

a slight correction, even for global

factors, we will look at it as a buy-

ing opportunity,” said Patil.

Both nations moved to curb

tensions after Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s government said

it killed terrorists just across the

border late Wednesday. There’s

no plan to aggravate the situa-

tion, an Indian Foreign Ministry

off icial told reporters Thursday.

While Pakistan is ready to defend

its territory, the country wants

peace to focus on economic de-

velopment, Prime Minister Nawaz

Sharif said in a statement on

Friday. The Sensex rallied 3.2% for

the quarter and the rupee capped

a third monthly climb. The gauge

climbed 1.4% at the close on Mon-

day, recouping half of last week’s

2.8% retreat.

The gains have come as India’s

world-beating expansion lured in-

vestors, while optimism that slow-

ing inflation will allow new Reserve

Bank of India Governor Urjit Patel

to reduce interest rates from a five-

year low at a review on Tuesday

has also bolstered sentiment. Birla’s

Patil said he is bullish on compa-

nies tied to the local economy

including automakers, media and

cement makers because they gain

from lower borrowing costs. He’s

not alone in seeing equity losses

arising from the military off ensive

as an opportunity.

“It’s a good time to use the

declines to buy stocks linked to

the economy as strikes by India

don’t alter the economic outlook,”

Sunil Subramaniam, chief execu-

tive off icer at Sundaram Asset

Management Co, which oversees

the equivalent of $3.7bn, said by

phone from Mumbai on Thursday.

The attacks don’t “represent

diplomatic, economic change in

the government’s stance,” he said.

Maruti Suzuki India jumped

3.7% to a record yesterday after

the nation’s largest carmaker

posted its biggest monthly sales

growth in more than two years.

Birla Asset held 2.13mn shares, or

0.7% of the company, on August

31, according to data compiled by

Bloomberg.

Takayasu Watanabe holds a box of chalks at his off ice where he used to run chalk-making business for decades before closing down last year. Ageing of business owners and diff iculty in securing successors are becoming a serious problem for Japanese firms, said Yumi Tanaka of Teikoku Databank, a private corporate credit research firm.

Toyota unveils robot baby

ReutersTokyo

Toyota Motor Corp yesterday unveiled a doe-eyed palm-sized

robot, dubbed Kirobo Mini, designed as a synthetic baby

companion in Japan, where plummeting birth rates have left

many women childless.

Toyota’s non-automotive venture aims to tap a demo-

graphic trend that has put Japan at the forefront of ageing

among the world’s industrial nations, resulting in a popula-

tion contraction unprecedented for a country not at war, or

racked by famine or disease.

“He wobbles a bit, and this is meant to emulate a seated

baby, which hasn’t fully developed the skills to balance itself,”

said Fuminori Kataoka, Kirobo Mini’s chief design engineer.

“This vulnerability is meant to invoke an emotional connec-

tion.” Toyota plans to sell Kirobo Mini, which blinks its eyes

and speaks with a baby-like high-pitched voice, for ¥39,800

($392) in Japan next year.

It also comes with a “cradle” that doubles as its baby seat

designed to fit in car cup holders. The Toyota baby automa-

ton joins a growing list of companion robots, such as the

upcoming Jibo, designed by robotics experts at the Massa-

chusetts Institute of Technology that resembles a swivelling

lamp, and Paro, a robot baby seal marketed by Japanese

company Intelligent System Co Ltd as a therapeutic machine

to soothe elderly dementia suff erers.

Around a quarter of Japan’s population is over 65 with a

dearth of care workers putting a strain on social services.

Exacerbated by a reluctance to invite immigrants to bol-

ster its working-age population, Japan’s demographic crunch

shows little sign of easing, with the government looking at

robots to replenish the thinning ranks of humans. In the past

half century births in Japan have halved to around a million a

year, according to government statistics, with one in 10 wom-

en never marrying. Births out of wedlock are frowned upon

in Japan and much less common than in Western developed

nations. Japan is already a leading user of industrial robots.

It has the second-biggest concentration after South Korea

with 314 machines per 100,000 employees, according to the

International Federation of Robots. New technology to help

them better interact with humans means robots have begun

moving beyond factory floors into homes, off ices, shops and

hospitals. Kataoka said Toyota, which is investing heavily to

develop artificial intelligence for self-driving cars, sees Kirobo

Mini as a stepping stone to more advanced robots that will be

able to recognise and react to human emotions.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, October 4, 20164

Hitachi planning to sell majority stake in $1.9bn Kokusai unit

BloombergLondon

Hitachi Ltd is considering a sale of its controlling stake in Hitachi Kokusai Electric Inc that could

ultimately lead to a takeover of the en-tire unit, people familiar with the matter said.

Hitachi Kokusai, which produces equipment for semiconductor makers and wireless-network gear manufactur-ers, has drawn interest from potential bidders, said the people, who asked not to be identifi ed because the discussions are private. The deliberations are at an early stage, and Hitachi may decide against a sale, the people said. Hitachi Kokusai has a market value of about $1.9bn.

Hitachi, Japan’s second-largest man-ufacturer, is reviewing its portfolio amid a slowdown in demand from China as well as oil- and gas-producing coun-tries, hit by low prices for crude. Chief executive offi cer Toshiaki Higashihara said in April that he plans to spin off non-core units while focusing on dig-ital technology to help boost sales in its car parts, train and energy businesses. Hitachi owns just over 50% of Hitachi Kokusai.

Hitachi Kokusai’s sales for the year ended in March fell 2.4% to ¥180.7bn ($1.8bn), according to the company’s annual report. Net income dropped 26% to ¥13bn.

The company said it failed to meet its targets for its video and wireless net-

work segment last year because of “rapid change in the business environment.” The eco- and thin-fi lm processing unit, which serves the semiconductor indus-

try, reported its highest-ever sales, the company said. “We are always consider-ing various measures to strengthen the company,” said Masayuki Takeuchi, a

Tokyo-based representative for Hitachi, declining to comment further. A repre-sentative for Hitachi Kokusai didn’t im-mediately answer calls seeking comment.

World Bank secretly finances Asian ‘coal boom’, group saysAFPWashington

The World Bank is indirectly financing a

boom in some of Asia’s dirtiest coal-fired

power generation despite commitments

to end most funding for the sector, a

development advocacy group charged

yesterday.

The power plants, which contribute

to climate change and deforestation as

well as premature deaths due to illness,

are cropping up from Bangladesh to the

Philippines, all with financing provided

by financial intermediaries supported

by the Bank, said a report produced by

the organisation Inclusive Development

International.

In a policy shift in 2013, the Bank

said it would end virtually all support

for the creation of coal-burning power

plants, supporting them only in “rare

circumstances” where there are no viable

alternatives.

However, since that pledge, 41 coal

projects have received funding from

banks and investment funds supported

by the World Bank’s private-sector arm,

the International Finance Corp, according

to the report.

In response to questions from AFP, Fre-

derick Jones, an IFC spokesman, said the

global lender took the report seriously.

“It raises important long-term ques-

tions about how we need to create

stronger markets for clean energy and

create incentives for countries and the

private sector not to invest in coal, but

rather in renewable energy,” he said.

Jones added that since 2005 the IFC

had already invested more than $15bn in

renewable energy, energy eff iciency and

other areas, and had mobilised $10bn

more. However, Jones conceded that

IFC policy did not prohibit equity clients

from funding coal plants, meaning the

institution might be indirectly exposed to

the industry.

This is despite the fact that IFC loans

to financial services industry players

are not intended to finance coal-related

projects and targeted lending is “ring-

fenced” to prevent this, according to

Jones.

The report’s release coincided with

the start of this week’s high-profile an-

nual meetings of the Bank and the Inter-

national Monetary Fund, as the world’s

finance chiefs gather to discuss eff orts at

poverty reduction.

Campaigners in recent years have

been sharply critical of the IFC’s support

for third parties in the financial services

sector, such as banks and investment

funds, saying they can represent an end-

run around environmental and social

safeguards that apply to projects directly

supported by the IFC.

Financial-sector lending now ac-

counts for 52% of the IFC’s long-term

commitments, according to IDI, which

jointly produced the report with other

advocacy organisations including the

Bank Information Center and Account-

ability Counsel.

Founded in 2011, IDI is an advocacy

organisation focusing on human rights

and ethics in development.

The IFC does not identify the end

recipients of financing received by such

intermediaries.

That can make it diff icult for people

harmed by such projects to demand

compensation or seek redress, the report

said.

However, through an analysis of

records, the report identified 56,127

megawatts of new coal capacity funded

indirectly by the IFC.

These included the planned

1,360-megawatt Rampal power station in

Bangladesh, to be situated on the edge

of the sprawling Sundarbans mangrove

forest, which is home to endangered

species and supports the livelihoods of

two million people.

The report said the World Bank itself

declined to support the project, which

could threaten the Sundarbans with air

and water pollution.

But six local banks, all IFC-financed,

agreed to support the project instead.

The report also cited power con-

struction in the Philippines, where coal

burning is estimated to result in almost

a thousand premature deaths annually

and where more than thirty environmen-

tal activists were killed in 2015 alone.

IFC-financed banks have supported at

least 20 new coal projects since 2013 in

the Philippines.

They include the proposed 540-mega-

watt Lanao Kauswagan power station,

which is expected to begin operations

next year and may threaten marine life in

nearby Panguil Bay and the livelihoods

of fishing communities, Inclusive Devel-

opment International said.

“While the IFC has tried to distance

itself from the projects funded by its

intermediaries, the fact is that these

banks are brazenly disregarding the IFC’s

environmental and social requirements,”

David Pred, IDI’s managing director, said

in a statement.

Hitachi, Japan’s second-largest manufacturer, is reviewing its portfolio amid a slowdown in demand from China as well as oil- and gas-producing countries, hit by low prices for crude.

AFPTaipei

The head of Taiwan’s top fi -nancial regulator resigned yesterday after US au-

thorities fi ned a local bank linked to the so-called Panama Papers scandal.

Ding Kung-wha, chairman of the Financial Supervisory Com-mission (FSC), had been criti-cised over his handling of the controversy involving Mega In-ternational Commercial Bank, which was hit with a $180mn fi ne in the US in August.

American regulators accused the bank of showing “fl agrant disregard” for anti-money laun-dering laws, saying they had identifi ed “suspicious transac-tions” between the bank’s New York and Panama Branches.

The Panama Papers, which were released by media in April, comprised a trove of leaked doc-uments that revealed a murky fi nancial underworld of tax eva-sion by politicians, celebrities, and sports stars using shell com-

panies. Mega Bank had dealings with a Panamanian law fi rm at the centre of the scandal, the US Department of Financial Serv-ices said.

The US order does not specify whether the Taiwanese bank ac-tually engaged in money laun-dering.

Some lawmakers criticised Ding for being slow in handling Mega and another case in which a local entertainment company was accused of insider trading and market manipulation. The fi rm is now under investigation.

“I resigned to maintain my in-nocence and hope that it will end the harm for the FSC,” Ding said in a statement, adding that the FSC had launched a probe into the Mega case at the earliest pos-sible time. Ding was appointed by Premier Lin Chuan in May and is the fi rst cabinet minister to leave offi ce under the new government.

The FSC hit Mega Bank with a Tw$10mn ($316,000) fi ne last month and demanded the bank fi re six people, including its legal representative and former chair-man McKinney Tsai.

Top fi nancial regulator quits over bank scam

Financial Supervisory Commission chairman Ding Kung-Wha (left) and Mega Financial’s chairman Michael Chang attend a parliamentary session at Legislative Yuan in Taipei. Ding had been criticised over his handling of the controversy involving Mega International Commercial Bank, which was hit with a $180mn fine in the US in August.

Amazon bets billions on taking title as India’s top web retailerBloombergBengaluru

When Jeff Bezos donned a bandhgala

jacket two years ago and posed for photo-

graphs in India, he wasn’t just promoting

Amazon.com Inc’s year-old business in the

country. The web retailer’s chief executive

off icer was also putting his reputation

on the line to break into the emerging

e-commerce market.

Now, with 80mn products for sale,

120,000-plus merchants and more than

two dozen warehouses, Bezos’s protégé

Amit Agarwal is aiming to make Amazon

the country’s top online store by sales

ahead of the Diwali shopping season.

Known as the “festival of lights,” the

run-up to the celebration is India’s big-

gest retail event, when consumers buy

everything from clothes and electronics

to jewellery and cars. Indians will spend as

much as $1.7bn online during Diwali this

year, according to RedSeer Consulting.

Flipkart Ltd, India’s top web retailer,

and local rival Snapdeal, are well aware

that they’re facing a critical test this year

amid Amazon’s onslaught. All three are

flooding newspapers, billboards and TV

shows with ads and are off ering discounts

for Diwali, which now makes up a third of

annual e-commerce sales. At stake is the

future of India’s online shopping market,

as well as Amazon’s global expansion

plans, which had faltered after it failed to

conquer China.

“This season could decide who’ll be the

ultimate winner,” said Haresh Chawla, a

Mumbai-based partner at private equity

firm India Value Fund Advisors and an

angel investor. “The loser will get un-

nerved and the victor can build internal

confidence and rally the troops for the

bigger game.”

Reaching consumers in India has never

been easy-just ask Unilever NV or Procter

& Gamble Co, which spent decades mak-

ing inroads into the market. There are

22 off icial languages, and consumption

habits diff er from place to place. On top

of that, there are supply chain ineff icien-

cies, high real estate costs, lack of skilled

workers, along with poor infrastructure

and labyrinthine regulations.

Even so, the prospect of becoming the

main web store in a country of 1.25bn

people who are just learning how to shop

online is tantalising. RedSeer Consultancy

Pvt. estimates that annual online sales will

be $80bn to $100bn by 2020 from the

current estimate of about $13bn.

“Barely 2% of the population shops

online,” said Mrigank Gutgutia, who

covers consumer Internet trends at the

Bangalore-based researcher. “It is still only

the tip of the India e-commerce iceberg.”

