Tuesday, November 5, 2019 Rabia I 8, 1441 AH BUSINESS GULF TIMES Merkel cheers VW’s electric vehicles push CEO roundtable discusses race to reduce CO2 PARADIGM SHIFT | Page 11 FOUNDATION EVENT | Page 3 PRIVATE SECTOR FOCUS : Page 12 Chamber highlights investment potential in Qatar to Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece delegations Asian businesses looking at Qatar for opportunities: QFC A sian business are increasingly looking at Qa- tar for business opportunities in view of the strong macro fundamentals of the country and its open economy policy, according to the feed- back received from the recent roadshows of the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC). Having successfully concluding its roadshow in Asia, which included Taipei and Tokyo, the QFC said it is eager to see the new alliances with Taiwan and Japan and is looking forward to welcoming them to its platform. The Taiwan roadshow witnessed the signing of agreements, panel discussions, numerous B2B meet- ings and networking events with professionals from distinguished Taiwanese corporations. It also included a seminar ‘Business and Invest- ment Opportunities in Qatar through the QFC’, where senior officials provided an overview of the multi- billion-dollar investment opportunities available to businesses in Qatar, as well as the unique benefits of setting up a business at the QFC platform. During the roadshow, a memorandum of under- standing (MoU) was signed between the QFC and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAI- TRA), to promote future collaboration and further enhance business relations between Qatar and Tai- wan. The event was attended by senior representatives from the QFC; Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Minis- try of Economic Affairs (MOEA); TAITRA; Financial Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan; Institute for Information Industry; and Startup Terrace (SME Administration, MOEA). The Japan Roadshow featured B2B meetings and a seminar ‘Invest in Qatar’. Participants included representatives from the Japan External Trade Or- ganisation (JETRO), Japan Co-operation Center for the Middle East, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and MUFG Bank. The 2019 Taiwan and Japan roadshows come as part of the QFC’s efforts to further highlight the solid economic and trade relationship that exist between Qatar and the two nations, and to support Taiwan- ese and Japanese companies looking to expand their business in Qatar and Middle East and North Africa. Sheikha Alanoud bint Hamad al-Thani, manag- ing director (Business Development), QFC Authority, said Qatar’s economy is recognised as one of the fast- est growing economies in the world, and while this offers an abundance of investment opportunities, the QFC provides a competitive business framework to facilitate market access to businesses wishing to ex- pand to the region. Highlighting that the QFC is at present home to over 760 businesses from around the globe, she said more than 70 of these firms are Asian companies and Asia remains an important market to Qatar and home to the country’s top five trading partners. “We are eager to see the new alliances with Taiwan and Japan arising from these roadshows and look for- ward to welcoming them to our platform,” she added. Finding immense potential in Qatar, Venessa Chang, deputy executive director of TAITRA, said, “We expect that through the MoU signed by QFC and TAITRA, the bilateral co-operation between Qatar and Taiwan in the trade and industry fields could be further facilitated.” Observing that Qatar is aggressively promoting business in sports sector in various ways, Masaru Nishiura, director of Middle East Africa Division, JETRO, said, “We expect more collaborations be- tween Qatar and Japan”. Muntajat plays ‘prominent’ role in Qatar’s energy sector development, says al-Kaabi H E the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, also the Presi- dent and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, has acknowledged the prominent role Muntajat plays in the development of Qatar’s energy sector. During a visit to Muntajat, the marketing arm of Qatar Petroleum, he also acknowledged its contribution to national growth and sustainabil- ity in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030. In particular, al-Kaabi spoke about the new major expansions and projects within the petro- chemical sector, emphasising the strategic role Muntajat will play utilising its expertise, know- how and network to market, sell and distribute the additional volumes to the domestic and inter- national markets. During the visit, the minister was mostly in- terested in meeting Muntajat’s people, getting to know them and sharing experiences. After a short meeting with the management team, he took the time to converse with the young talents and na- tional professionals and took a tour of the offices to personally shake hands with all the employees thanking them for their continuous dedication and commitment to the company, as well as, to the growth and development of Qatar. On the minister’s visit, Abdulrahman Ali Ab- dulla, CEO, Muntajat said, “Receiving the Min- ister of State for Energy Affairs at Muntajat has been a true honour. His Excellency’s continu- ous support and trust encourages us to continue moving forward into the future, taking Muntajat to the next level with pride and optimism”. He also expressed his gratitude to Muntajat’s team of professionals, for their loyal dedication, confirming Muntajat’s readiness to take on new challenges and achieve its mission to become a world leader in the marketing and distribution of Qatar’s downstream products. Muntajat has rapidly accumulated a number of key milestones on its extraordinary journey to- wards recognition today as a global leader within the downstream industry and is strongly commit- ted to continue delivering high quality products and excellence in customer service while expand- ing its reach and building on its strong partnering strategy with key players in the industry. Evidently, the synergy between the QP compa- nies and the Qatar energy sector has successfully contributed to the diversification of the Country’s economy. Baladna outlines its vision for contributing to secure, sustainable food supply in Qatar Baladna’s subsidiary, Baladna Food Industries (BFI), Qatar’s largest dairy and beverage producer, has outlined its vision for contributing to a secure and sustainable food supply in Qatar. The vision comes as Baladna announced an IPO to enable Qatari citizens to share in BFI’s success and support its transformative role in sustainability. Following the blockade in June 2017, Baladna embarked on an extensive programme of significant investment in infrastructure, plant, and machinery to increase its production capacity. As a result, the company has been celebrating its significant contribution to Qatar achieving 100% self-sufficiency in dairy products. With the population of