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Egypt ratings lowered due to unrest
January 31, 2011--Moody's Investors Service has cut ratings for Egypt's government bonds, the first such action since unrest began in the country, Bloomberg has reported.
Moody's cut the bonds to Ba2, two levels below investment grade, from Ba1, and changed the outlook to negative from stable. It also downgraded the country's ceiling for foreign currency bonds to Baa3 from Baa2, and the ceiling for foreign currency bank deposits to Ba3 from Ba2.
Tadawul market dips one percent
January 31, 2011--The Saudi Arabian Tadawul bourse remained volatile on Monday, closing at 6,358.03.
SABIC closed again belowe SR100.00 (off 1.73% at SR99.25). The Kingdom Holding Co. was the main gainer, reaching SR8.85 (up 3.51%).
Kuwait market closes 0.55% higher
January 31, 2011--The KSE Market Index closed at 6,859.2 on Monday. Banks and industry shares were the main gainers of the market's recovery.
Islamic insurance operator First Takaful Insurance Company posted the largest advance (up 7.14% at KD0.075). Islamic bank Kuwait Finance House missed the recovery and closed 1.61% lower at KD1.220.
Qatar shares gain across the board
January 31, 2011--The Doha-based QE Index added 0.41% to reach 8,745.14 points. Insurance firms in particular helped the index to recover territory from Sunday' regional slump. The country's largest lender by assets Qatar National Bank (QNB) closed unchanged at QR154.60. Earlier in the day QNB announced the following two resolutions, among others, of the Ordinary and Extraordinary General Assembly Meetings held on Sunday, January 31, 2011.
Shareholders approved the proposal of the Board of Directors to distribute to shareholders a cash dividend at the rate of 50% of the nominal value of share capital, representing QR5 per share, and distribute bonus shares equivalent to 30% of the share capital. The assembly approved further the transfer of necessary funds to the legal reserve so that it would be equal to 100% of the capital.
Abu Dhabi market adds one percent
January 31, 2011--Abu Dhabi-listed real estate shares helped the market to recover from Sunday's mini-crash. The ADX General Index closed one percent higher at 2,586.75 points.
RAK Properties (up 2.56% at Dhs0.39), Sorouh Real Estate (1.50% higher at Dhs1.34) and Aldar Properties (gaining 1.21% at Dhs1.63) were the driving forces behind the market's advance. Shares of Dana Gas closed ended flat at Dhs0.62, despite the energy firm reporting earlier an 80% increase in net profit for 2011. "The resulting full year net profit for Dana Gas in 2010 was Dhs158m compared to Dhs88m in 2009." Seventeen shares advanced, 11 declined and seven closed even.
Aramex recovers slightly on 11% net profit increase
January 31, 2011--While most GCC markets recovered on Monday after the one-day Egypt-Crash on Sunday, the DFM General Index finished 0.56% lower at 1,534.40, as some key financial shares re-gained territory, but real estate-related firms remained under selling pressure. "We regard yesterday's mini-crash definitely as a buying opportunity", Pascal Duval, Executive Managing Director EMEA at Russell Investments told AMEinfo.com today.
Emaar (down 1.93% at Dhs3.05) was the top loser in relation to turnover, Arabtec Construction closed 1.20% lower at Dhs1.64. Bank Emirates NBD added 1.04% to reach Dhs2.91, while Shuaa Capital finished 3.48% higher at Dhs1.19. Logistics provider Aramex gained 0.49% to reach Dhs2.04. Earlier in the day, Aramex under its CEO Fadi Ghandour reported a 11% increase in net profits reaching Dhs204 for 2010. Traded value declined 60% to Dhs155.25m as 109.79m changed hands.
Opec keeps eye on Egypt but says inventories are high
January 31, 2011--Abdullah al-Badri, secretary general of Opec has said the oil producing group is watching the situation in Egypt but will only add more supply to the oil market if there is a real shortage, Reuters has reported.
"We are watching the situation because there is some good quantity (at stake) and if there is a problem there we have to do something," he told reporters at a conference in London. "Inventories are very high and our spare capacity is also 6 million barrels. I don't see why we have this high price. The market is well supplied but at the same time if we see some real shortage we will intervene," he said.
Dubai Gold And Commodities Exchange Weekly View-- January 30, 2011
January 30, 2011-- Economic Data Overview
A steady feed of economic data in the January 31 week is capped by the January employment report on Friday. In the wake of the FOMC meeting of January 25-26, conditions in the labour market will be even more closely watched in reference to the outlook for monetary policy that largely hinges on a pickup in job growth.
Central bank announcements are expected from the Reserve Bank of Australia and the ECB, while Fed policymakers are returning to public speaking after the end of the press blackout period around the FOMC meeting.
The January employment report on Friday overshadows the rest of the data during the week, but the days leading up to the release are not devoid of interest. At the moment, expectations are for another month of mild increase of around 130,000. This is close to the fourth quarter 2010 average of 128,000 and would constitute a trend-like increase. This is a nice gain, but not enough to draw down the large pool of unemployed and under-employed workers that is a major concern behind the Fed's current monetary policy.
The most closely monitored of the economic reports in advance of the employment data is the ADP National Employment Report, which is due on Wednesday. Last month the numbers pointed to an outsized gain in payrolls that did not emerge. As a result, analysts may be a little wary of the January data.
The ISM indexes of manufacturing and non-manufacturing are set for Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. On the factory side, data so far for January from the regional Fed and NAPM surveys suggests that activity has continued to expand. This bodes well for the manufacturing payroll data in the Friday employment report. Conditions in the service sector are less well documented for January, but
OPEC could increase production in 2011: Saudi
January 27, 2011-- OPEC countries could increase their production to meet the rising demand in 2011, Saudi Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters on Monday.
As non-OPEC oil producers are expected to increase their production, OPEC countries too will have the opportunity "to boost their supplies to the global market to meet the rising global demand," said Naimi.
Real estate shares pull Dubai bourse down
January 27, 2011--The Dubai Financial Market General Index lost 0.94% to close at 1,612.63 as construction and property heavyweights Emaar (down 0.59% at Dhs3.39) and Arabtec (off 1.11% at Dhs1.09) weighed on the index.
Bank Emirates NBD continued to gain territory, closing 0.68% higher at Dhs2.96. Some 81.1m shares worth Dhs120.12m (up 6%) changed hands. Over the last week of January, the DFMGI added 0.25%.