Merrill Lynch estimates that Amazon

may sell as much as $81bn in merchandise

by 2025, up from $3.7bn last year. Becom-

ing India’s top web retailer would be a

vindication for Amazon. In China, the only

other market with more than a billion peo-

ple, the company has little to show after a

dozen years, thanks to the dominance of

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and other local

web retailers. “The biggest opportunity

and the biggest challenges are both in In-

dia,” said Agarwal, chief of Amazon India.

“It’s going to be a great Diwali.”

After graduating from Stanford Uni-

versity, the 42-year-old spent part of his

career at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters

as Bezos’s technical shadow, a coveted po-

sition at the company that grooms future

leaders by giving them a front-row view of

how the business is run.

To expand inventory, Amazon has been

recruiting sellers at breakneck speed.

The web retailer has deployed an army

of white-and-orange Chai Carts with

emissaries who teach sellers how to list

inventory and handle returns over cups

of milky chai tea. Another service, called

Feet-on-Street, sends people on motor-

bikes to help merchants photograph and

market their wares.

Another big task will be moving beyond

India’s eight big urban areas and into

smaller towns and cities. “There could be

a protest on the streets, potholes on the

road, labour challenges, warehouses in

diff erent regions with varied rules, goods

trucks passing through state checkpoints-

and after all this, the package still has to

arrive at the customers’ doorstep over-

night if not within hours,” Agarwal said.

One key goal for Amazon-its tagline for

Diwali is tyohar bade dilwala (the festival

with a big heart) – is to lure dormant

shoppers and first-time buyers. There are

important trends working in Amazon’s fa-

vor. Exploding smartphone use off ers the

promise of bringing online commerce to

hundreds of millions of buyers and sellers.

All of these eff orts in India cost money;

in June, Amazon said it will invest an ad-

ditional $3bn in India on top of an already

allocated $2bn. “An open funding tap

could help Amazon off er discounts and

bleed out some of its rivals,” said Red-

Seer’s Gutgutia. For Flipkart and Snapdeal,

the upcoming Diwali season will deter-

mine their ability to stay in the game. For

smaller e-commerce startups, survival is

at stake. Many, like AskmeBazaar – which

advertised aggressively during Diwali last

year – shut down before they could make

it to this one.

Flipkart, the current market leader with

more than 100mn registered users, is

getting ready. Amazon’s top rival in India

is in advanced discussions with Wal-Mart

Stores Inc to sell a minority stake to the

US retailer for as much as $1bn. The Indian

web retailer is adding 10,000 temp work-

ers to handle last-mile logistics, and is

off ering financing plans to put expensive

purchases within customers’ reach. Flip-

kart’s tagline this year is ab itne me itnaaa

milega: now you’ll get so much for so little.

Delhi-based Snapdeal, whose backers

include Alibaba and Softbank Group Corp,

re-branded itself ahead of the shopping

season, with a red box logo (its pitch:

unbox zindagi, or unbox life).

Consumers like Nivedita Raju, are

already noticing the diff erence. The

Bangalore-based government off icial,

who buys DVDs, herbs and knickknacks

online, said that when she was looking for

a computer title that was out-of-stock on

Amazon, the web retailer had it printed

and dispatched within 10 days. “It’s a very

diff erent level of customer service than

Indians have been used to,” she said.

Merrill Lynch estimates that Amazon may sell as much as $81bn in merchandise by 2025, up from $3.7bn last year. Becoming India’s top web retailer would be a vindication for the web retailer.

BUSINESS5Gulf Times

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

AFPHong Kong

Asian markets rallied yesterday with fi nancials up on easing fears about the future of German giant

Deutsche Bank after a source said it was nearing a deal to slash a multi-billion-dollar US fi ne.

Traders fl ed for cover last week, sending stocks reeling Friday, after US offi cials slapped the lender with a $14bn charge over its role in the subprime mortgage crisis.

The gigantic fi gure fuelled fears the bank could go under and spark an-other global fi nancial downturn, while Bloomberg News said several hedge funds had withdrawn their investments in the fi rm – though the company said it was in a “stable fi nancial position”.

However, on Friday, a person familiar with the matter told AFP that the Ger-man bank is near an agreement to pay a much more manageable $5.4bn to re-solve the case.

“A lot of the market sentiment has improved because obviously people were worried that Deutsche Bank might be going to recreate the Lehman mo-ment,” Andrew Sullivan, managing di-rector for sales trading at Haitong In-ternational Securities Group in Hong Kong, said referring to the US bank whose fall precipitated the fi nancial crisis.

“The fact that actually Deutsche Bank came out and said it’s well capi-talised and that it’s close to securing a deal with US Department of Justice over that fi ne has just given the market more confi dence that we’re not going to have another breakdown in the global bank-ing system,” he told Bloomberg News.

In Japan, the Nikkei ended 0.9% higher, with investors brushing off the closely watched Tankan survey show-ing Japanese business confi dence at its lowest in three years.

Hong Kong gained 1.2%, Sydney closed 0.8% higher and Jakarta put on 1.3%. There were also strong gains in Taipei and Manila.

The advance tracked a rally on US and

European markets. Investors also wel-comed the weekend release of a gauge of Chinese factory activity that indicated continued improvement in the world’s number two economy.

Among the main winners were banks, with Sydney-listed Commonwealth Bank up 1.5%, while HSBC was up 1.6%

in Hong Kong. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group added 0.4% in Tokyo.

Shanghai, Seoul and Kuala Lumpur were closed for public holidays.

In currency markets, the pound slid against the dollar after British Prime Minister Theresa May set a timetable to leave the European Union by 2019.

The announcement sets up Britain for years of horsetrading after June’s shock referendum vote to leave the EU.

Sterling fell to $1.2870 – its lowest since June – from $1.2974 in New York late Friday, while it also eased to 1.1446 euros from 1.1543 euros.

“We’re back to the Brexit risks,”

Vishnu Varathan, a senior economist at Mizuho Bank in Singapore, said.

“Sterling has taken a bit of a knock fi rst. If the concerns become wider concerns about fi nancial market conta-gion we will fi nd that the slight soften-ing that we’ve seen in the dollar trend will be shaken off .”

Asian markets recover as Deutsche Bank woes ease

A businessman takes a cellphone picture of Australia’s stock exchange index on an electronic board in Sydney. The bourse closed 0.8% higher yesterday.

BloombergMumbai

Automakers helped Indian stocks climb for a second day after the nation’s largest carmaker re-

ported its biggest sales growth in more than two years.

The benchmark gauges recouped half of last week’s 2.8% tumbled spurred by India’s attacks on militants in Pakistan late Wednesday. Investors looked past the off ensive as both nations have since moved to curb military tensions.

“There’s a sense of relief as the border tension doesn’t seem to have escalated further,” Jagannadham Thunuguntla, head of research at Karvy Stock Brok-

ing Ltd, said by phone from Hyderabad. “Some smart investors are using it as a buying opportunity.”

Indian stocks on Friday capped their worst week since February on concern the attacks may sour sentiment among for-eigners who bought the most shares last quarter since March 2015. Birla Sun Life Asset Management Co said it will look to deploy cash as the declines present a buy-ing opportunity. India’s fourth-largest money manager had doubled its cash lev-els to 8% as local equities neared record highs and concerns about weakness among European banks buff eted markets.

Investors are also awaiting new Re-serve Bank of India governor Urjit Pa-tel’s fi rst monetary policy review today. Economists are divided on the outcome,

with 20 of the 37 surveyed by Bloomb-erg predicting no change in the bench-mark rate and the rest seeing a cut.

The government last month an-nounced three candidates to join an equal number of central bank repre-sentatives on a new monetary policy committee, paving the way for India’s fi rst collective interest-rate decision. Each of the six members will have a vote, with governor Patel holding an additional tie-breaker, though he won’t be able to veto a majority decision.

Buoyancy in Asian equities rubbed off on India, with the MSCI Asia Pacifi c In-dex recouping more than half of the last session’s decline. Relief spread across US and European stock markets on Fri-day as Agence France-Presse reported

Deutsche Bank AG is lining up a less-costly settlement with US regulators than investors had feared. The fi nancial woes of Germany’s biggest lender as it struggles with tougher capital stand-ards and soaring legal bills adds to a list of market risks that includes Brexit and tightening US monetary policy.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, the maker of half the cars sold in India, said its sales last month increased 31%, the most since June 2014. The company sold 149,143 vehicles locally, a record. Tata Motors Ltd, owner of Jaguar Land Rover, added 1.1%. Mahindra & Mahi-ndra Ltd rallied to a three-week high. “Disposable incomes are rising and consumers are willing to spend more on cars and other consumer durable

items,” said Arun Kejriwal, a director at Kejriwal Research & Investment. “This also could be due to salary increases paid out to government staff , access to easy fi nance and stable fuel prices.”

Hero MotoCorp Ltd climbed 3.2%, the most since August 5, after its Sep-tember sales rose 11% to a record 674,961 units. Larsen & Toubro Ltd increased 2.6% after winning an order valued Rs60bn ($900mn). Indraprastha Gas Ltd advanced 1.6% and Mahana-gar Gas Ltd gained 1.4% after lowering prices of compressed natural gas.

Meanwhile, the rupee ended margin-ally higher by 2 paise at 66.59 against the US dollar yesterday on mild selling of the American currency by exporters and banks.

Indian stocks climb; rupee up marginally

ConvaTec to raise $1.8bn in Londonpublic issue

ReutersLondon/Bengaluru

Medical products maker Con-

vaTec Ltd plans to raise around

$1.8bn in an initial public off ering

(IPO) of new shares on the

London Stock Exchange, it said

yesterday, in a test of investor

confidence after Britain’s vote to

leave the European Union.

The flotation would be the

biggest in Britain so far this year,

according to Thomson Reuters

Eikon data.

ConvaTec, whose products

include wound dressings and

colostomy bags, said it expected

at least 25% of its shares would

be freely tradeable following the

flotation.

It could have a market value of

about $7.2bn.

The company will use pro-

ceeds from the listing, which is

expected in late October or early

November, to pay down debt.

Global equity deals are down

30% this year, with Britain’s sur-

prise vote on June 23 to leave the

EU adding to an uncertain global

economic outlook..

However, some companies are

pressing ahead with UK listings.

Spain’s Telefonica is looking to

list about 30% of its British mo-

bile unit, O2, sources close to the

matter have told Reuters, while

British fitness club chain Pure

Gym Group, waste-management

firm Biff a and auto parts maker TI

Fluid Systems are all working on

London listings.

ConvaTec chief executive Paul

Moraviec said the company had

been preparing the IPO for the

best part of a year and that it had

not been delayed by the “Brexit”

vote.

“It’s a very resilient business...

(the IPO) is taking place as per

our plans,” he said.

ConvaTec, which was sold by

Bristol-Myers Squibb to private

equity firms for $4.1bn in 2008,

did not say how many shares

it would sell, nor the expected

price range.

Finance chief Nigel Clerkin

said the IPO prospectus would be

released in two or three weeks.

ConvaTec added the off ering

could also allow its owners

Nordic Capital, Avista Capital

Partners and members of the

management team to sell part of

their stakes in the company.

Christopher Gent, former CEO

of mobile phone group Vodafone

and former chairman of drug-

maker GlaxoSmithKline, has been

lined up to be non-executive

chairman of the company.

ConvaTec, which has more

than 9,000 employees and con-

ducts business in more than 100

countries, made $828.9mn of

revenue in the six months ended

June 30, and adjusted core earn-

ings (EBITDA) of $226.2mn.

It said banks had committed

to new debt financing of about

$1.8bn and a $200mn revolving

credit facility.

BofA Merrill Lynch, Goldman

Sachs and UBS Investment Bank

are joint bookrunners and co-

ordinators for the off ering.

Emerging markets rise on robust factory dataReutersLondon

Emerging equities rose 0.8% yes-terday, buoyed by robust factory activity data in Europe and Asia,

and reports that a fi ne imposed on Ger-many’s Deutsche Bank may be smaller than initially feared.

The benchmark emerging equity in-dex rose off 10-day lows hit on Friday, tracking developed market gains after a report said Deutsche Bank and the US Department of Justice were close to agreeing a settlement of $5.4bn, well be-low the initial $14bn demand.

The threat of a fresh European bank-ing crisis had pushed Deutsche Bank shares to record lows last week, dragging on European and emerging market sen-timent.

Robust manufacturing activity data across emerging markets also lifted in-vestor sentiment, with Hungary, Po-land, China, Indonesia and Taiwan per-forming strongly.

“Overall this goes with our view that emerging markets are doing fairly well – the tide has to some extent turned,” said Jakob Christensen, head of emerg-ing markets research at Danske Bank in Copenhagen.

Mainland China was closed for a

week-long holiday but Hong Kong gained 1.2% and Indonesia shares rose 1.7% after export orders touched a four-year high.

Taiwan shares also rose 0.7% after September factory activity hit a two-year high.

The strong Asian performance was echoed across emerging Europe, where Budapest shares rose 0.7% after factory activity touched its highest September fi gure since 1995, although this survey tends to be volatile.

The forint weakened slightly against the euro, however, following a referen-dum on Sunday in which a majority re-jected the EU’s migrant quotas, although low turnout made the poll invalid.

Polish stocks rose 0.5%, with factory activity expanding at the fastest pace in six months, whilst Russian dollar-de-nominated shares rose almost 1.2% after Russian manufacturing was boosted by the sharpest rise in output in nearly two years.

“Clearly the fairly strong macro eco-nomic management, together with higher oil prices, is bringing some re-sults (for Russia) and we are looking for positive growth possibly in Q4 and defi -nitely in 2017,” said Christensen.

The Russian rouble fi rmed 0.8% against the dollar, helped by a rise in oil prices of almost 1% to above $50 a barrel.

The Kazakh tenge also fi rmed 0.3 % before an interest rate review that could cut rates by 50 basis points to 12.5 %.

The central bank has cut rates twice this year by 200 basis points each time.

South African telecoms stock MTN fell one % and its 2024 Eurobond was down 0.9 cents to the lowest since end-June following a downgrade by Standard & Poor’s on Friday to BB+ from BBB-.