Qatar expected to grow, Baladna has now outlined its vision for how the company will contribute to improving sustainability and food security in the country. The company is a key supporter of the government’s Qatar National Food Security Programme. Baladna has placed the health and wellness of the population at the heart of its vision for contributing to food security and sustainability. The company’s brand mission has been updated to focus on products which improve and maintain a healthy population, in which dairy products play a critical role. The company has been exploring partnerships with public and private sector organisations, including universities, to support research into improving sustainable production which will contribute to a secure food supply. These research projects are focused on identifying new and better ways to improve sustainability, such as animal husbandry to improve animal health and productivity, as well as work with the community on diet and habits to support wellness. Baladna CEO Dr Kamel Abdallah said, “Baladna has played a major role in helping Qatar achieve self- sufficiency in dairy products, and as a key supporter of the National Food Security Programme, we know there is more we can do to help support food security and sustainability in Qatar.” He added: “Our research partnerships – from improving animal health and productivity to supporting consumers to make healthy choices – will make a major contribution to achieving the aims of the Food Security Programme. “And as we explore how to integrate the stages of production to support fresher and healthier products for consumers, there will be massive opportunities for both Baladna as a company and for our shared vision to support the wellness of ordinary Qataris.” The company has also outlined its intention to ensure sustainability in food security by examining the opportunities for integrating the stages of production. “From the blade of grass to the consumers’ fork, integrating production presents both a commercial opportunity for Baladna and for its stated purpose to improve freshness and support the wellness of the population.” The company has announced its intention to float on the Qatar Stock Exchange, which will see Baladna incorporated as a public shareholding company, which will hold 100% of the shares of BFI. From October 27, 2019 to November 7, 2019, eligible investors will be able to subscribe to shares in the offering, the proceeds of which are intended to finance the company’s recent expansion. HE the Minister of State for Energy Affairs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi met in Doha yesterday with Omar Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Power and Petroleum. Discussions during the meeting focused on a number of topics of mutual interest, foremost of which was co-operation in the field of energy between Qatar and Pakistan. Qatar has a long-term agreement to supply Pakistan with 3.75mn tonnes per year of Qatari LNG. Al-Kaabi meets Pakistan Minister for Power and Petroleum HE al-Kaabi with Abdulla and the Muntajat team in Doha. The QFC-Japan roadshow has showcased the increasing business potential in Qatar
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Tuesday, November 5, 2019Rabia I 8, 1441 AH
BUSINESSGULF TIMES
Merkel cheers VW’s electric vehicles push
CEO roundtable discusses race to reduce CO2
PARADIGM SHIFT | Page 11FOUNDATION EVENT | Page 3
PRIVATE SECTOR FOCUS : Page 12
Chamber highlights investment potential in Qatar to Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece delegations
Asian businesses looking at Qatar for opportunities: QFCAsian business are increasingly looking at Qa-
tar for business opportunities in view of the strong macro fundamentals of the country
and its open economy policy, according to the feed-back received from the recent roadshows of the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC).
Having successfully concluding its roadshow in Asia, which included Taipei and Tokyo, the QFC said it is eager to see the new alliances with Taiwan and Japan and is looking forward to welcoming them to its platform.
The Taiwan roadshow witnessed the signing of agreements, panel discussions, numerous B2B meet-ings and networking events with professionals from distinguished Taiwanese corporations.
It also included a seminar ‘Business and Invest-ment Opportunities in Qatar through the QFC’, where senior offi cials provided an overview of the multi-billion-dollar investment opportunities available to businesses in Qatar, as well as the unique benefi ts of setting up a business at the QFC platform.
During the roadshow, a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) was signed between the QFC and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAI-TRA), to promote future collaboration and further enhance business relations between Qatar and Tai-wan.
The event was attended by senior representatives from the QFC; Bureau of Foreign Trade of the Minis-try of Economic Aff airs (MOEA); TAITRA; Financial Supervisory Commission, Executive Yuan; Institute for Information Industry; and Startup Terrace (SME Administration, MOEA).
The Japan Roadshow featured B2B meetings and a seminar ‘Invest in Qatar’. Participants included representatives from the Japan External Trade Or-ganisation (JETRO), Japan Co-operation Center for the Middle East, Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and MUFG Bank.
The 2019 Taiwan and Japan roadshows come as
part of the QFC’s eff orts to further highlight the solid economic and trade relationship that exist between Qatar and the two nations, and to support Taiwan-ese and Japanese companies looking to expand their business in Qatar and Middle East and North Africa.
Sheikha Alanoud bint Hamad al-Thani, manag-ing director (Business Development), QFC Authority, said Qatar’s economy is recognised as one of the fast-est growing economies in the world, and while this off ers an abundance of investment opportunities, the QFC provides a competitive business framework to facilitate market access to businesses wishing to ex-pand to the region.
Highlighting that the QFC is at present home to over 760 businesses from around the globe, she said more than 70 of these fi rms are Asian companies and
Asia remains an important market to Qatar and home to the country’s top fi ve trading partners.
“We are eager to see the new alliances with Taiwan and Japan arising from these roadshows and look for-ward to welcoming them to our platform,” she added.
Finding immense potential in Qatar, Venessa Chang, deputy executive director of TAITRA, said, “We expect that through the MoU signed by QFC and TAITRA, the bilateral co-operation between Qatar and Taiwan in the trade and industry fi elds could be further facilitated.”
Observing that Qatar is aggressively promoting business in sports sector in various ways, Masaru Nishiura, director of Middle East Africa Division, JETRO, said, “We expect more collaborations be-tween Qatar and Japan”.
