Middle East News Older Than 1 year-If your looking for specific news, using the search function will narrow down the results
GCC single currency possible by 2015
January 7, 2010--Mohamed al-Mazrooei, GCC Assistant Secretary General for Economic Affairs has said that if the Council's member states speed up the process, a single Gulf Arab currency could be launched in 2015, Reuters has reported.
Mazrooei's comment is the first from the GCC secretariat that sets a potential new timetable for the single currency's launch after the bloc abandoned an initial 2010 deadline.
Kuwait Parliament okays consumer loan bailout bill
January 7, 2010--A bill that would force the Kuwaiti government to buy all KD6.7bn ($23.3bn) of consumer loans has been approved by the country's parliament, Bloomberg has reported.
The plan, which the government opposes, also includes writing off the interest and rescheduling the payments over a maximum of 15 years. "The bill includes drawbacks that threaten the stability of Kuwait's banking system as it encourages disrespect of contracts which would result in destabilizing financial transactions," Finance Minister Mustafa al-Shimali told parliament before the vote.
Qatar Gets Hot Over $1 Billion Solar Power Plant
January 7, 2010--The Qatari government has started negotiations with investors over the construction of a $1 billion solar power plant.
Despite having one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, the small Gulf state is taking steps to diversify into renewable energy production.
“Since they started their liquefied natural gas and gas exports they found a huge increase in their own domestic energy gas demands,” David Ledesma, Research Fellow at The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies told The Media Line in reference to countries such as Oman, Abu Dhabi and Qatar.
Egypt to explore 520 oil and gas wells
January 7, 2010--Egypt's oil ministry has announced plans to drill 520 exploratory oil and gas wells worth $2bn in 2010, KUNA has reported.
The plan includes drilling 36 gas wells in the country's northern delta coast, the southern governorates of Qena and Aswan, west of the Nile River, and the southern border areas. Eight new gas fields are set to be operational in Egypt.
GCC central banks halt loans to public sector
January 7, 2010--Central Banks in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait have stopped lending to the public sector with effect from January 1, 2010, the Peninsula has reported.
The move is part of the plans of the four GCC states to set up a common monetary union. According to the draft GCC common monetary union agreement, the central banks of member-states are prohibited from lending to public companies to free a future regional central bank from its role of subsidising the public sector of member-states in line with the European model.
CBB Treasury Bills oversubscribed
January 7, 2010--The Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) announces that this week's BD25m issues of Government Treasury Bills has been oversubscribed by 215%.
The bills, carrying a maturity of 91 days, are issued by the CBB, on behalf of the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The issue date of the bills is 6 January 2010 and the maturity date is 7 April 2010.
The weighted average rate of interest is 0.97% compare with 1.08%, for the previous issue on 23 December 2009.
DP World looks to list on LSE
January 6, 2010--DP World has announced plans to seek a premium listing on the London Stock Exchange in the second quarter of 2010, whilst maintaining the existing primary listing on Nasdaq Dubai. "
"DP World would evaluate all available options to address its continued disappointment with the market's valuation of the company," the ports operator said in a statement.
DGCX achieves record annual volumes in 2009
* Full year 2009 volumes reach 1.5 million contracts
* Strong year-on-year growth of 31.6%,
January 5, 2010--The Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) reaffirmed the important role of derivatives in 2009 of managing risk during uncertain market conditions as the Exchange recorded 1.5 million contracts valued at US $79 billion at the end of 2009.
Surpassing the 2008 total volume of 1.142 million contracts, DGCX recorded an increase of 31.6% in 2009; the highest annual volume to be achieved since inception.
Currencies and crude oil were the key drivers for the rise in annual volume. While currencies recorded a 132% increase compared with last year, full year volume for crude oil futures rose by 140%.
Monthly volume on Dubai Gold & Commodities Exchange (DGCX) in December was 181,105, an increase of 529% on December 2008. December volume included 75,591 gold, 89,123 currency and 10,083 WTI futures contracts. Year-on-year volumes of currency, crude and gold futures grew by 524%, 509% and 489% respectively in December.
Commending the Exchange's robust performance in 2009 Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chairman, DGCX, said, “DGCX's launch and progress was a timely occurrence for this region. The volatility in global markets and the tightening of credit rendered risk management, security and market transparency a priority among investors. The record annual volume on DGCX indicates that the Exchange is continuing in its growth path, offering the distinct advantages of regulated on-exchange trading and clearing. ”
Average daily volume reached 5,921 contracts in 2009, an increase of 30.6% compared with 2008. Since inception in November 2005, DGCX has seen trading of over 4.1 million contracts with a value in excess of US$ 185 billion.
Eric Hasham, CEO of DGCX said, “In four years, the Exchange's portfolio has grown quickly to include the key economic indicators of precious metals, energy and currencies on one trading and clearing platform. The increase in year on year volumes is an encouraging achievement and confirms that our offering meets the requirements of market participants. We are confident that there is significant potential to grow existing contracts and launch new products, to further capture market opportunities and liquidity in the Middle East and beyond.”
In 2009, DGCX focused on improving liquidity, tightening prices and educating participants to better understand the trading and price risk management benefits of derivatives. The exchange witnessed a strong response from new and existing participants during workshops held throughout the year.
On February 27th 2009, for the first time, volume for Euro/Dollar futures touched almost 7,000 contracts valued at US $ 427 million. August 7th 2009, saw the highest daily volume ever for all currency futures at 7,655 contracts, valued at US $583.86 million. Total November 2009 volume hit an all time monthly high of 190,554 contracts, valued at US $10.86 billion, up 345% year on year, led by gold and currencies.
Dubai Gold And Commodities Exchange Weekly Views January 3, 2010
January 3, 2010--Commodities Overview
Commodities prices are expected to be strong during the first week of 2010. Investors remain bullish on commodities, including precious metals. Precious metals should do well in early 2010. If economic conditions appear more negative, gold and silver will continue to benefit from investors seeking alternative assets and hedges against continued weak equity and bond markets. If economic conditions are more positive, as CPM Group expects, investors will be interested in gold and silver as inflation hedges.
Longer term investors meanwhile are expected to continue to buy precious metals as they seek to build greater long-term exposure to gold and silver in their portfolios. Either economic scenario thus appears to suggest investors will continue to buy precious metals in early 2010.
Currencies Overview
Currency markets may be mixed in the coming week. While market observers often look for a clear directional signal at the beginning of the year, as the world returns from holidays, the signal for currency markets this year may be that the markets will be mixed. This reflects the likelihood that investors in 2010 may be most likely to be more active in deploying assets in numerous countries around the world. The U.S. economy and market may look more attractive than those of Europe, the United Kingdom and Japan. This could help the dollar strengthen against those currencies. The relative strength and attractiveness may be small and limited, however, so that the dollar advances may be smaller than some dollar bulls expect and frequently interrupted by profit-taking.
Land transactions in Dubai top Dhs1.42bn
December 31, 2009--The total value of land transactions in Dubai last week peaked at Dhs1.42bn , of which sales exceeded Dhs866.20m.
The total value of mortgages during the period was Dhs558.28m, according to the Land Department.