The company has denied allegations it illegally repatriated $13.92bn from Ni-geria, its biggest market, where it also faces a fi ne in a dispute over unregistered SIM cards.

Overall South African shares slipped 0.2% but the rand fi rmed 0.7% against the dollar.

Turkish stocks rallied 1.2% but the lira slipped 0.23% after consumer and pro-ducer prices rose less than expected.

Tim Ash, an analyst at Nomura, the data would help the central bank justify its rate-cutting stance and perhaps also lay the way for further easing.

“The (central bank) likely will con-tinue cutting rates and selling this as ‘simplifi cation’ until it unifi es its main policy rates.”

Colombian dollar bonds fell around one cent across the curve after voters rejected a peace deal with Marxist FARC guerrillas, plunging the nation into un-certainty.

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

Al Ahli Bank

78.20

63.90

10.93

19.80

10.98

10.79

88.00

85.50

154.10

54.00

40.50

64.00

49.50

103.90

23.14

45.00

10.42

147.10

10.60

214.60

30.05

87.50

93.80

16.47

13.48

17.11

203.00

88.90

82.10

34.90

17.90

105.00

60.00

54.90

34.50

16.86

20.75

36.80

23.70

38.60

33.20

22.61

14.80

40.05

0.00

-0.78

-0.27

-1.00

-0.18

-0.55

-1.12

-0.70

-1.85

0.00

-2.88

-1.23

-1.98

-1.05

-1.53

0.00

-2.53

-0.88

-1.12

-0.51

0.00

-1.46

-0.95

0.06

-2.25

-0.06

-0.98

-0.56

0.00

-0.85

2.29

0.38

-0.17

-1.08

-1.15

0.36

0.00

-1.74

1.28

-1.03

-0.90

-3.79

-2.18

0.00

-

11,100

2,276,134

150,723

109,221

42,797

129,125

13,012

169,202

-

196

32,682

255,260

34,246

123,532

-

40,548

13,218

467,987

98,784

-

26,088

492,998

68,695

210,086

101,188

13,369

7,066

-

379,037

21,116

61,223

34,832

8,683

63,587

505,673

-

41,372

89,185

83,905

136,109

2,622

19,548

-

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

18.40

18.71

4.69

9.63

9.57

19.76

6.11

16.36

18.12

12.55

22.35

11.09

18.65

64.05

9.03

24.29

23.90

28.71

20.68

12.04

37.60

14.81

23.86

18.65

13.50

18.38

28.28

60.23

86.19

14.79

44.01

35.77

5.49

14.04

29.32

8.55

7.59

28.80

28.02

102.05

11.04

47.80

81.20

5.40

2.86

80.20

14.00

8.34

10.32

31.00

12.96

14.30

115.00

59.40

16.43

17.57

7.85

20.84

11.54

8.17

9.59

49.31

7.79

10.20

5.66

27.01

7.23

69.75

9.72

17.54

51.30

12.49

24.80

7.19

26.67

4.25

25.67

9.93

12.32

11.25

34.00

23.15

16.18

123.00

29.92

5.25

24.97

6.73

12.56

10.43

7.51

19.39

14.80

12.60

17.26

72.83

9.89

0.71

0.00

3.76

-0.21

1.38

-0.10

-5.27

4.07

0.67

0.00

0.86

1.93

3.38

0.47

-0.77

-1.38

1.44

-3.01

1.12

-2.27

-1.83

-4.39

2.89

-0.90

0.00

-3.77

-2.45

-3.31

-3.97

-1.40

0.32

-0.78

0.00

1.74

-7.62

-1.16

-3.31

2.09

-7.52

2.18

-1.60

-5.50

0.88

3.65

0.00

-2.21

3.47

2.58

0.58

0.00

4.43

8.58

-0.65

0.88

2.30

-2.55

2.75

-0.10

2.12

1.87

1.16

-3.80

3.73

-0.39

1.98

1.01

2.12

0.00

-0.82

-0.06

8.07

2.21

-0.40

-0.69

-0.67

0.95

0.00

0.10

1.65

6.33

-0.29

-0.22

-0.12

3.73

3.46

3.35

2.59

0.00

-0.24

0.19

0.13

0.00

-0.13

0.40

2.92

4.06

0.82

73,631

-

49,824,080

143,554

901,948

413,909

1,089,513

628,193

256,286

-

56,398

714,819

149,385

142,399

965,805

699,331

46,329

280,083

413,164

2,026,443

1,271,927

3,806,091

289,182

445,038

-

795,720

95,119

51,841

269,616

402,779

316,814

301,811

2,264,226

496,937

2,666,860

719,552

1,331,605

146,919

2,402,522

88,213

2,997,673

570,669

4,192,471

20,166,756

-

110,933

505,625

662,888

854,479

93,206

107,240

1,425,225

50,349

24,468

255,168

489,121

735,421

450,235

1,059,848

1,271,742

883,531

103,139

665,456

1,131,945

332,140

89,252

1,268,439

-

1,131,695

321,487

265,905

953,569

69,710

1,170,071

894,902

1,384,011

-

159,132

260,233

1,152,655

188,460

829,839

379,483

31,516

1,424,397

1,403,470

158,867

-

1,647,713

674,653

326,833

-

480,220

2,817,270

873,064

362,747

392,074

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

4.46

5.74

5.64

12.15

10.23

15.23

7.20

11.04

52.32

21.50

26.26

24.80

12.89

22.20

13.22

9.82

49.98

16.65

16.37

12.05

7.56

15.95

18.34

30.48

16.90

9.71

22.16

9.23

64.95

-0.67

-2.71

-4.57

0.91

-3.03

0.00

-0.83

1.38

-0.91

-4.02

0.42

0.00

2.06

0.00

-4.89

1.55

-1.61

1.34

0.74

2.55

-6.67

-0.93

2.23

1.30

0.06

0.00

-0.14

2.78

2.69

3,118,448

2,669,807

2,010,587

295,531

2,642,500

-

1,972,302

56,321,475

447,815

84,414

152,674

67

127,905

-

1,026,977

2,029,177

3,484,742

546,840

205,635

664,611

2,835,630

678,326

224,431

376,745

429,243

240,343

356,173

1,823,767

58,490

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 Bank 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

85.00

54.00

170.00

87.00

142.00

325.00

36.50

194.00

20.00

44.00

485.00

320.00

385.00

580.00

405.00

186.00

230.00

40.50

30.00

50.00

600.00

60.00

21.00

110.00

0.00

38.50

790.00

0.00

60.00

0.00

35.00

0.00

19.50

0.00

59.00

700.00

0.00

20.00

0.00

47.50

180.00

385.00

75.00

90.00

44.50

138.00

170.00

0.00

29.00

90.00

455.00

29.50

61.00

0.00

42.50

0.00

112.00

168.00

90.00

77.00

110.00

96.00

31.00

53.00

0.00

260.00

36.50

42.50

29.50

39.00

0.00

96.00

470.00

24.00

79.00

236.00

25.00

110.00

0.00

106.00

176.00

58.00

54.00

0.00

335.00

0.00

540.00

28.00

370.00

80.00

950.00

192.00

0.00

29.50

82.00

325.00

540.00

41.50

240.00

48.00

29.50

47.00

21.50

31.50

126.00

41.50

0.00

0.00

69.00

30.00

30.50

35.00

210.00

30.00

36.50

38.00

0.00

95.00

20.50

0.00

0.00

76.00

650.00

39.00

0.00

0.00

-1.82

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-3.00

0.00

-1.28

-1.69

-1.22

-1.06

0.00

0.00

-3.23

2.04

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.32

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.78

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-4.76

0.00

-5.00

0.00

-1.28

0.00

-2.17

0.00

-6.76

1.19

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.15

0.00

3.39

0.00

3.66

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.28

-3.51

0.00

-6.06

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.67

0.00

-1.67

2.63

0.00

-2.04

-1.05

0.00

-1.25

-2.48

-5.66

-3.51

0.00

-1.85

0.00

0.00

-1.82

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.82

-3.45

0.00

0.00

-1.04

0.00

0.00

-3.28

-1.20

0.00

-1.82

-5.68

0.00

-5.88

-1.67

-3.09

-4.44

-3.08

0.00

-2.35

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-5.41

-0.94

-1.64

-5.19

0.00

0.00

0.00

-4.65

0.00

0.00

-1.30

0.00

-1.27

0.00

5,000

364,510

135,296

63,000

77,729

5,540

1,000

4,094

75,000

45,047

291,469

326,000

200

3,932,072

110,000

489,905

73,814

12,266

263,000

4,918,869

2,000

60,919

1,525,453

555,000

-

775,027

324,676

-

684,930

-

600,827

-

7,000

-

50,000

5,000

-

104,595

-

1,761,811

200,000

10,000

9,998

1,784,668

92,500

12,400

50

-

555,152

156,706

3,475

18,387

54,998

-

10,000

-

41,917

1,000

65,000

219,900

76,770

5,250

17,560

26,200

-

1

526,898

3,300

256,310

283,070

-

76,450

236,602

142,000

704,796

5,573

175,300

2,645,864

-

6,043

39,810

162,800

140,500

-

3,493,577

-

3,650

3,765,822

100

20,000

31,320

5,000

-

14,004

14,720

301,108

990,278

390,000

31,500

11,500

597,500

271,700

1,682,499

633,806

300,000

1,820,516

-

-

10,000

18,000

100,001

2,299,099

120,525

260,262

83,588

29,000

-

5,005

4,028,910

-

-

35,200

503

472,000

-

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

0.45

1.00

3.40

0.16

0.13

0.13

0.11

1.34

0.26

0.21

0.71

1.05

1.90

4.50

0.24

0.65

1.48

1.38

2.50

0.23

1.50

0.24

0.14

2.01

0.69

0.53

0.28

0.32

1.55

2.15

0.30

0.12

1.88

0.16

0.19

0.52

0.40

0.00

0.64

0.06

4.57

1.00

0.18

3.64

0.50

0.40

0.45

1.72

0.00

0.14

0.21

0.17

5.00

0.11

0.06

0.00

0.63

0.13

0.70

3.75

0.23

0.11

1.79

0.62

0.12

0.19

0.52

0.10

1.25

0.11

0.00

0.34

0.12

0.11

0.27

10.50

0.17

0.10

0.39

0.17

0.11

1.49

0.49

0.18

0.39

0.21

1.28

0.22

-0.88

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

-1.64

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.66

0.00

-2.05

0.00

-1.71

-1.85

-1.74

0.00

-0.32

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.27

0.00

-1.52

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-3.13

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

-2.94

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

0.75

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

159,978

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

9,510

-

-

-

5,030

-

250,000

-

125,000

-

-

28,900

11,237

80,267

600,682

-

430,910

385,440

203,000

-

129,259

-

-

-

10,000

-

236,900

-

-

-

13,465

287,200

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

3,000

-

-

-

-

-

14,327

-

-

-

1,286,635

-

300

-

-

-

-

274,029

-

-

-

-

-

-

72,600

-

-

193,790

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

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

0.41

0.17

0.08

0.22

4.05

0.53

0.30

0.07

0.75

0.20

0.20

1.04

0.12

1.44

0.49

0.07

0.06

0.31

0.55

0.24

0.20

0.06

0.88

0.20

1.13

0.09

0.19

0.19

0.71

0.05

0.86

0.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.50

-2.34

1.30

-2.65

0.00

0.00

0.00

-4.17

0.00

0.00

-0.50

0.00

-1.59

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.67

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.50

0.00

-2.22

-0.53

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-

-

-

1,082,174

650,000

1,298,284

562,670

-

-

-

21,700

-

-

100,010

-

244,690

-

176,524

46,700

23,840

-

-

-

-

77,400

-

100,000

-

56,450

326,309

-

-

-

-

-

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

1.89

2.00

2.25

4.00

1.43

1.16

0.90

1.51

3.85

1.50

0.93

4.10

1.10

2.72

0.79

2.52

0.58

92.00

1.18

6.26

0.98

4.24

0.60

3.29

3.80

5.20

4.78

9.03

0.85

0.50

2.21

1.85

0.81

2.12

2.70

0.91

0.85

1.56

4.60

11.50

1.72

0.82

19.80

6.00

7.20

0.54

1.99

1.40

0.87

0.77

1.62

2.56

4.40

0.36

300.00

5.00

2.33

60.00

6.01

2.45

0.54

3.99

2.10

3.10

0.58

3.65

-2.07

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.87

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-6.21

-1.25

0.00

-3.33

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-7.83

0.00

-9.86

0.00

-5.28

0.00

-1.63

-3.41

0.00

0.45

6.32

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.54

-4.44

-1.20

-1.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-4.12

0.00

-7.69

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-4.60

-3.16

0.00

0.00

-4.55

0.00

7.41

0.00

820,716

-

-

16,180

-

37,024

-

115,000

-

-

-

-

-

490,521

47,949

-

708,154

-

-

-

-

8,602

-

8,555

-

213,763

-

421,395

1,511,543

5,422,132

179,100

1,157,613

-

3,300

-

25,000

-

-

-

2,240,391

11,000

61,992,673

1,528,801

183,331

-

4,218,522

-

-

-

20,000

-

15,789,621

-

17,522

-

-

-

-

1,460,892

8,000

35,000

-

7,000

140,069

14,524,336

244,180

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 Bank 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