Muntajat plays ‘prominent’ role in Qatar’s energy sector development, says al-Kaabi
HE the Minister of State for Energy Aff airs, Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi, also the Presi-dent and CEO of Qatar Petroleum, has
acknowledged the prominent role Muntajat plays in the development of Qatar’s energy sector.
During a visit to Muntajat, the marketing arm of Qatar Petroleum, he also acknowledged its contribution to national growth and sustainabil-ity in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030.
In particular, al-Kaabi spoke about the new major expansions and projects within the petro-chemical sector, emphasising the strategic role Muntajat will play utilising its expertise, know-how and network to market, sell and distribute the additional volumes to the domestic and inter-national markets.
During the visit, the minister was mostly in-
terested in meeting Muntajat’s people, getting to know them and sharing experiences. After a short meeting with the management team, he took the time to converse with the young talents and na-tional professionals and took a tour of the offi ces to personally shake hands with all the employees thanking them for their continuous dedication and commitment to the company, as well as, to the growth and development of Qatar.
On the minister’s visit, Abdulrahman Ali Ab-dulla, CEO, Muntajat said, “Receiving the Min-ister of State for Energy Aff airs at Muntajat has been a true honour. His Excellency’s continu-ous support and trust encourages us to continue moving forward into the future, taking Muntajat to the next level with pride and optimism”.
He also expressed his gratitude to Muntajat’s
team of professionals, for their loyal dedication, confi rming Muntajat’s readiness to take on new challenges and achieve its mission to become a world leader in the marketing and distribution of Qatar’s downstream products.
Muntajat has rapidly accumulated a number of key milestones on its extraordinary journey to-wards recognition today as a global leader within the downstream industry and is strongly commit-ted to continue delivering high quality products and excellence in customer service while expand-ing its reach and building on its strong partnering strategy with key players in the industry.
Evidently, the synergy between the QP compa-nies and the Qatar energy sector has successfully contributed to the diversifi cation of the Country’s economy.
Baladna outlines its vision for contributing to secure, sustainable food supply in QatarBaladna’s subsidiary, Baladna Food Industries (BFI), Qatar’s largest dairy and beverage producer, has outlined its vision for contributing to a secure and sustainable food supply in Qatar. The vision comes as Baladna announced an IPO to enable Qatari citizens to share in BFI’s success and support its transformative role in sustainability. Following the blockade in June 2017, Baladna embarked on an extensive programme of significant investment in infrastructure, plant, and machinery to increase its production capacity. As a result, the company has been celebrating its significant contribution to Qatar achieving 100% self-suff iciency in dairy products. With the population of Qatar expected to grow, Baladna has now outlined its vision for how the company will contribute to improving sustainability and food security in the country. The company is a key supporter of the government’s Qatar National Food Security Programme.Baladna has placed the health and wellness of the population at the heart of its vision for contributing to food security and sustainability. The company’s brand mission has been updated to focus on products which improve and maintain a healthy population, in which dairy products play a critical role.The company has been exploring partnerships with public and private sector organisations, including universities, to support research into improving sustainable production which will contribute to a secure food supply. These research projects are focused on identifying new and better ways to improve sustainability, such as animal husbandry to improve animal health and productivity, as well as
work with the community on diet and habits to support wellness. Baladna CEO Dr Kamel Abdallah said, “Baladna has played a major role in helping Qatar achieve self-suff iciency in dairy products, and as a key supporter of the National Food Security Programme, we know there is more we can do to help support food security and sustainability in Qatar.”He added: “Our research partnerships – from improving animal health and productivity to supporting consumers to make healthy choices – will make a major contribution to achieving the aims of the Food Security Programme.“And as we explore how to integrate the stages of production to support fresher and healthier products for consumers, there will be massive opportunities for both Baladna as a company and for our shared vision to support the wellness of ordinary Qataris.”The company has also outlined its intention to ensure sustainability in food security by examining the opportunities for integrating the stages of production. “From the blade of grass to the consumers’ fork, integrating production presents both a commercial opportunity for Baladna and for its stated purpose to improve freshness and support the wellness of the population.”The company has announced its intention to float on the Qatar Stock Exchange, which will see Baladna incorporated as a public shareholding company, which will hold 100% of the shares of BFI. From October 27, 2019 to November 7, 2019, eligible investors will be able to subscribe to shares in the off ering, the proceeds of which are intended to finance the company’s recent expansion.
HE the Minister of State for Energy Aff airs Saad bin Sherida al-Kaabi met in Doha yesterday with Omar Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Power and Petroleum. Discussions during the meeting focused on a number of topics of mutual interest, foremost of which was co-operation in the field of energy between Qatar and Pakistan. Qatar has a long-term agreement to supply Pakistan with 3.75mn tonnes per year of Qatari LNG.
Al-Kaabi meets Pakistan Minister for Power and Petroleum
HE al-Kaabi with Abdulla and the Muntajat team in Doha.
The QFC-Japan roadshow has showcased the increasing business potential in Qatar
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Tuesday, November 5, 20192
Rand gains with bonds as S Africa dodges downgradeBloombergJohannesburg
South Africa’s rand and bonds rose af-ter the country clung to its last invest-ment-grade credit rating.
The currency gained 1.7% to 14.7853 per dollar by 11.37am in Johannesburg, the most on a closing basis in more than three weeks, and paring its loss since the end of June to 4.7%. The yield on rand-denominated gov-ernment bonds fell the most since early 2018 and stocks advanced.
Moody’s Investors Service on Friday held back from downgrading the government’s debt to junk, although it did lower the out-look to negative. This came even after the country released budget forecasts last week that showed its fi nancial situation deterio-rating rapidly.
Moody’s kept the nation’s foreign- and local-currency readings at Baa3, one step above speculative grade. South Africa is al-ready rated junk by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings, both of which shifted to non-investment grade in 2017.
The yield on bonds due December 2026 declined 15 basis points to 8.41% and the FTSE/JSE Africa All Share Index climbed 0.2%, with banking stocks among the big-gest contributors to the move. The rand’s one-week implied volatility versus the dol-lar dropped 288 basis points to 12.9%, in-dicating that options traders are expecting price swings to moderate.
If Moody’s does cut, South Africa will be excluded for the FTSE World Government Bond Index. That would trigger outfl ows of as much as $15bn from the rand-bond mar-ket, according to Bank of New York Mel-lon Corp, at a time when the nation needs portfolio investment to fi nance its current-
account defi cit, one of the largest among major emerging markets.
A downgrade would also raise borrowing costs and make it tougher for the govern-ment to balance the budget.
Bank of America Corp expects a down-grade after a budget statement in February, though it says outfl ows from funds tracking the WGBI may total just $1.5bn.
South Africa’s Finance Minister Tito Mboweni responded to the Moody’s an-nouncement by saying the country needed tough reforms to fi x its fi scal problems and debt-laden state companies such as Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.
“It is now or never,” he said. “Govern-ment, labour, business and civil society, we need each other more than ever before.”
The country is spending 138bn rand ($9.2bn) to bail out Eskom, the power util-ity that is saddled with 450bn rand of debt. Regular blackouts caused economic output to contract the most in a decade in the fi rst quarter and prompted the Treasury to slash its growth forecast for this year to 0.5%.
“South Africa has been a car crash in slow motion,” Cristian Maggio, London-based head of emerging-market strategy at TD Securities, said ahead of the market open. “We’re still at a point where that car has not hit that wall, but you can defi nitely see that’s where they’re going.”
Still, Moody’s decision to change South Africa’s outlook but not its rating was what most participants in a Bloomberg survey expected.
World Bank ready to spend $5bn in Congo, but with conditionsBloombergKinshasa
The World Bank could provide as much as $5bn to Democratic Republic of Congo over the
next fi ve years if its new government commits to raising more revenue, fi ghting corruption and opening up its economy.
The fi nancing would be a welcome boost for Congo’s new president, Felix Tshisekedi, who has promised a bold series of costly social programmes, including free primary-school edu-cation for more than 20mn children. Last month, the International Mon-etary Fund said it’s considering re-suming lending to the country after a seven-year hiatus.
The World Bank is off ering to support parts of the government’s agenda, “but not at any price,” Jean-Christophe Carret, the World Bank country director for Congo, said in an October 30 interview in Kinshasa, the capital. “We will help if they are credible in their will to reform a lot of things in the economy.”
Aid from the Washington-based lender will be conditioned on govern-ment commitments to increase reve-nue and improve management of eve-rything from health and education to Congo’s burgeoning mining industry, Carret said. The World Bank is also
pushing the government to reduce the number of tax exemptions it gives to various businesses, he said.
Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer and Africa’s biggest miner of copper and tin. It’s also rich in de-posits of gold, oil and other natural resources.
Despite its immense mineral wealth, Congo’s 81mn people are among the poorest in the world. The nation annually ranks near the bot-tom of the most diffi cult places to do business. Some of the World Bank’s demands will focus on liberalising the economy, particularly in opening up the supply of water, electricity and Internet coverage, Carret said.
“The private sector needs to want to invest,” he said. “That is the only condition under which we can bring the population out of poverty as quickly as possible.”
A new IMF loan programme would also open the door to $1.5bn of budget support from the World Bank over three years, Carret said. The IMF halted its last programme with Congo in 2012 amid worries about corrup-tion in the mining industry.
Any new fi nancing for Congo must fi rst be approved by the World Bank’s board of directors, which already agreed to a $500mn programme to fi ght child-hood malnutrition in May. The bank has about $1bn left in its most recent programme that ends June 30.
Part of that money is destined for Tshisekedi’s free primary-school initiative, which should cost about $1.1bn per year, Carret said. The Bank will contribute about $400mn a year for three years if the government takes steps to make the programme sustainable.
“It’s a governance programme for the education sector,” Carret said. Congo’s constitution guarantees free primary education, but mismanage-ment and the country’s tiny budget, with only about $5bn in revenue, have never allowed it. One quarter of Con-go’s population is primary-school age.
World Bank results have been mixed in Congo, which is still recov-ering from years of war.
Carret called a World Bank plan to fi x the country’s bankrupt national rail system “a failure” after it spent $380mn through last year. In 2016, the lender pulled $73mn in funding for Congo’s Inga III hydropower plant over worries about transparency.
Development of the $14bn project has stalled, as the country has yet to fi nd a way to fi nance feasibility stud-ies. The World Bank has no more interest in Inga III, Carret said. It will instead focus any new funding on smaller energy projects that are quicker to launch, like micro-hydro plants and solar power, he said. Only about 10% of Congolese have access to power.