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.38

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.20

0.00

0.00

0.70

0.10

0.06

0.12

7.60

0.00

0.00

0.64

0.31

0.00

0.00

0.84

0.00

0.34

0.00

0.00

`

0.29

0.00

0.41

0.00

0.09

0.00

0.00

0.77

0.67

1.24

0.00

0.28

0.34

0.29

0.48

0.09

0.27

0.64

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.06

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

-1.17

0.00

0.00

0.00

-3.33

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.66

0.00

0.00

0.00

3.70

0.00

-1.35

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-

-

-

20,000

-

-

-

10,000

-

-

55,000

20,000

32,883

1,400,000

10,700

-

-

10,455

28,000

-

-

15,000

-

30,000

-

-

-

204,634

-

10,000

-

47,000

-

-

10,000

100,000

8,844

-

144,890

100,000

37,000

41,561

500,000

58,763

422,207

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

Strategia Investment Co KscYiaco Medical Co. K.S.C.C

26.50

25.00

385.00

190.00

106.00

0.00

196.00

0.00

36.50

0.00

31.00

285.00

0.00

770.00

70.00

90.00

190.00

45.00

1,560.00

0.00

0.00

30.00

40.50

1,100.00

0.00

36.00

44.50

0.00

46.00

0.00

27.00

56.00

39.50

0.00

830.00

75.00

97.00

54.00

20.00

75.00

152.00

300.00

75.00

32.00

950.00

85.00

345.00

50.00

365.00

375.00

0.00

465.00

34.00

0.00

44.50

700.00

2,500.00

0.00

29.50

146.00

108.00

168.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

218.00

-1.85

0.00

0.00

-1.04

0.00

0.00

-1.01

0.00

-6.41

0.00

-7.46

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.41

-1.10

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.22

-1.79

0.00

0.00

-5.32

0.00

-2.13

0.00

0.00

-1.75

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.32

0.00

-3.57

-2.44

-1.32

0.00

0.00

-1.32

-4.48

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.32

0.00

-1.06

0.00

0.00

-1.11

2.94

-0.79

0.00

-3.28

1.39

-1.82

-2.33

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

220,000

102,234

81,990

671,063

8,000

-

524,103

-

318,376

-

5,000

25,000

-

961

300,000

15,199

5,000

489,652

500

-

-

40,500

429,812

796

-

1,837,208

2,401,697

-

1,700

-

287,200

332,664

223,788

-

10,256

108,123

35,892

185,000

375,105

142,191

3,176

2,118

361,718

68,834

890

393,351

3,438

1,055,224

38,500

69,746

-

3,191,164

118,709

-

8,800

30,250

349,872

-

1,075,540

500

546,270

40,069

-

-

-

43,556

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES

Gulf Times Tuesday, October 4, 2016

BUSINESS6

CURRENCIESDOLLAR QATAR RIYAL SAUDI RIYAL UAE DIRHAMS BAHRAINI

DINARKUWAITI

DINAR

Stocks climb as British pound slips to 3-yr low against euroAFPLondon

The British pound slumped to a three-year low against the euro and fell against the dollar yes-

terday after Prime Minister Theresa May said Brexit negotiations would begin by March.

Better-than-expected British man-ufacturing data, ironically thanks to recent strong falls for the pound, how-ever helped London’s benchmark FTSE 100 stocks index to close 1.2% higher at 6,983.52 points.

Sterling dropped to 87.46 pence against the euro, the lowest level since August 2013, after May gave more de-tails over the weekend about how Brit-ain would exit the European Union.

“While the latest dip in sterling has partly refl ected concerns over the prospect of a ‘hard Brexit’, the cur-rency’s depreciation should continue to cushion the economic impact of the vote to leave the EU,” Capital Econom-ics’ Jonathan Loynes said in an inves-tors’ note.

The pound also slid to a three-month low of $1.2846 — before re-covering against both the dollar and euro.

The pound has faced severe pres-sure on currency markets since Britain voted in June to leave the EU — handing a boost to the country’s exporters.

In a key indicator of the strength of the manufacturing sector, the Markit/CIPS UK manufacturing PMI (pur-chasing managers’ index) rose to its highest level since mid-2014, accord-ing to fi gures yesterday.

“It is apparent that sterling’s marked weakening is giving an important lift to foreign demand for UK manufactured goods,” said Howard Archer, chief Eu-ropean economist at IHS Global In-sight.

The pound struck a 31-year low against the dollar in the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, at $1.2798.

Before now, May had only said that Britain would not trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty — which sets a maximum two-year clock ticking until a country’s departure from the

28-member bloc — before the end of this year.

In the eurozone, the Paris CAC 40 closed 0.1% higher at 4,453.56 points, while Frankfurt was shut owing to a public holiday in Germany. The Euro Stoxx 50 closed down 0.1% at 2,998.56 points.

Dutch bank ING became the latest lender yesterday to announce plans to shed some 7,000 jobs, mainly in Bel-gium and The Netherlands, sending its shares 1.0% lower on the Amsterdam stock exchange.

In other currency news, the Colom-bian peso fell to its lowest level since September 16 after voters rejected a peace deal between the government and communist Farc rebels.

Wall Street dropped ahead of a US jobs report and the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund later this week.

Asian stock markets closed higher with fi nancials up on easing fears about the future of German giant Deutsche Bank after a source said it was nearing a deal to slash a multi-billion-dollar US fi ne.

Sterling dropped to 87.46 pence against the euro, the lowest level since August 2013, after Prime Minister Theresa May gave details about how Britain would exit the EU.

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

112.76

57.32

86.60

117.96

29.60

66.70

88.61

71.85

51.72

33.57

82.81

101.98

41.96

37.68

62.40

31.39

128.11

157.49

92.22

138.12

174.53

114.67

52.67

102.05

131.71

160.82

63.73

68.11

88.73

112.95

-0.26

-0.49

-0.78

-0.14

-0.06

0.17

-1.28

-0.37

-0.50

-0.90

0.13

-0.91

-0.85

-0.19

-0.02

-1.06

-0.44

-0.86

-0.69

-1.34

-0.96

-0.60

0.04

0.44

-0.02

-0.28

-0.48

1.70

-0.05

-1.40

8,006,972

7,580,972

2,606,274

1,689,097

7,397,587

4,021,584

17,184,992

1,788,391

3,665,600

7,613,634

2,504,315

1,583,553

4,702,535

5,337,201

2,831,754

4,864,032

1,086,573

782,033

1,851,024

942,489

651,024

1,249,539

3,120,350

1,303,224

897,003

816,191

913,442

977,331

1,996,047

478,784

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

1,832.00

300.50

4,419.00

219.70

3,953.00

224.90

1,000.00

3,708.00

1,109.00

1,592.00

185.30

155.60

347.30

634.20

969.50

1,573.00

1,269.00

914.00

5,063.00

2,499.00

2,770.00

245.00

752.00

4,495.00

552.00

491.50

2,044.00

1,952.50

179.30

737.50

2,606.50

0.00

1,485.00

7,290.00

7,790.00

1,395.00

3,112.00

1,821.00

763.00

8,835.00

203.70

4,743.00

1,102.00

1,649.00

445.60

924.00

326.00

2,880.00

54.71

216.60

1,058.00

378.60

3,372.00

183.80

296.20

396.90

3,542.00

3,279.00

709.00

722.00

4,042.50

587.60

1,296.00

593.00

214.95

1,665.00

323.90

1,827.00

1,569.00

1,006.00

370.90

369.00

2,245.00

7,075.00

2,581.00

1,523.00

1,809.00

230.60

3,829.00

668.00

1,397.00

2,334.00

385.10

629.00

4,983.00

458.40

1,183.00

2,570.00

501.00

168.20

531.50

1,053.00

444.50

5,041.00

2,603.00

1,287.00

1,700.00

535.50

995.40

2,093.00

652.00

0.00

0.99

1.45

1.47

0.83

0.94

1.42

-0.30

1.46

1.09

3.11

1.28

0.97

0.99

0.94

2.27

0.32

2.01

2.24

1.30

-0.24

2.74

-0.33

1.90

0.00

1.10

0.41

2.35

2.01

0.28

2.43

1.24

0.00

1.50

0.34

0.06

2.09

2.60

0.33

1.33

1.55

0.64

-0.69

0.92

1.60

1.36

-0.27

-1.54

2.86

0.29

-0.96

0.00

0.45

2.37

-1.82

-0.07

-0.48

1.52

3.11

0.57

1.40

1.74

1.54

1.81

1.02

1.32

1.34

1.12

0.72

1.62

-0.10

0.65

1.15

1.56

0.71

0.74

1.87

0.95

1.05

1.62

-0.30

1.31

2.37

-1.02

-0.55

1.08

1.87

1.76

-0.39

1.36

0.24

1.43

1.74

0.91

0.74

0.12

1.26

0.00

2.19

2.87

2.15

0.23

0.00

2,792,773

3,995,445

852,270

17,291,664

365,853

49,897,672

1,726,341

1,535,081

595,646

1,103,017

23,870,588

37,731,214

2,931,403

5,396,709

934,618

2,623,595

5,538,434

3,390,581

1,603,522

726,170

491,420

6,393,295

2,504,705

10,031,616

1,487,038

2,941,442

5,241,805

6,630,977

17,291,466

3,490,558

3,522,571

-

2,318,972

1,180,604

452,754

3,779,977

282,630

1,573,710

2,782,994

82,412

10,062,135

503,169

7,178,930

1,032,560

4,781,408

1,184,257

6,598,246

307,433

127,272,826

18,225,253

2,301,776

6,535,152

409,078

13,225,684

2,174,108

6,390,060

336,853

585,386

1,941,675

1,112,460

2,141,156

25,275,575

599,456

2,625,000

41,905,477

8,540,402

4,485,308

837,254

2,074,751

2,078,632

3,113,883

2,969,773

5,019,095

190,269

953,950

2,224,506

603,062

19,187,184

614,039

4,688,627

2,599,630

702,361

15,910,280

6,106,789

2,112,413

24,034,232

8,494,894

645,413

7,039,875

31,860,812

6,736,550

960,600

4,789,668

1,332,401

796,563

1,728,609

34,136,764

2,575,747

6,475,583

433,609

2,709,856

-

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

9,127.00

1,257.00

3,709.00

2,357.00

1,478.50

1,874.00

412.10

338.00

2,692.00

5,214.00

450.80

8,898.00

1,002.50

541.70

17,395.00

1,128.50

5,791.00

3,140.00

6,542.00

0.52

-0.40

-0.24

0.58

0.85

-0.74

-1.67

0.90

1.03

1.20

0.71

0.24

0.05

0.31

1.07

-0.09

0.21

0.80

0.55

606,500

3,407,200

2,306,200

627,400

1,680,200

3,081,000

20,131,000

26,303,000

1,065,300

1,233,000

8,978,000

872,400

6,272,400

8,547,000

265,500

2,754,200

5,842,300

3,123,000

762,300

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

1,329.50

4,839.00

983.00

464.80

4,827.00

1,471.50

274.50

1,293.00

3,379.00

2,930.50

32,980.00

2,787.50

1,520.50

4,756.00

899.20

425.70

802.30

1,707.00

517.00

507.20

631.20

17,265.00

16,195.00

4,600.00

6,132.00

1,708.50

7,620.00

3,838.00

1,508.00

1,390.00

5,860.00

1,363.50

1,539.50

2,318.50

6,325.00

12,975.00

929.40

3,986.00

2,976.50

2,765.00

402.10

2,075.50

3,393.00

4,688.00

2,263.00

2,128.50

2,790.00

9,534.00

0.00

970.90

1,571.00

3,721.00

3,335.00

4,144.00

3,264.00

4,141.00

423.20

1,423.50

574.90

6,478.00

168.70

459.00

2,435.50

3,748.00

2,552.00

2,598.50

1,391.00

1,444.00

3,798.00

75,000.00

9,281.00

1,193.50

2,639.00

7,141.00

28,805.00

2,298.00

26,445.00

6,392.00

1,125.00

2,933.00

2,975.00

1.41

0.33

0.03

-0.81

0.08

0.72

0.29

0.82

-0.03

1.49

2.14

-0.07

0.46

-0.02

-1.10

0.81

0.19

2.12

0.29

0.42

0.48

1.50

0.12

0.24

-0.03

-0.15

1.49

0.10

1.28

-0.04

2.97

-0.58

0.52

1.02

1.39

-0.42

1.55

-0.35

0.37

0.34

-1.23

0.92

0.98

1.60

0.91

-0.33

-0.59

1.96

0.00

-0.83

-0.16

0.40

1.28

2.63

-0.18

0.53

0.26

0.53

1.86

-0.67

0.06

2.89

0.85

-0.19

-0.39

0.04

0.32

-2.27

3.60

2.10

0.21

1.19

1.17

1.99

-0.29

0.57

-0.60

1.67

0.18

0.32

0.54

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

2.86

32.55

3.55

5.97

5.39

26.25

10.86

99.45

4.12

5.82

20.25

21.25

95.65

25.80

5.69

16.90

21.40

13.46

15.38

9.47

11.16

80.30

9.75

8.04

6.59

2.62

17.66

139.50

46.30

1.78

3.50

0.28

1.02

1.32

0.19

0.56

0.86

-1.67

1.22

1.25

2.91

1.92

-1.90

0.71

2.67

-0.93

0.75

1.45

1.72

0.90

0.19

1.35

1.13

4.77

2.34

1.26

0.72

0.65

4,487,604

1,132,070

140,647,591

19,052,253

8,427,964

12,644,645

3,899,134

3,730,767

16,512,216

117,347,614

27,264,019

7,533,118

7,641,965

39,838,445

52,280,120

16,456,481

16,197,595

4,533,244

16,028,499

29,596,880

6,014,910

2,298,483

56,948,777

1,839,796

3,032,079

2,293,000

3,786,048

843,137

2,494,486

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

14.68

205.80

58.05

0.00

4.91

4.00

42.80

10.10

5.12

40.70

76.10

14.10

116.90

84.75

216.80

56.85

0.27

0.98

1.57

0.00

1.24

0.76

0.23

0.20

0.59

1.24

0.66

2.77

-0.17

1.44

1.78

0.71

10,034,384

2,687,243

18,634,915

-

114,681,900

12,131,757

1,493,899

10,487,015

67,435,619

14,481,654

1,730,870

4,540,456

3,621,309

526,842

10,019,132

2,851,359

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

578.85

1,270.25

478.95

178.75

3,928.45

420.70

382.85

76.45

540.80

2,411.70

757.05

255.30

1,090.70

143.35

181.20

260.25

150.60

5,681.00

1,443.85

1,493.55

1,470.70

788.05

242.30

1,038.10

1,232.90

81.10

256.15

1,425.50

868.75

154.10

3,521.15

1,287.20

808.60

4,900.20

385.85

3,160.55

327.90

588.85

208.45

22,752.95

318.70

627.75

137.20

168.90

2,880.90

550.90

1,193.00

258.90

264.50

1,631.95

5.87

1.24

0.00

3.89

2.00

0.20

2.30

1.39

1.11

-0.79

1.93

1.61

0.65

1.88

2.63

1.40

1.76

3.72

2.71

0.49

2.62

1.42

0.39

0.20

3.09

2.53

1.59

2.30

0.10

0.92

3.15

1.13

1.09

1.32

2.99

1.71

1.74

1.52

4.20

-0.20

1.50

2.47

1.86

0.90

1.88

1.76

2.78

2.84

3.02

2.01

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

18,218.61

2,158.23

5,285.66

14,705.28

47,282.84

59,252.55

6,983.52

4,453.56

10,511.02

8,751.60

16,598.67

1,330.72

23,584.43

5,564.84

1,376.49

28,243.29

8,738.10

2,870.84

28,005.58

5,463.92

-89.54

-10.04

-26.35

-20.58

+37.04

+885.50

+84.19

+5.30

+105.48

-27.80

+148.83

+7.94

+287.28

+39.69

+1.23

+377.33

+126.95

+1.37

+323.33

+99.11

Doha Securities MarketSaudi Tadawul

Kuwait Stocks ExchangeBahrain Stock Exchage

Oman Stock MarketAbudhabi Stock MarketDubai Financial Market

10,309.92

5,416.47

5,358.53

1,144.64

5,674.70

4,396.37

3,408.06

-93.46

-31.73

-39.86

-5.36

-51.50

-79.95

-66.32

“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.”

7,667,600

743,600

11,853,500

23,687,000

2,276,000

4,914,300

9,595,000

3,739,200

6,792,700

3,664,500

421,000

1,071,900

2,946,000

5,095,500

5,594,400

9,094,400

3,098,000

2,416,400

4,469,700

56,929,200

4,909,600

574,800

314,000

972,400

577,600

2,493,200

603,900

1,330,300

1,905,800

4,210,800

2,264,300

6,723,900

3,957,300

4,911,600

400,300

719,100

2,263,900

2,166,800

819,000

1,151,800

7,636,700

2,590,000

2,477,500

2,975,000

1,009,300

2,797,000

3,759,000

1,189,100

-

4,867,000

4,813,600

1,591,300

4,254,900

1,130,100

1,707,600

3,270,600

6,530,000

2,213,800

5,992,000

4,351,000

133,991,800

25,054,500

2,142,900

2,716,900

3,856,500

1,241,000

2,994,000

10,032,200

1,968,300

221,300

916,400

2,234,600

1,769,900

1,058,300

171,100

5,703,800

2,022,700

503,200

2,458,100

2,451,800

1,449,700

4,094,708

2,307,294

1,038,995

11,228,320

259,120

2,060,619

4,956,940

3,313,668

4,877,605

1,001,186

2,203,957

11,393,527

5,099,061

19,002,746

5,440,162

5,626,771

2,164,605

918,120

2,060,155

671,940

1,594,901

1,099,596

7,866,729

1,919,592

1,216,554

7,211,088

17,897,196

1,255,774

2,133,534

11,448,436

414,745

1,045,490

1,559,507

87,167

3,076,471

228,790

3,281,386

1,292,907

4,399,311

21,441

1,564,148

1,959,656

6,892,715

12,829,523

359,843

6,006,181

819,940

1,941,803

4,208,711

166,411

BUSINESS7Gulf Times

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

BUSINESS13Gulf Times

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

US factories rebound, resisting global downward pullUS factory activity grows in September; construction spending falls in August; major automakers report weaker sales in September

ReutersWashington

US factories ramped up activ-ity in September, shaking off a one-month contraction in a

sign America was resisting the down-ward pull of the sluggish global econ-omy.

The Institute for Supply Manage-ment (ISM) said yesterday its in-dex of national factory activity rose to 51.5 from 49.4 the prior month, beating analyst expectations in a

Reuters poll. Levels above 50 indicate the sector is expanding.

“This is a relief,” said Ian Shepherd-son, an economist at Pantheon Macr-oeconomics.

Factory output was a weak spot for the US economy early in the year as a global slump weighed on American factories.

More recently, net exports added to economic growth in the sec-ond quarter and yesterday’s report showed signs factories’ future sales could increase, with the ISM index for new orders rising to 55.1 from 49.1 in August.

The dollar rose against a basket of currencies while Treasury yields also moved higher and US stock markets fell.

Manufacturing is grappling with the lingering eff ects of a strong dollar and lower oil prices.

Economic growth is also listless in major US trading partners in the Euro-pean Union and Asia.

Activity in manufacturing, which accounts for 12% of the US economy, has also been undercut by an inventory correction.

Another report on Monday showed US construction spending fell for the second straight month in August to its lowest level in eight months, an unex-pected drop driven by weakness across public and private sectors, including in home building.

The Commerce Department said construction spending dropped 0.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual

rate of $1.142tn in August. Econo-mists had expected outlays to rise 0.2%.

The successive monthly declines in outlays suggest home building might not help economic growth in the third quarter and forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers cuts its expectation for Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the July-September quarter to a 2.6% annual rate from a 2.9% rate.

Consumer spending has been a ma-jor prop for economic growth this year but major automakers yesterday re-ported lower September US sales de-spite high consumer discounts, with pickup truck volumes down for both General Motors Company and Ford Motor Company.

Henderson-Janus JV signals fee pressures spurring M&ABloombergLondon

Henderson Group’s tie-up with Janus Capital Group to create a $320bn asset manager may be

the precursor to a wave of consolida-tion in an investment industry grap-pling with increased regulation and competition.

“Others will say they wish they’d done it or they’ll contemplate it as well,” London-based Henderson’s Chief Executive Offi cer Andrew For-mica said in a Bloomberg TV interview yesterday. “It’s the most appropriate thing for our clients, our employees and our shareholders.”

Active managers specialising in stock and bond picking have been losing market share to lower-fee pas-sive investment fi rms in recent years. The combined fi rm, Janus Henderson Global Investors, will still be a relative minnow compared with BlackRock’s $4.9tn of assets under management and Vanguard Group’s $3.5tn.

BlackRock’s Laurence D Fink said in May that he expects to see con-solidation as fi rms struggle to beat benchmarks and regulation favours index strategies. Analysts from Jeff er-ies Group and Cantor Fitzgerald said Henderson’s deal will focus interest on more deals in the industry.

Both Formica and Janus Chief Ex-ecutive Offi cer Richard Weil, based in Denver, Colorado, have sought to diversify their businesses through acquisitions, new fund off erings and overseas expansion. In 2014, Weil hired Bill Gross from Pacifi c Investment Management Co to manage its Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which now has $1.5bn in assets.

“There are immediate headwinds for the industry,” said Alex Birkin, head of wealth and asset management at con-sultants EY in Europe. “The organic growth strategy is diffi cult and slow particularly in today’s environment, so if you want to take signifi cant step in terms of growth quickly it’s your only option.”

Henderson’s shares surged as much

as 20.2%, the most since January 2009, and closed 17% higher at 270.7 pence in London. Janus investors will receive 4.719 new Henderson shares for each

share they hold. Henderson investors will own 57% of the new company, with 43% going to Janus shareholders. The deal is expected to close in the sec-

ond quarter of 2017. Janus rose as much as 19% in New York trading, the most since September 26, 2014 when Bill Gross was hired.

“This deal may kick off a round of merger speculation involving other as-set managers such as Jupiter,” Cantor analyst Keith Baird said in a note to cli-ents. Jupiter Fund Management, whose shares rose as much as 6.2% in London trading, declined to comment.

Formica said talks with Janus started in February, before the British vote to leave the European Union which saw investors pull more money from UK funds than any equivalent period in the global fi nancial crisis. Brexit “didn’t accelerate the deal, nor did it have any impact,” he said.

He will lead the merged entity with Weil, who will move to London where the fi rm will be headquartered. It will have a market value of at least $6bn and generate annual net-cost savings of at least $110mn, the companies said in the statement. It is also expected to attract as much as 3 percentage points of additional net new money.

Janus Henderson will be a UK tax

resident and the fi rm is set to become one of the 50 largest asset managers in the world. Formica said that while the deal fi ts the description of corporate inversion, it will not reduce the tax bill in the US.

Japanese insurer Dai-ichi Life Hold-ings, Janus’s biggest shareholder, will have a 9% stake in the combined company and plans to increase that to at least 15%. The fi rm will apply to have its primary listing on the New York Stock Exchange, because it of-fers greater liquidity, with a secondary listing in Australia to appeal to Asian investors, according to the statement. Janus Henderson will not trade on the London Stock Exchange because of the costs involved.

“We passionately believe this is the best way forward to build a global actively-managed asset management company,” said Weil, who took over as CEO of Janus in 2010. “I have kept my eyes and ears open the last seven years for opportunities in the market place. I didn’t have a specific design on Henderson.”

The headquarters of Janus Capital Group is seen in Denver, the US. Henderson’s tie-up with Janus to create a $320bn asset manager may be the precursor to a wave of consolidation in an investment industry grappling with increasedregulation and competition.

Spain’s 10-year bond yield hits record lowReutersLondon

Spain’s 10-year bond yield touched a record low yesterday, outperform-

ing most other eurozone peers on hopes that the resignation of the Socialist party leader at the weekend would pave the way for the formation of a new government.

Low-rated eurozone debt started the fi nal quarter of the year broadly backfoot as the fo-cus turned to looming risks in the peripheral eurozone states.

There were also renewed worries about the fallout from Brexit on news that Britain will trigger the process to leave the European Union by the end of March.

The leader of Spain’s Social-ists, Pedro Sanchez, resigned on Saturday after losing a vote triggered by a party revolt, a step that could end a nine-month political deadlock.

Sanchez had been in a stand-off with acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s People’s Party, frustrating eff orts to form a gov-ernment after two elections left the conservatives with the most votes but shy of a majority.

The Spanish constitution al-lows for another attempt to form a government by the end of Oc-

tober and if that is unsuccessful, a third election will be called in December.

“It’s not clear that the Social-ist party will abstain in another vote by Rajoy to form a govern-ment, but markets have taken the resignation of Sanchez well,” said Mizuho strategist Antoine Bouvet.

Spain’s 10-year bond yield fell almost 2 basis points to a record low at 0.865%, before pulling back to 0.91% as Italian and Por-tuguese bonds came under pres-sure.

Italian 10-year bond yields were 5 bps higher on the day at 1.25%, while Portuguese yields rose 4 bps to 3.39%.

German Bund yields were up 2 bps at minus 0.10 % with trading subdued due to a public holiday in Germany.

A decision by ratings agency S&P to affi rm Spain’s BBB+ credit rating with a stable out-look late on Friday helped to lift sentiment towards Span-ish bonds since some banks had highlighted the risk of a down-grade to the outlook.

S&P said the stable outlook refl ected a view that momentum in the economy would continue.

Spanish manufacturing ac-tivity grew in September at the fastest rate since April, a survey showed on Monday, with new orders expanding rapidly.

RBS to pay $120mn to resolve mortgage bond probe

Royal Bank of Scotland Group

will pay $120mn to resolve a

Connecticut state investigation

into the bank’s underwriting of

toxic mortgage-backed securities

ahead of the 2008 financial crisis,

authorities said yesterday.

The deal, announced by Con-

necticut Attorney General George

Jepsen and state Department of

Banking Commissioner Jorge Perez,

came as the bank has been seeking

to resolve a series of probes and

lawsuits over mortgage bonds.

Before the financial crisis,

authorities said, the bank’s RBS

Securities Inc unit was the lead

underwriter on $250bn worth

of residential mortgage-backed

securities, an investment product

backed by payments by thou-

sands of homeowners.

When home prices collapsed

and the economy faltered,

subprime mortgage borrowers

whose loans were linked to the

securities were unable to make

payments, Connecticut authori-

ties said. The state claimed RBS

conducted inadequate due dili-

gence on the loans pooled into its

deals and engaged in dishonest

or unethical conduct that resulted

in untrue statements to investors

about loans contained in the

securities products.

“RBS failed to properly de-

termine — and misstated — the

quality of the mortgage loans

comprising many mortgage-

backed securities,” Jepsen said in

a statement.

As part of the settlement, RBS

also resolved claims with the

state’s Department of Banking

stemming from its 2015 agree-

ment to plead guilty to trying to

manipulate foreign exchange

rates, as part of a deal with the US

Justice Department.

Sterling trades near three-decade lowon Brexit timetableReutersLondon

Sterling slid towards a three-decade low against the dollar yesterday af-ter British Prime Minister Theresa

May set a March deadline for the formal departure process from the European Union to begin, sending UK shares to a 16-month high.

The pound fell more than 1% to $1.2841, its weakest since early July and not far from the 31-year low of $1.2798 hit on July 6, days after the June 23 refer-endum on EU membership.

It hit a three-year low versus the euro. Against the Bank of England’s trade-weighted currency index, the pound closed at a 6-1/2-year low of 76.7, more than 1% down on the day following May’s comments.

May told her Conservative Party’s an-nual conference on Sunday that she was determined to move on with the process and win the “right deal”, in a move to ease fears inside the party that she might de-lay the divorce.

She said she would invoke Arti-cle 50 no later than the end of March next year, referring to the EU’s Lisbon Treaty that formally puts the divorce proceedings between the EU and Brit-ain in place.

This means she kicks off the nego-tiations process before the French and German elections next year and implies the two-year Brexit clock triggered un-der Article 50 will wind down by March 2019, a year before Britain’s next general election.

While the March deadline off ers some clarity to the process and underpinned stocks, many in the market worry that the government’s stance points to a “hard Brexit” where Britain quits the single market in favour of retaining con-trol on migration.

The economy has shown resilience post-referendum, but fears of a slow-down in business investment and the wider economy will undermine the pound and raises the prospect of possible

further easing by the Bank of England in the coming months. British fi nance min-ister Philip Hammond vowed to protect the economy from any turbulence dur-ing the negotiations, assuring businesses and consumers he would act if needed.