Shoprite may consider Africa exits as sales fall away from home
Shoprite Holdings Ltd started a review of supermarket operations outside South Africa and would consider exiting certain countries if that would help reverse regional sales declines, according to Bloomberg.Africa’s biggest grocer reported a 4.9% fall in third-quarter revenue when its main market is excluded, the Cape Town-based company said at the start of its annual general meeting yesterday. Weaker currencies weighed on performance and the Nigerian business was aff ected by xenophobic attacks – a response to violence in South Africa against immigrants from elsewhere on the continent.“We are not scared to take the hard decisions,” chief executive off icer Pieter Engelbrecht told investors, adding that leaving certain markets would be considered. Other measures including cost reductions are underway, he said.The performance contrasted sharply with improved trading in South Africa, where quarterly sales jumped by 10% even as Shoprite’s main lower-income customers
battle with the impact of an economic showdown. Chains including Checkers and U-Save are benefiting from a new IT system and the revamp and opening of new stores, the retailer said.The shares rose 0.6% to 139.04 rand as of 11.50am in Johannesburg, valuing the company at 82bn rand ($5.6bn). The stock has fallen 27% this year.Shoprite reported the update at the start of its annual general meeting, where former billionaire Christo Wiese was re-elected as a non-executive director despite some investor pressure over his three decades as chairman. Shareholder All Weather Capital had last week nominated former Pepkor Ltd head Jan le Roux as a director to try and reduce Wiese’s influence, though he received just 16% support.The makeup of the board will change over the next year, Wiese said at the AGM, while more attention will be given to succession planning.
Islamic microfinance a crucial developmental tool for AfricaBy Arno MaierbruggerGulf Times Correspondent Bangkok
The growth of Islamic finance in
Africa is unabated, and the poten-
tial of the industry is increas-
ingly being acknowledged by
stakeholders and investors. That
said, the scope of Islamic finance,
particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa,
diff ers substantially from other
regions such as the Middle East
or Muslim countries in Southeast
Asia. While the latter both have
developed fully-fledged Islamic
banking and finance industries
with a great variety of products
and services, Islamic finance in
Africa is much more focused on
financial inclusion and develop-
mental eff ects of Shariah-compli-
ant and ethical financing.
This has become clear at the
African International Confer-
ence on Islamic Finance (AICIF),
a pioneering annual industry
conference held for the fourth
time this year from November
4 to 5 in Lagos, Nigeria. Apart
from infrastructure financing
and sustainable investment, the
conference focused decidedly on
Islamic microfinance, seen as a
crucial tool to increase financial
inclusion and community devel-
opment on the continent, and the
necessary regulations for it.
“With the focus on Islamic mi-
crofinance as a tool for financial
inclusion, poverty alleviation and
promoting economic growth, the
AICIF conference hopes to moti-
vate financial institutions to push
for more defined regulations on
Islamic finance,” said Ummahani
Ahmed Amin, a lawyer focusing
on Islamic finance and Islamic law
based in Nigeria’s capital Abuja
and AICIF’s conference chair.
“The fundamental goals of the
conference are to establish a
community of practice in support
of Islamic finance and to create
a platform for financial institu-
tions and other key eco-system
players to demonstrate their
commitment and support for the
development of Islamic finance
in Africa,” she added.
So, what can Islamic microfi-
nance deliver in this context?
First of all, it brings the advantag-
es of Islamic finance to the grass-
roots level which provides the
best preconditions and impulses
to alleviate poverty and trigger
self-engaged development. Keep-
ing in mind that Islamic finance
is an equity-based, asset-backed,
ethical, sustainable, environmen-
tally and socially responsible
type of financing which promotes
risk sharing, it connects commu-
nities with the real economy and
emphasises financial inclusion
and social welfare. Once estab-
lished, it is a pillar of sustainable
growth, development and wealth
sharing in society.
Paired with microfinance, the
greatest benefit is economic
progress in deprived communi-
ties and the empowerment and
self-employment it generates
with the creation of small and
micro-entrepreneurships in lieu of
wage-based employment. It has
the power to advance entrepre-
neurship and generate productive
employment and income pros-
pects for poorer communities.
Particularly, financing small and
micro businesses through Islamic
microfinance, as well as develop-
ing entrepreneurship, are the two
main agents in the progress of
economic development.
At the conference, experts
acknowledged a large unmet
demand for interest-free micro-
finance products in Africa given
the large number of Muslims of
about 250mn in Sub-Saharan
Africa alone, as well as weak
financial inclusion and the limited
number of Islamic microfinance
providers as such. However, they
noted that assessing the state
of the industry in Africa was
difficult because of limited data
and research, but it is known
that most of the providers are
rural banks, co-operatives and
non-governmental organizations,
while the share of commercial
banks is vanishingly low.
According to the International
Monetary Fund, Botswana,
Kenya, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia,
Niger, Nigeria, South Africa, Mau-
ritius, Senegal, Sudan and Tan-
zania have the most advanced
Islamic finance operations in Sub-
Saharan Africa, and there is sig-
nificant scope for development in
Zambia, Uganda, Malawi, Ghana
and Ethiopia. Frontrunners in the
development of Islamic microfi-
nance in Sub-Saharan Africa have
been identified as Sudan, Kenya,
Somalia, Ethiopia and Nigeria,
with the largest players in Sudan
being Irada Microfinance, a divi-
sion of Bank of Karthoum, which
offers profit-sharing Islamic
microfinancing models to reach
small farmers, as well as Islamic
Development Bank-funded Ebdaa
Bank. In Kenya, Equity Bank and
Kenya Women Microfinance Bank
have the largest market share,
while in Somalia the Somali
Development and Reconstruc-
tion Bank and privately funded
Kaah International Microfinance
Services play an important role in
Islamic microfinance.
In Ethiopia, Somali Microfinance
Institution, a microfinance
provider backed by the regional
government of Ethiopia’s east-
ernmost Somali Region and US
aid agency Mercy Corps, was
launched in 2018 and is now
the only institutional Islamic
player among Ethiopia’s three
dozen microfinance institutions.
Al-Barakah Microfinance Bank,
launched in 2010, is the oldest
and most popular Islamic microfi-
nance provider in Nigeria.