“For market participants the key soundbite was that regaining control over EU immigration into the UK would be the priority ahead of membership of the single market,” Shilen Shah, bond strategist at Investec Wealth and In-vestment, said.”Sterling has the po-tential to come under further pressure given the probable stalling of foreign direct investments.”

Investors worry a “hard exit” from Eu-rope’s single market, or ‘Smexit’ as Royal

Bank of Canada have called it, would send Britain into a recession and blow out its current account defi cit, already among the highest in the developed world.

A wider current account gap and slow-ing foreign investment tend to act as drags on the currency.

“May’s stance is a reminder that un-certainties related to ‘Smexit’ turbulence could be costly for the economy in the short run,” said RBC Capital Markets senior economist Sam Hill.

For now though, sterling’s weakness has helped British exports and the econ-omy.

Data released on Monday showed factory activity grew at the fastest rate in more than two years last month and

suggested manufacturing growth in the third quarter will be the strongest so far this year.

JPMorgan raised its forecasts for growth in the third quarter and expects the British economy to expand at 1.3% in 2017, compared with a previous forecast for 0.9% growth.

The positive impact from sterling’s weakness and the good news from the manufacturing sector helped Britain’s blue chip FTSE 100 index reach its high-est level since June 2015.

The index had fallen sharply just after the June vote, but has since recovered 21%, thanks to its large number of inter-nationally facing companies that benefi t when sterling falls.

The pound fell more than 1% to $1.2841 yesterday, its weakest since early July and not far from the 31-year low of $1.2798 hit on July 6, days aft er the June 23 referendum on EU membership

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, October 4, 201614

Pimco trims India bond holdings as economistssplit on RBI outcomeBloombergMumbai

Pacifi c Investment Manage-ment Co and Aberdeen Asset Management are trimming

exposure to a rupee bond rally that’s driven yields to seven-year lows, concerned the central bank will be cautious on monetary policy.

Economists are divided on the outcome of today’s Reserve Bank of India (RBI) meeting, with 20 of the 37 surveyed by Bloomberg predict-ing no change in the benchmark re-purchase rate and the rest seeing a cut. Speculation the newly-formed monetary-policy panel will ease helped lift sovereign bonds to the best quarter in almost two years, amid a global yield hunt and im-proving access to funds for local banks. Benchmark yields fell for a second day yesterday.

“The RBI may have room to cut rates if and when infl ation falls, yet we think that the new leader-ship will tread cautiously,” Luke Spajic, head of portfolio manage-ment for emerging Asia at Pimco, which oversees about $1.5tn in as-sets globally, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions last week. “We have scaled back some of our weighting towards Indian bonds. We still like it, but felt it prudent to trim.”

Pimco has pulled back at a time when global holdings of rupee-denominated government and corporate notes jumped last quar-ter by the most since March 2015. Aberdeen says the rally has already priced in an October interest-rate cut, prompting it to shift some funds to shorter-duration Indian debt and bonds in Malaysia. Longer duration bonds suff er greater price declines when interest rates rise.

India’s fi nancial markets were jolted on Thursday, with the bench-mark 10-year yield rising the most in 13 months after the nation an-nounced it attacked terrorist camps in Pakistan the previous night, es-calating tensions between the two nuclear- armed countries. Spajic didn’t comment on the geopolitical issues.

Bonds rebounded on Friday, taking the 10-year yield’s decline last quarter to 63 basis points, the most since the three months end-ed December 2014. The yield fell further yesterday, dropping four

basis points to 6.78%, suggesting the market is more optimistic than economists about a rate cut.

“The market is largely expect-ing a 25-basis-point cut along with a dovish statement on liquidity,” said Vijay Sharma, executive vice-president for fi xed income at PNB Gilts in New Delhi. “We are also not ruling out a surprise 50-basis point cut.”

The rupee too recovered from Thursday’s drop, which was the biggest since June, to end the quar-ter with a 1.4% gain. That followed fi ve straight quarters of losses. The currency was up 0.1% at 66.5250 a dollar in Mumbai.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s

government last month announced three candidates to join an equal number of RBI representatives on a new monetary policy committee, or MPC, paving the way for India’s fi rst collective interest-rate deci-sion. Each of the six members will have a vote, with RBI Governor Ur-jit Patel holding an additional tie-breaker, though he won’t be able to veto a majority decision.

“It’s a close call, but we would expect the new MPC to err on the side of caution and wait,” Spajic said about Tuesday’s decision in an interview in Singapore yesterday.

The consumer price index rose 5.05% in August from a year ear-lier, the smallest increase in fi ve

months. Patel, who took charge at the central bank last month, bur-nished his infl ation-fi ghting cre-dentials after a panel he headed in 2014 suggested a CPI goal.

“We have steadily been reducing duration gradually on the back of initial expectations of an extremely dovish new governor, the recent pricing in of a rate cut in October and heavy positioning,” said Leong Lin Jing, Singapore-based invest-ment manager at Aberdeen Asset, which oversaw $403bn as of June 30. “Some were shifted to shorter-duration Indian bonds, while a per-centage was shifted to the Malay-sian bond market.”

Overseas holdings of rupee debt

rose by Rs225bn ($3.4bn) last quar-ter, the most since the period ended March 2015. Modi has lured foreign investors to Indian bonds, which off er the highest 10-year yield among major Asian markets after Indonesia, with his economic poli-cies, said Leong.

“The interest seen from foreign investors isn’t surprising given recent developments,” she said. “There have been quite a few re-forms which have been passed un-der Prime Minister Modi, such as the bankruptcy code and the goods and services tax, leading to positive sentiment on India. We do look to increase duration again as and when the bond market consolidates.”

Pimco warns of Asia debt risk after record dollar bond salesBloombergHong Kong

Pacific Investment Management Co is wary of the risks of rising debt levels after sales of dollar bonds by borrowers in the Asia-Pacific region ballooned to a record.Issuance surged 66% last quarter from the year earlier to $152bn, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Borrowers have rushed to lock in lower financing costs as the average yield premium on the securities has fallen 72 basis points this year to 206, near the lowest since 2007, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes. Zhuzhou City Construction Development Group Co, a local-government financing vehicle, starts investor meetings in Singapore, Hong Kong and London from today, a person familiar said.Investors have plowed money into riskier assets despite warning signs, in a hunt for yield as central banks in the US, Europe and Japan keep interest rates near zero. Median net debt at listed Asia-Pacific firms has jumped to 3.1 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, from 1.9 five years ago, data compiled by Bloomberg show. It’s becoming harder for companies to service obligations as the region’s economic growth cools this year to what analysts forecast will be the weakest since 2009.“Credit is increasing in Asia but growth isn’t rising” at the same speed, said Roland Mieth, a Singapore-based emerging markets portfolio manager at Pimco. “We don’t expect leverage or increasing debt to slow down in Asia.”China’s policy makers have been keeping monetary policy relatively supportive. Yet central Deputy Governor Yi Gang said last month that the nation’s short-term goal has to be curbing leverage. CLSA estimates total debt may reach 321% of gross domestic product in 2020 from 261% in the first half.BNP Paribas in September warned that investors aren’t paying suff icient attention to default risks in the Asia dollar bond market as they hunt for yields, highlighting issuance linked to Chinese regional authorities.“LGFVs could see exacerbated fundamentals if they continue to issue a lot of bonds very cheaply overseas and that will have an impact on the risk of default,” said Charles Chang, the head of Asia credit strategy and sector specialists at the firm in Hong Kong. “This may take a bit of time to play out but that risk is building as we speak.”Chang also highlighted Chinese developers with high leverage levels as a long term risk to the health of the market. Haitong International Securities Group said that many real estate companies will need to issue bonds to redeem notes that mature in 2017.Aberdeen Asset Management Asia is avoiding Chinese dollar bonds as it says a lot of the demand comes from mainland investors who are willing to accept low yields because the issuers are household names to them.“China is a big underweight for us,” said Donald Amstad, a director at the firm. “Chinese US dollar corporate bonds are generally very low yielding assets.” BEA Union Investment Management said valuations on some of the sales have been stretched. It flagged risks such as the US elections and the weakness of European banks, which could trigger a sell-off .“It’s true that some of the deals don’t really compensate investors for taking the risk,” said Pheona Tsang, the Hong Kong-based head of fixed income at BEA Union Investment.

Nordic bond managers explore new way toset investment gradeBloombergOslo

The European Union’s ban of so-called shadow ratings is making it harder for Nordic bond managers to buy high quality debt.“When these ratings are gone, we have to find another way to define investment grade,” Jacob Boers Lind, head of Norwegian fixed income at Danske Capital, Danske Bank’s asset management arm, said in an interview in Oslo.The European Securities and Markets Authority has decided that only registered rating companies, like Moody’s, S&P and Fitch, can provide ratings. Nordic shadow ratings, or ratings provided by credit analysts at banks, have been a cornerstone of the region’s corporate debt market, allowing smaller companies to issue bonds and reducing issuer costs.The Nordic region, which includes Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, has the highest share of unrated bonds in Europe, according to Moody’s.“It’s a pity,” Boers Lind said. “It has been an important tool in the Norwegian market to provide liquidity for the smaller banks. Many mandates have requirements on investment grade – when these banks don’t get a rating any more, it’s

diff icult to define the universe.”DNB ASA, Norway’s largest bank, decided yesterday to discontinue shadow ratings with immediate eff ect. Five of the six largest banks in the Nordic region, including Nordea Bank AB, have now chosen to drop shadow ratings. The shift may put liquidity for bonds issued by Norway’s smaller banks at risk.“If we can’t formulate a mandate that allows us and other funds to trade those banks it will aff ect liquidity because there aren’t many other investors that buy smaller banks,” Boers Lind said.Norwegian fund managers are discussing possible solutions within the Fund and Asset Management Association, according to Boers Lind, 43, who manages about 33bn kroner ($4bn) and buys senior unsecured bonds from Norwegian banks for his funds.“Norwegian savings banks are solid, low risk of default,” he said. “You get a good pickup compared to government. It’s enough for the risk plus a liquidity premium.”More financial regulation has made it more complicated for asset managers to invest in banking debt in particular. It requires more manpower, systems and the customers must pay for it in the end, Boers Lind said.

Global bond markets shackled to Japan by Kuroda’s 0% questBloombergSingapore

Haruhiko Kuroda might have set his sights on Japan, but his latest move is turning out to have far-

reaching consequences for bond markets all over the world.

Almost two weeks ago, the Bank of Ja-pan governor unveiled a plan to anchor yields on 10-year bonds at around zero, after trillions of yen of quantitative eas-ing and the introduction of negative in-terest rates failed to revive the economy. While the shift was ostensibly aimed at helping the fi nancial industry and quashing defl ation, investors far and wide responded by pushing yields lower. From Japan to the US and Europe, vola-tility all but vanished and correlations rose to levels rarely seen in the past.

It’s perhaps the clearest example yet of how the drastic steps that central banks have taken to revive their economies fol-lowing the fi nancial crisis have imbued just about every facet of today’s $100tn global debt market - even as more and more ques-tion whether they’re running out of options.

In the early years, the Federal Reserve and the BoJ exerted their infl uence by ag-gressively buying bonds. Then, the Eu-ropean Central Bank led the move among major central banks into negative rates. Now, the BOJ’s decision to shift away from its “shock-and-awe” approach to stimulus is calling attention to the limits of mon-etary policy in a world where tepid growth, a lack of infl ation and ageing societies have conspired to keep yields lower for longer.

“They are going to converge,” said Mi-zuho Asset Management’s Yusuke Ito,

referring to global bond markets. “Econ-omies are more and more intertwined. Add in demographics – all the countries are somewhat similar.”

Ito, who helps oversee about $50bn as Mizuho Asset’s senior fund manager, predicts bond yields will all eventually meet at the same level.

It’s already starting to happen. Demand for bonds worldwide has pushed down average yields for all types of investment-grade debt to 1.13%, less than 0.1 percent-age point from the record low, according to the Bloomberg Barclays Global Aggre-gate Index. In more than half of the de-veloped markets tracked by Bloomberg, yields on 10-year government bonds are under 1%, with many near or below zero. The diff erence between those in the US

and Japan has dropped by almost half in the past decade to 1.68 percentage points.

The latest bond rally came after the BoJ refrained from another rate cut and introduced its “yield curve control” policy on September 21. In the weeks leading up to the move, bonds retreated in anticipation of a bold policy move to spur infl ation. While the announcement itself initially suggested the BoJ wanted to steepen the yield curve, or increase the amount of income long-term bonds pay over shorter ones, it disappointed economists who had hoped for more. Kuroda later explained the policy would keep yields roughly at current levels, which many traders interpreted as a cap – at home and abroad. “I really don’t think you can justify a major selloff in the

market, particularly with what the BoJ has done,” said Roger Bridges, chief global strategist for rates and currencies at Nikko Asset Management’s Australia unit, which oversees $14.6bn. “Correlations between bonds are increasing all the time.”

The move has sucked much of the tur-bulence out of bond markets. Implied volatility for 10-year Japanese debt tum-bled by the most since 2008 on the day of the BoJ’s announcement. Expected price swings in Treasuries plummeted to a two-year low, while those on German bunds have also declined.

They’re also moving more in tandem. Benchmark bond yields in the US and Japan have stuck within half-percentage point range this year, the narrowest in at least three decades. The spread between the US and Germany has held in the tightest annual range in at least 27 years.

That partly refl ects how Japan has come to the fore in the world of fi xed income. And it’s occurring at a time when the BoJ’s outsize presence in the $10tn market has crowded out investors and left some se-curities untraded on certain days. A limit on Japanese yields risks sending inves-tors fl ooding into overseas debt markets, keeping a lid on yields globally.

It’s already spurring a resurgence in Japanese purchases of foreign bonds, which rose to the highest since July in the two weeks ended September 23.

But just as important is the growing recognition among bond investors that deeper structural forces like demo-graphics and wealth inequality – which may depress growth and inflation for years to come – are probably beyond the reach of even the most aggressive central bank policies.

Kuroda: Major shift in monetary policy.