Gulf TimesExclusive
A logo sits on a glass door in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in the Sandton district of Johannesburg, South Africa (file). Moody’s Investors Service on Friday held back from downgrading the government’s debt to junk, although it did lower the outlook to negative.
BUSINESS3Gulf Times
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Al-Attiyah Foundation CEO Roundtable discusses heavy industry’s opportunities and challenges to reduce CO2 emissions
The Al-Attiyah Foundation hosted world-renowned experts to explore the challenges and opportunities faced by heavy industry in the race to reduce CO2 emissions. Four international guest speakers shared their knowledge and opinions at the Foundation’s 3rd CEO Roundtable discussion of 2019, held in Doha last month.Hosted by HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, chairman and founder of the Al-Attiyah Foundation, the CEO Roundtable quarterly series allows leaders from Qatar’s key industries to gain direct access to the latest thinking on the chosen energy and sustainable development theme. The thought-provoking conversations get to the very heart of the issues and explore potential solutions as the world transitions to a sustainable energy future.“From my experience, many governments are more concerned about being re-elected than they are about tackling climate change issues. I hope to see greater collaboration and partnership between government, industry and academia to ensure the very best technologies and stronger alliances are utilised to support a sustainable energy future” said HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, chairman, Al-Attiyah Foundation.Reducing CO2 emissions from heavy industry whilst meeting the goals of the United Nation’s Paris Agreement is one of the biggest challenges facing governments and industry today. Paradoxically, as the world strives to achieve growth and prosperity for all, it needs to reduce the environmental impact of the very industries that are at the centre of supporting this growth.The CEO Roundtable focused on three key heavy industries – cement, iron and steel and non-ferrous metal production – since approximately 50% of heavy industry’s global greenhouse gas emissions comes from these three sectors.
Liv Rathe, director (Corporate Climate Off ice) Norske Hydro, and Board Member of the International Emission Trading Association (IETA), was the first speaker to address the CEO Roundtable attendees. Rathe focused her attention on the production and distribution of aluminium, which is the second most widely used metal in the world. Demand for aluminium is growing since it is strong, light-weight, and infinitely recyclable - making it a great contribution to a society based on low carbon products such as lighter cars and energy eff icient buildings. However, the carbon footprint of primary aluminium production comes largely from electricity consumption that depends on the energy source. In order for aluminium to become a longer-term low carbon option however, the energy source used to produce it, must be sustainable.The second sector to be addressed during the roundtable was the iron and steel industry. This industry is considered to be vital for a country, particularly for its economic development, and is often protected by government tariff s, which has led to an overcapacity in global supply. The largest economies of today, the USA, China, and Russia, have vast stores of both iron ore and coal. Today, the majority of global steel produced from iron ore is largely dependent on coal.A number of solutions have already been proposed to reduce CO2 emissions in the steel industry. Firstly, new business models that support the growth of a circular economy – such as the recycling and repurposing of products - are being suggested. Secondly, a great understanding of the role of off sets and natural climate solutions to achieve net zero outcomes is being encouraged. Thirdly, strategies are being devised to shape low-carbon growth solutions
for resource-rich countries. However, developing initiatives to reduce Scope 3 emissions has been the most challenging for the steel industry. This has been particularly true for mining companies and those that produce the iron ore or coking coal required for steel production. Scope 3 emissions relates to all indirect emissions from activities of a company occurring from sources that they do not own or control and often account for the greatest share of the carbon footprint. If the objectives of the Paris Agreement are to be achieved, Scope 3 emissions, in particular, need to be reduced and companies can no longer ignore the expectation for them to show accountabilityMatthew Bateson, Former Senior Environmental and Corporate Aff airs Executive, Rio Tinto, and second speaker at the CEO Roundtable meeting, addressed the CO2 reduction challenges in the mining and metals sector and concluded: “In my experience working in the mining and metals sector, leaders have come to terms with the need to manage their own emissions created by the production of raw and processed materials, but the idea that there is a level of responsibility for the use of their products, is a much harder concept for them to frame and understand.”The cement industry was the third sector to be focused on during the roundtable meeting. Cement is the second most consumed commodity worldwide, after water. It is vital for infrastructure development and is usually produced regionally due to high transportation costs. Today, most cement is manufactured in developing countries where new infrastructure is being built and urbanisation is taking place. Dr Patrick Linke, professor (Chemical Engineering Programme) at the Texas A&M University, shared his views on
the cement industry and the current challenges: “around half the world’s cement production is based in China; consequently, China emits about half of the world’s cement emissions!”Cement is the main ingredient of concrete and its production currently generates approximately 7% of man-made CO2 emissions. At present, a research project is underway in Europe, known as CEMCAP, which has the objective to implement CO2 capture in the European cement industry on a large scale. The CEMCAP project is testing and analysing four diff erent technologies for separating CO2 from the cement
production process. Successful results could lead to a portfolio of technologies that could create pathways for future climate-friendly cement production with drastically reduced CO2 emissions.John Drexhage, Energy and Extractives Global Practice Consultant, World Bank, concluded the session by highlighting how it is not possible for a single source renewable energy to replace the energy that is currently derived from non-renewable sources. A combination of various sources of energy will be necessary to combat the adverse eff ects of climate change. This will have to be combined with increased eff iciency driven by
government regulations, subsidies and taxation. In addition, the quantity of raw materials necessary to produce renewable energy needs to be factored into the equation. For all industries, there are a number of benefits associated with measuring Scope 3 emissions. For many companies, the majority of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and cost reduction opportunities lie outside of their own operations. To meet the United Nation’s target of keeping CO2 emissions beneath a two-degree centigrade rise, changes should happen immediately across the whole value chain of heavy industry.