The off ices of Pacific Investment Management Co (left) are seen in Newport Beach, California. Pimco and Aberdeen Asset Management are trimming exposure to a rupee bond rally that’s driven yields to seven-year lows, concerned the central bank will be cautious on monetary policy.

BUSINESS15Gulf Times

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Dutch bank ING plans to cut 7,000 jobs

AFPThe Hague

Dutch bank ING, the coun-try’s biggest lender, an-nounced yesterday it was

planning to shed some 7,000 jobs mainly in Belgium and The Netherlands to save €900mn ($1.01bn) by 2021.

The move is partly directed by the bank’s bid to reshape its services for the digital banking market, in which it said it would be investing some €800mn.

“Over the coming fi ve years, around 7,000 functions might be impacted by these eff ects,” said chief executive Ralph Hamers.

Stressing the plans were not yet fi nal, Hamers said the work-force could be reduced by 3,500 posts in Belgium and another 2,300 in The Netherlands.

The remaining positions were expected to be cut by external suppliers.

Belgian and Dutch unions re-acted angrily, but analysts said the job losses were the result of the online transformation of the banking industry.

“Customers are increasingly digital and bank with us more and more through mobile devic-es,” Hamers said in a statement.

They “expect us to adopt new technology as fast as compa-nies in other sectors,” Hamers said, adding ING needs “to off er a better customer experience, that’s instant, personal, fric-tionless and relevant.”

He also highlighted that ING had been hit — like other Eu-ropean banks — by low interest rates in the eurozone and tough regulation.

The “huge reorganisation” would hit 12 to 14% of ING’s em-ployees, Joost Vespers, an ana-lyst with the Theodoor Gilissen bank, told AFP.

“ING actually needs that, be-cause the situation is urgent.

It’s a very diffi cult time for banks. And many banks have a high cost base,” he said, adding ING wanted to stay ahead of the competition.

The Amsterdam-based ING employs some 52,000 people in 40 countries around the world.

Saved by the Dutch govern-ment with 10-billion-euro bailout in 2008 amid the global fi nancial crisis, it was forced by the European Commission to exit the insurance business.

It paid off the loan plus in-terest in November 2014, well ahead of time. Monday’s an-nouncement comes after ABN Amro, the country’s third larg-est bank, said last month it was shedding 1,375 jobs over the next three years as it moves towards greater digitalisation.

“Traditional banking is go-ing to be considerably reduced,” analyst Thomas Cool told AFP.

But he added the loss of 7,000 jobs was “a small number for the company itself”, adding “inves-tors might see it as a better for profi tability”.

Hamers told the NOS Dutch broadcaster “that every job that disappears is of course one too many”.

And the markets seemed to take the announcement in their stride. Hamers acknowledged yesterday that “banks are con-fronted with continuous regula-tory burden and a prolonged pe-riod of ultra-low interest rates”.

Deutsche Bank shares slip again in race to reach US settlementReutersFrankfurt

Deutsche Bank shares resumed falling yesterday after recover-ing from a record low at the end

of last week, as hopes faded of a swift deal with US authorities over a multi-billion dollar penalty.

The German lender is throwing its energies into reaching a settlement before next month’s US presidential election, with the Department of Jus-tice demanding a fi ne of up to $14bn for mis-selling mortgage-backed securi-ties.

Its shares didn’t trade in Germany yesterday because of a public holi-day, but its US-listed stock was down around 2.8% at mid-morning.

The threat of such a large fi ne has pushed Deutsche shares to record lows, and a cut-price settlement is urgently needed to help restore confi dence in Germany’s largest lender.

A media report late on Friday that Deutsche and the DOJ were close to agreeing a much lower penalty of $5.4bn lifted the stock 6% higher, but yesterday that report remained uncon-fi rmed.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the bank’s talks with the DOJ were continuing.

Details are in fl ux, with no deal yet presented to senior decision makers for approval on either side, the paper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

“Clearly, so long as a fi ne of this order of magnitude ($14bn) is an even remote possibility, markets worry,” UniCredit Chief Economist Erik F Nielsen wrote in a note on Sunday.

Ratings agency Moody’s said it would be positive for bondholders if the lend-er could settle for around $3.1bn, while a fi ne as high as $5.7bn would dent 2016 profi tability but not signifi cantly im-pair the bank’s capital position.

Deutsche is much smaller than Wall Street rivals such as JPMorgan and Cit-igroup.

But it has signifi cant trading rela-tionships with all of the world’s largest fi nance houses and the International Monetary Fund this year identifi ed it as a bigger potential risk to the wider fi nancial system than any other global bank.

Deutsche Chief Executive John Cry-an will be in Washington this week for the annual meeting of the IMF, and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung report-

ed that other executives would join him to try to negotiate a settlement with the US authorities.

Like fellow large European banks also under investigation for mis-selling mortgage-backed securities — Credit Suisse and Barclays — Deutsche will want to get a deal done with the current administration still in power.

A new administration to be installed after the November 8 election will bring unknown risks and likely delays.

Domestically, Deutsche Bank is fi ghting a rearguard action, seeking to shore up confi dence among the pub-lic, politicians and regulators who say the bank brought many of its problems upon itself by overreaching itself and

then reacting too slowly to the 2008 fi -nancial crisis.

It suff ered a further blow to its image this weekend with a third IT outage in the space of a few months on Saturday, denying some customers access to their money for a short time.

German business leaders from companies including BASF, Daimler, E.ON, RWE and Siemens lined up to defend the bank in a front-page ar-ticle in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

“German industry needs a Deutsche Bank to accompany us out into the world,” BASF Chairman Juergen Ham-brecht said.

A spokesman for a blue-chip compa-

ny that did not feature in the article told Reuters he had been asked by Deutsche for an executive to provide a similar supportive comment.

Deutsche Bank and the government in Berlin have had to play a delicate bal-ancing act, emphasising the substance and importance of the bank without implying any need for state aid or will-ingness to supply it.

The bank has a market capitalisation of only about €15.9bn ($17.9bn) and would almost certainly have to raise fresh cash to pay the full DOJ demand.

Both the bank and Berlin this week denied reports that the government was preparing a rescue plan.

The Bild am Sonntag newspaper

wrote on Sunday that Deutsche’s chair-man had informed Berlin just before it disclosed the potential $14bn fi ne but had not asked for help.

The same newspaper quoted the president of the Bavarian Finance Cen-tre, Wolfgang Gerke, as saying that the German government should step in and buy a 20% stake in the bank before its value fell any further.

The group represents fi nancial serv-ices companies in the southern German state.

“Fundamentally, I’m against state interventions,” he told the newspa-per, but added that in this case a gov-ernment stake would be “a signal that could turn the whole market”.

Falling US natural gas production meets stronger demandBy John KempLondon

The US natural gas market is on an

unsustainable trajectory as consumption

grows rapidly while domestic production

is falling.

Gas production was down nearly

4% in July compared with the same

month a year earlier, according to data

published by the Energy Information

Administration.

Marketed dry gas production amounted

to 2,212bn cubic feet in July 2016 com-

pared with 2,304bn cubic feet in July 2015.

Low gas prices have discouraged drilling

of gas-rich formations and caused produc-

tion to start falling after rapid growth in

2014 and 2015.

There were just 86 rigs drilling for gas

at the end of July, down from 209 at the

end of July 2015, according to oilfield

services company Baker Hughes.

Drillers are becoming more eff icient,

targeting a small number of super wells

that produce enormous amounts of gas,

but higher productivity has not been

enough to off set the drilling downturn.

At the same time, consumption is hit-

ting record levels, especially for electricity

generation, where cheap gas has captured

market share from coal.

Power producers burned a record 1,184

bn cubic feet of gas in July, 9% more than

in July 2015, and easily beat the previous

record of 1,118bn cubic feet set in July

2012.

Some of the increase in gas consump-

tion has been driven by unusually high

temperatures and air-conditioning

demand this summer.

Temperatures across the most popu-

lated areas of the United States have been

consistently above normal since the end

of May.

But gas consumption has been unusu-

ally high even once the high temperatures

and air-conditioning demand are taken

into account.

Power producers’ gas consumption was

almost 6% higher in July 2016 than in the

previous peak in July 2012 even though

population-weighted cooling degrees days

were nearly 5% lower.

Climate policy is encouraging power

producers to retire old and ineff icient coal-

fired generation plants and replace them

with more eff icient and cleaner burning

combined cycle gas units.

Low gas prices have accelerated the

switch by encouraging power producers

to reduce run rates at coal units and max-

imise run rates at gas-fired plants instead.

Power producers have burned their way

through most of the surplus of gas left

over at the end of the record warm winter

2015/16.

Working gas stocks in underground

storage stood at 3,600bn cubic feet on

September 23, an increase of just 90bn

cubic feet or 2.6% compared with a year

ago.

The year-on-year storage surplus has

shrunk from 1,017bn cubic feet or 70%

back on March 23, according to data

from the Energy Information Administra-

tion. Gas stockpiles have shown below-

average increases for 21 consecutive

weeks as high air-conditioning demand,

strong underlying gas consumption and

falling gas output have rebalanced the

market.

Within the next 2-3 weeks, US gas

stocks are likely to decline below year-ago

levels, as stocks continue to build slowly.

Winter of 2016/17 will almost certainly be

colder than the record warm winter of

2015/16, ensuring higher gas consump-

tion for heating, though how much colder

remains uncertain.

But with gas stocks normalising, supply

falling, demand increasing, and more gas-

fired power plants scheduled to start up

over the next 12 months, prices will have

to rise to moderate the power burn and

spur more drilling in 2017.

John Kemp is a Reuters market analyst.

The views expressed are his own.

German lender set to advance on 1,000 planned job cutsBloombergLondon

Deutsche Bank is poised to reach an agreement with labour rep-resentatives this week that will

pave the way for the German lender to eliminate about 1,000 jobs in its home market as part of chief executive offi cer John Cryan’s cost cuts announced last year, said people with knowledge of the matter.

The planned job cuts, which need to be signed off by the works council, will mostly aff ect back-offi ce staff such as in information technology services, said the people, who asked not to be identifi ed because negotiations are private. The Frankfurt-based lender in June struck an agreement with its works council to eliminate about 3,000 full-time positions, including 2,500 jobs at its private and commercial cli-ents business.

Cryan, 55, has sought to reassure investors that he’s able to boost prof-

itability as concerns about mounting legal costs prompted some clients to pull funds and investors to question the lender’s fi nancial health. As part of his overhaul announced in October 2015, the CEO plans to eliminate 9,000 jobs, or about 9% of the global workforce, including 4,000 positions in Germany.

“Deutsche Bank has two challenges - on one hand it needs to increase its capital ratio, and on the other it needs to change its business model and im-prove profi tability,” said Daniel Regli, an analyst at MainFirst. “For the latter, one way are cost cuts, and the nod from the works council is a small step forward.”

Cryan has struggled to reverse a slide in shares that eroded almost half of the company’s market value this year. Deutsche Bank shares touched a record low last month after the US Depart-ment of Justice requested $14bn to set-tle a probe into the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities, more than twice what the lender has set aside for litigation.

The CEO told Germany’s Bild news-

paper last week that he doesn’t plan to raise capital and ruled out govern-ment assistance. The stock rebounded on Friday after Agence France Presse reported that the lender was nearing a settlement of $5.4bn with the Justice Department.

The lender’s €1.75bn ($2bn) of 6% additional Tier 1 bonds, the fi rst to take losses in a crisis, fell 0.4 cents on the euro to about 75 cents, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The notes fell as low as 69 cents last week. After jumping 17 basis points on Septem-ber 26, credit-default swaps insuring Deutsche Bank’s senior bonds against losses erased their earlier increase, fall-ing 24 basis points during the rest of the week, according to data from CMA. The swaps were up 10 basis points on Mon-day to 234, the data show.

“The CDS movement last week was about uncertainty,” Chris Whalen, a senior managing director at Kroll Bond Rating Agency, told Bloomberg Televi-sion yesterday. “We don’t see any credit issues with Deutsche Bank.” Adding to

the lender’s legal woes, six current and former managers including former asset and wealth management head Michele Faissola, along with former executives of Nomura Holdings Inc and Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, were charged in Milan for colluding to fal-sify the accounts of the Italian lender. A judge on Saturday approved a request by prosecutors to try 13 bankers on charges over separate derivative trans-actions Monte Paschi arranged with the securities fi rms, according to a lawyer attending the hearing.

While a potential $5.4bn settlement with the Justice Department would leave Deutsche Bank’s key capital ra-tio “comfortably” above regulatory minimums, the lender may also face a penalty of as much as €2bn ($2.3bn) in a money-laundering probe tied to its Russia operations, analysts at Barclays wrote in a note.

Goldman Sachs Group analysts said a Justice Department settlement of that amount without consumer relief would reduce the bank’s common eq-

uity Tier 1 ratio by up to 51 basis points.The lender’s CET1 ratio, a measure of

fi nancial strength, was at 10.8% at the end of June. Deutsche Bank is seeking to reach a ratio of at least 12.5% by the end of 2018.

Cryan and other top German execu-tives are scheduled to travel to Wash-ington this week as business leaders and central bankers gather for the In-ternational Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings, according to the peo-ple. The managers may use the trip to also continue negotiations with the Justice Department to settle the inves-tigation, they said.

Europe’s largest lenders have slashed costs and eliminated thousands of jobs to help shore up earnings and meet tougher capital rules. Cryan has already said that 2016 will be the peak restruc-turing year and that the lender may fail to be profi table after posting the fi rst annual loss since 2008 last year. The CEO signalled in July that the bank may have to deepen cost cuts after second-quarter profi t was almost wiped out.

The headquarters of Deutsche Bank is seen in Frankfurt. The biggest German lender’s shares resumed falling yesterday after recovering from a record low at the end of last week, as hopes faded of a swift deal with US authorities over a multi-billion dollar penalty.

BUSINESSTuesday, October 4, 2016

GULF TIMES

Qatar expected to introduce VAT between Jan 2018 and Jan 2019, says BDO QatarQatar is expected to in-

troduce value added tax (VAT) between January

2018 and January 2019, a semi-nar organised in Doha by audit fi rm BDO Qatar was told.

BDO speaker, Ivor Feerick, chair of the BDO International VAT Centre of Excellence said, “Having made presentations to a total number of 1400-1500 clients of BDO local fi rms in each of the six GCC States over the past 10 days and hav-ing fi elded about 130 individual questions from the partici-pants, I have no doubt that the proposed introduction of a value added tax (VAT) system into the region will present sig-nifi cant challenges for the local government authorities.”

VAT, although expected for quite some time, will fi nally be introduced at an expected 5% rate in both the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait eff ective January 1, 2018, with Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia obliged to introduce the tax be-tween then and January 1, 2019.

Although there has been very limited offi cial information re-leased regarding the specifi cs of how the VAT system to be in-troduced will operate, Feerick said his expectation was that the GCC Countries would rep-licate a lot of the features of the European Union VAT System, particularly bearing in mind the similarity between the GCC countries and cooperation of 28 countries in Europe.

“Whereas I expect that cer-tain educational and healthcare services will be purely ‘exempt’ from value added tax with no entitlement to VAT recovery on costs by the related service pro-

vider, I expect the provision of basic foodstuff (such as bread, milk, fruits, vegetables and meat) to be ‘zero-rated’ (exempt with credit, thus enabling the suppliers of basic foodstuff s to recover VAT on their operating costs etc.

Increasing the price of most goods and services by about 5% will act as a further disincen-tive to consumer spending so

in the early days following the introduction of the new value added tax system it is likely that retailers may reduce their profi t margins and absorb some or all of the VAT costs with a view to maintaining the sales volume required to sustain their busi-nesses, he said.

Although, he said VAT is ul-timately a tax on the supply of goods and services to consum-

ers, the charge of value added tax on all supplies to both busi-nesses and consumers will mean that businesses will be-come tax collectors on govern-ments’ behalf.

“And apart from increasing their administration and IT re-lated costs, they are likely to be exposed to signifi cant interest, penalties and potentially more serious exposures for any non-

compliance with the new legis-lation”, said Feerick.

Gavin Brown, managing part-ner of BDO in Qatar said, “In the circumstances, it is imperative for them to start planning their VAT strategy without delay and this is the message that I , to-gether with my BDO Partners in the six GCC countries have been sharing with our clients in the region over the past 10 days”.

The BDO Qatar seminar on VAT in progress.

Samba revises down oil price to $57 on slower market rebalancing

By Pratap JohnChief Business Reporter

Elevated Opec production and

a smaller decline in non-Opec

output than anticipated are

delaying the expected rebalanc-

ing of the market, Samba said,

even as the financial group has

revised down its price projec-

tion for next year to $57 a barrel.

However, while lower costs

producers have been maintain-

ing or even increasing produc-

tion, the large scale cuts in

new investment will eventually

impact market balances, Samba

said, and noted “the big ques-

tion is when”.

It is now increasingly thought

that non-Opec supply will grow

(by a small amount) in 2017 af-

ter a large contraction this year.

Meanwhile, demand growth

is expected to slow (to around

1.1mn bpd for 2017) as the

boost from lower prices fades,

and global growth prospects

remains muted.

Since Opec abandoned its

traditional role of trimming

supply to balance the market

and support prices back in

November 2014, crude oil

supply from the organisation

has soared. It is now running at

nearly 33.7mn bpd according to

Bloomberg data, up from under

30m/b at the start of 2014. Most

of the increase has come from

Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran,

which have boosted average

annual output levels by 1.1mn

bpd, 0.7mn bpd and 0.5mn bpd

respectively over 2015-16.

Given that Opec production

is now likely very close to maxi-

mum capacity (Saudi output

hit a record 10.8mn bpd this

summer), it may be that Opec

does not need a formal agree-

ment for there to be an eff ective

freeze on output.

At the least it appears that,

absent a surprise restoration of

full Libyan production, there is

not much room for further large

production gains in 2017-18.

According to Samba, oil

prices have been volatile over

the last few months as markets

look for clear signs, or other-

wise, that fundamental balances

are tightening.

However, the outlook

remains uncertain and data sig-

nals unconvincing. While global

demand seems to be holding

up (expected to grow by 1.3mn

bpd), there are so many vari-

ables at play on the supply side;

ranging from the resilience of

US shale oil producers, the shift-

ing prospects for production in

countries such as Libya, Nigeria,

Iran and Iraq, and talks about a

potential Opec output freeze as

well as coordination between

Saudi Arabia and Russia.

Meanwhile, the widely

anticipated drawdown in stocks

is happening much more slowly

than expected, and is being

interrupted by weeks of gains

which are unnerving markets.

Thus, Samba said, while

prices for Brent have recovered

from their near $40/b lows in

July/August, they have been

volatile in a $45-50/b trading

range since.

“Nonetheless, developments

to date have caused us to revise

up our 2016 average price pro-

jection to $45/b,” Samba said.

Outlook remains negative for motor insurance in Mideast, says A M BestBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

The outlook for motor insurance in the Middle East region remains “negative”, given the high levels of competition lead-

ing to cut-throat pricing, according to A M Best, an international insurance rating agency.

Whilst some regulators, like Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, have attempted to impose discipline in the market by requiring actuarial pricing for motor insurance contracts, pricing in the rest of the region remains largely driven by undercutting rivals, the agency said in a re-port.

Rates are also impacted by relatively poor quality of data available to adequately under-write the profi ciency of drivers, it said, adding poor pricing, particularly on motor third-party

liability (MTPL), impacts operating perform-ance as well as erode capital, it said.

Trends towards commoditisation and reduc-ing customer loyalty indicate a period of further pressure on motor profi tability, it said, adding insurers with poor distribution networks and unsophisticated pricing are likely to suff er fur-ther in the medium to long term.

“The ability to generate profit from under-writing activities is increasingly under strain due to the market pressures, with many com-panies undercutting rates and chasing market share over profitability,” A M Best said, ex-pecting further pressure build up in the sec-tor.

Finding that motor insurers in the region have tended to concentrate on large group accounts to obtain market share and grow top-line rev-enue; it said the resulting competition has led to signifi cant pricing pressure.

In extreme cases, underwriters and sales staff keen to retain large clients have resorted to breaching underwriting authorities and mini-mum pricing controls, translating into large losses for insurers, particularly in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, it said.

Low oil prices are likely to reduce inwards reinsurance commissions on heavily reinsured corporate risks stemming from the slowdown of both public and private infrastructure and en-ergy projects, it cautioned.

Expecting motor insurance pricing pressure to increase across the region; it said owing to rigidity in pricing and the unprofi table nature, some insurers are unable to compensate for MTPL losses through other profi table lines of business and have abandoned the motor market completely.

However, the ability to offset MTPL losses is dependent on the individual insurer’s abil-

ity to generate sufficient margin on other product classes, through charging appropri-ate premium rates, managing claim costs and prudent risk selection, as well as achieving sufficient economies of scale to absorb ex-penses, it said.

In countries where MTPL is tariff ed, there have been calls from market participants and insurance associations for the government to either increase tariff s to a profi table level or for a move towards liberalisation of premium rates, A M Best said.

The extremely high-level of competition is compounded by the prevalence of broker/agency distribution channels in the Mena re-gion, which drive the bulk of motor premiums, it noted.

Brokers and agents are given commissions based on premium generation rather than being incentivised with profi t commissions, showing

a tilt towards volume over quality, which can be detrimental to the profi tability of the risk car-rier, it said.

With price being retail customers’ primary concern, insurers are forced to compete on rates rather than service quality, which places further pressure on underwriting performance.

Moreover, given the pricing pressures in-herent within Middle East markets, more in-surers are shifting their focus towards claims management with the aim to reduce claims costs. Over the past few years, many insurers have performed a review of claims manage-ment processes, the use and cost of motor repair garages and controlling the costs of car parts.

While such initiatives may assist in shaving a few points off the combined ratio the pressure still remains within these markets, according to A M Best.

Vodafone bags award for best digital experience

Vodafone Qatar has won the ‘Best Digital Experi-ence’ award during the

‘3rd Annual Customer Experi-ence Middle East Summit’ for its deployment of ‘Hani’, the company’s virtual assistant.

‘Hani’, which is built on an intelligent platform and comes in the form of a smart Vodafone Hedgehog who knows every-thing about Vodafone and can quickly fi nd the right answers for customers, was recognised by the judges for its innova-tion and customer-centric ap-proach coupled with business results.

Mohamed al-Sadah, Voda-fone Qatar’s chief operating offi cer, said: “Hani is a critical aspect of our digital customer engagement strategy, Artifi -cial Intelligence coupled with live agent chat support off ers a world-class experience and I am very proud of our teams’

accomplishments to win this prestigious award.” ‘Hani’ uses Natural Language Processing to understand the customer’s question and provides a single accurate response. Hani has a strong understanding of all Vo-dafone products and services, which, to date, has seen more than 80,000 questions per month answered with an accu-racy rate of over 90%.

Digital self-care forms a crit-ical strategy for Vodafone and coupled with the MyVodafone application have seen expo-nential growth in both custom-er acceptance and satisfaction.

This is the second customer care award that Vodafone Qatar has received this year. In April, the company was recognised with the ‘Best Culture Trans-formation’ award at the ‘5th Annual Customer Experience Management in Telecoms Mid-dle East’.

Digital self-care forms a critical strategy for Vodafone.

Across-the-board selling leads QSE settle marginally above the 10,300 markBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

An across-the-board sell-ing — particularly in transport, banking and

insurance stocks — yesterday led the Qatar Stock Exchange lan-guish in bearish sentiments for the fi fth straight session and set-tle marginally above the 10,300 mark.

Domestic and Gulf institu-tions’ net profi t booking pressure rather knocked off 93 points or 0.9% in the 20-stock Qatar Index to 10,309.92 points.

Trade turnover otherwise in-creased amid lower volumes in the bourse, whose year-to-date losses widened 1.15%.

Islamic stocks were seen de-clining slower than the conven-tional ones in the market, where telecom, banking and realty stocks accounted for about 83% of the total volumes.

However, local retail investors turned bullish and there was in-creased buying support from for-eign institutions in the bourse, where large, micro and small cap equities were seen fast losing sheen.

Market capitalisation erod-ed 0.87% or about QR5bn to QR554.28bn as large, micro, small and midcap stocks shrank 1.15%, 0.95%, 0.84% and 0.57% respectively.

The Total Return Index shed 0.9% to 16,680.77 points, All Share Index by 0.85% to 2,848.32 points and Al Rayan Islamic In-dex by 0.79% to 3,876.54 points.

Transport stocks shrank 1.32%, banks and financial services as well as insurance (1.21% each), telecom (0.81%), consumer goods (0.64%), in-dustrials (0.56%) and real es-tate (0.09%).

More than 86% of the traded equities were in the red with major losers being QNB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar Insurance, Ooredoo, Vodafone Qatar, Na-kilat, Milaha, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Qatar First Bank, Aamal Company, Gulf Interna-tional Services, Mazaya Qatar, United Development Compa-ny, Barwa and Qatari Investors Group; even as Industries Qatar, Ezdan and al khaliji were among the gainers.

Domestic institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR39.41mn compared with

net buyers of QR7.92mn on Sunday.

The GCC (Gulf Coopera-tion Council) institutions were also net sellers to the tune of QR9.24mn against net buyers of QR2.59mn on October 2.

However, non-Qatari institu-tions’ net buying strengthened perceptibly to QR29.61mn com-pared to QR15.08mn the previous day.

Local retail investors turned net buyers to the extent of QR18.8mn against net sellers of QR18.79mn on Sunday.

Non-Qatari individual inves-tors were also net buyers to the tune of QR0.89mn compared with net sellers of QR4.19mn on October 2.

The GCC individual investors’ net profi t booking declined to QR0.64mn against QR2.64mn the previous day.

Total trade volume was down 9% to 6.33mn shares, while value rose 19% to QR221.66mn; even as deals declined 22% to 2,586.

There was 47% plunge in the consumer goods sector’s trade volume to 0.19mn equi-ties but on 11% jump in value to QR7.61mn. Transactions shrank 33% to 292.

The insurance sector’s trade volume plummeted 25% to 0.03mn stocks, value by 27% to QR2.35mn and deals by 33% to 39.

The market witnessed 25% shrinkage in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 2.77mn shares but on 17% increase in value to QR71.25mn. Transactions de-clined 42% to 322.

The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 12% to 0.61mn equities; while value gained 87% to QR45.77mn. Deals fell 29% to 417.

However, the transport sec-tor reported 53% surge in trade volume to 0.26mn stocks to more than double value to QR14.85mn on 5% rise in trans-actions to 184.

The banks and fi nancial serv-ices sector’s trade volume soared 34% to 1.47mn shares, value by 2% to QR60.98mn and deals by 10% to 985.

The real estate sector saw 6% jump in trade volume to 1mn eq-uities but on 22% decline in value to QR18.86mn and 44% in trans-actions to 347.

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

Saudi stocks swing widely; Gulf weak

ReutersDubai

Gulf stock markets were weak

yesterday as Saudi Arabia

swung widely, hit by plans for

reforms to the telecommunica-

tions industry, but Egypt rose

sharply on hopes that its Inter-

national Monetary Fund loan

would be finalised soon.

The Saudi index fell more

than 2% at one stage as Saudi

Telecom, the country’s top

operator, tumbled as much

as 8.5% after the government

said it would provide telecom-

munications firms with “unified

licences” allowing them to off er

a full range of services.

The stock closed 4.9% lower

and the Saudi index finished

down 0.6% at 5,416 points, its

lowest close since March 2011,

in active trade.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, where

most bourses had been closed

on Sunday for Islamic New

Year holidays, sentiment was

weak partly because of concern

about the Saudi market.

Dubai’s index fell 1.9% to 3,408

points, breaking technical

support on the August and

September lows of 3,430-3,442

points. In Kuwait, the key index

fell 0.7% to 5,359 points, the

Oman index dropped 0.9% to

5,675 points and the Bahrain

index lost 0.5% to 1,145 points.