Al-Attiyah receives Japanese ambassador
HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, chairman and founder of the Al-Attiyah Foundation addresses the foundation’s 3rd CEO Roundtable discussion of 2019, held in Doha last month. Four international guest speakers shared their knowledge and opinions at the event.
HE Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, chairman, Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah International Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development and former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy and Industry, received Kazuo Sunaga, new Japanese ambassador. During the meeting, topics of mutual interest were discussed.
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Tuesday, November 5, 20194
Emerging currencies and equities riseReutersLondon
South Africa’s markets ral-lied yesterday, on relief that Moody’s had only
downgraded its outlook for the country’s debt and not cut it to junk as some had feared, while improving prospects of a US-China trade deal sent emerging market currencies to 3-month highs.
The rand jumped nearly 2%
to 14.75 per dollar, leading gains
among developing world curren-
cies. Moody’s on Friday reduced
the outlook on South Africa’s
rating to negative, but maintained
its sovereign rating at Baa3 — the
lowest rung of investment grade.
Markets had anticipated such
a move after a bleak mid-term
budget statement last week
slashed 2019 growth forecast to
0.5% and showed government
debt racing to more than 70% of
gross domestic product by 2023.
The rand shed about 3% last
week. Johannesburg-listed shares
rose 0.3% in its fourth session of
gains, while yield on the 10-year
local bonds dropped about 2.1%.
“Although SA was spared a
downgrade to junk (at least for
now)...the uphill battle is far from
over.
The 2020 Budget will play a
crucial role in Moody’s next step,”
Daria Parkhomenko, an FX strate-
gist at RBC wrote in a client note.
The negative outlook means
there is a window of 12-18 months
in which a downgrade could
be delivered, but it could come
sooner if Moody’s isn’t impressed
by the fiscal picture presented
at the next budget statement in
February.
“A downgrade would exclude
local currency SAGB bonds from
the World Government Bond
Index with a detrimental knock-on
eff ect on portfolio flows and the
government’s borrowing costs,”
ING’s Trieu Pham wrote.
Among other currencies, the
South Korean won jumped 0.3%
after President Moon Jae-in sug-
gested high-level talks to resolve a
deepening political and trade row
with Japan during a meeting with
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
The Russian rouble gained 0.3%
despite lower oil prices, while the
Turkish lira was steady after con-
sumer price index fell to 8.55% in
October, its lowest level in nearly
three years due to temporary
measurement “base eff ects” from
last year.
The Chinese yuan rose 0.2% in
off shore trading to near 11-week
highs after the United States and
China said on Friday they made
progress in talks aimed at defus-
ing a nearly 16-month-long trade
war that has harmed the global
economy, and US off icials said a
deal could be signed this month.
The trade headlines, tied to
a better-than-expected US job
growth, helped ease worries about
a global slowdown, driving the
MSCI index of emerging market
stocks up 1.1%. Chinese stocks
jumped more than half a %, while
Hong Kong shares shot up 1.7%
to touch a three-month high as
investors shrugged off another
weekend of chaotic clashes with
anti-government protesters that
led China to call for a tougher
stance.
Lebanon also saw fresh upris-
ings over the weekend demanding
the overthrow of their country’s
elite, days after Saad al-Hariri
resigned as prime minister.
The head of the banking
association said last week that
Lebanon’s banks did not see “any
extraordinary movement” of
money on Friday or Saturday, the
first two days they reopened to
the public after a two-week clo-
sure due to nationwide protests.
Sensex climbs to record high as earnings charm investorsBloomberg, ReutersMumbai
India’s benchmark stock index advanced to a record yesterday as better-than-expected company earnings continued to attract investors.The S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.3% to 40,301.96 points at close in Mumbai, ending above the previous peak on June 3. The gauge rose for a seventh straight session, to score its longest winning run since March. The NSE Nifty 50 Index also rose 0.4%.Foreign funds bought more than $2bn of shares in October, the most in a month since March, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Nineteen out of 29 Nifty firms that have reported quarterly earnings have beaten or matched the average analyst estimate, while one didn’t have enough projections.“Indian equities have seen a good rally recently, powered by improved global equity flows” amid better than expected results, Citigroup Inc strategists led by Surendra Goyal wrote in a note on Sunday. “We see limited upside given valuations post the rally and the continued uncertainty over growth outlook,” the note added.“India is probably one of the few economies where growth will re-accelerate next calendar year, it stands very well among its peers,” said David Gaud, chief investment officer for Asia at Pictet Wealth Management in Singapore.Twelve of 19 sector sub-indexes compiled by BSE Ltd advanced, led by a gauge of metal companies.Housing Development Finance Corp,
Infosys Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd contributed most to the index advance. Vedanta Ltd was among the top gainers on the benchmark index, while Yes Bank Ltd dropped after reporting a quarterly loss.Meanwhile the rupee yesterday ended marginally higher against the US dollar as foreign investors continue to buy in local equities and debt market. Gains in Asian currencies amid optimism that China and US are moving closer towards an interim trade deal also improved sentiment.The domestic currency closed at 70.77 a dollar, up 0.06% from Friday’s close of 70.81. The Indian unit opened at 70.61 a dollar and touched a high of 70.56 - a level last seen on 30 September.The yield on the 10-year Indian government bond was at 6.475% compared with its previous close of 6.443%.Foreign investors have bought a combined over $2.06bn in the last three sessions in domestic and bond markets. In the year so far, the rupee has weakened 1.18%, while foreign investors have bought nearly $10.22bn in Indian equities and $4.69bn in debt.Asian currencies ended higher after US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said he was optimistic an initial trade deal would be signed with China in November.South Korean won ended 0.54% higher, Malaysian ringgit rose 0.357%, Indonesian rupiah 0.178%, Philippines peso 0.168%, China Offshore 0.156%, Taiwan dollar 0.125%, China renminbi 0.058%, and Singapore dollar 0.044%.The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 97.309, up 0.07% from its previous close of 97.239.
Asia bourses rally on trade optimismAFPHong Kong
Asian markets rallied yester-day following a forecast-busting US jobs report, and
on growing optimism that China and the United States will fi nally sign off on a mini trade pact.
Investors took their lead from an-other record-breaking close on Wall Street, which came at the end of a strong week for equities thanks to strong earnings and another Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
The Labor Department said the US created 128,000 net new jobs in October, surpassing the 80,000 ex-pected, while the fi gure for the pre-vious two months was also revised upwards.
Friday’s reading came days after data showed the world’s top econo-my slowed slightly in July-Septem-ber but not as much as projected, suggesting it is stabilising.
The fi gures helped the S&P 500 to a new all-time high, while the Dow moved to within a whisker of its own record. Asian investors took up the mantle yesterday, with Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei each piling on more than 1%, while Shanghai jumped 0.6%. Sydney was 0.3% up, Singapore added 0.1%, Bang-kok jumped more than 1%, Mum-bai edged up 0.2% and Wellington climbed 0.4%. There were also healthy gains in Manila.
Tokyo was closed for a public holiday. The upbeat mood was en-hanced by comments from Chinese Vice Premier Liu He that indicated trade talks with Washington were
on track. Liu said he had spoken on Friday to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, with both sides saying the talks were “constructive”. “Everyone is kind of upbeat around the prospect of at least a partial China-US trade deal,” Peter Dragicevich, a strategist at Suncorp Corporate Services, told Bloomberg TV.
“It’s going to keep equities pretty supported.” Progress on the discus-sions has provided support to eq-uities for the past few weeks, with speculation that Donald Trump and Xi Jinping will meet this month to sign off on the mini pact.
While the agreement would only be the fi rst part of a wider deal, it would be a major step after more than a year of a trade war that has dealt a blow to the world economy. However, National Australia Bank’s Rodrigo Catril warned there were still important issues to address.
“Importantly, as much as the US-China trade updates continue to point to a phase one deal looking like a certainty, the contentious is-sues on whether the US will cancel the planned December tariff s and remove some of the current tariff s in line with China’s demands remains an unknown and if the issue is not resolved then a deal could easily
collapse,” he said in a note. The good news on Friday helped push oil pric-es up more than 3%, though profi t-taking saw both main contracts fall in Asian business.
But OANDA senior market ana-lyst Jeff rey Halley sounded a note of caution, warning: “Friday’s mega-rally (for oil) was built on a com-bination of not-as-bad-as-feared data and optimism on a trade deal that really, only keeps the lights on.
It does not increase the bright-ness of the world economy.”
In Hong Kong — Hang Seng closed up 1.5% to 27,496.44 points and Shanghai Composite ended up 0.6% to 2,975.49 points yesterday.
China markets feelthe pain of stalledderivatives rolloutReutersShanghai/Hong Kong
A long list of stock and currency de-rivatives has been lying in wait for regulatory approval at the China
Financial Futures Exchange (CFFEX), some for nearly a decade. The exchange is hoping foreign asset managers will help vouch for these products and smooth the way forward for their eventual launch.
“You need to tell the public that not every fund manager coming to China is George Soros, that you use derivatives to manage long positions, not to short Chi-na,” the exchange’s vice president Zhang Xiaogang told a seminar in Shanghai.
Zhang told his audience of mostly China-based executives of global money managers to speak up for the benefi ts of derivatives in investments, as “bad public perception makes it diffi cult for new products to be approved”. Options, futures and other derivatives are in dis-repute in China, particularly since 2015 when speculation in stock index futures was blamed for the violent market crash.
Billionaire investor George Soros, for example, is well-known in China for his attack on the Hong Kong dollar’s peg to the US currency during the Asian fi nan-cial crisis, and often the face of the deep distrust. Unlike many other countries,
China manages a highly centralised ap-proval process for fi nancial derivative launches, which explains why many products are stranded at CFFEX.
Delays in approvals are costing China.A dearth of tools for managing risk has
become a major source of concern for global investors, even aff ecting the coun-try’s inclusion in global indexes managed by the likes of MSCI and FTSE Russell.
It hinders Beijing’s eff orts to attract foreign portfolio investment at a time when its long-running trade war with the United States has sapped export rev-enues. Shanghai is losing market share in derivatives to other fi nancial centres such as Singapore and Hong Kong, where rival exchanges that are subject to less government interference are rushing in with China-related products.
Liu Wencai, a former CFFEX offi cial who helped design China’s index futures, seeks reform in the way exchange prod-ucts are vetted for approval.
“As foreign money rapidly fl ows into China’s capital markets, our exchanges need to accelerate the rollout of fi nan-cial futures and options,” said Liu, who founded risk-management consultancy D-Union after quitting CFFEX in 2015, when index futures were nearly killed by regulators.
Liu feels index futures were made the scapegoat in a politically-charged blame
game during that crisis, and suggests the decision to launch new products be left to exchanges, rather than the securities regulator and the State Council.
China’s securities regulator and CFFEX did not return emailed requests for comment. At present, only six fi nan-cial products — three stock index futures contracts and three bond futures con-tracts — trade on the 13-year-old CFFEX.
The list of products CFFEX has devel-oped include futures based on the MSCI China A-share index and small-cap in-dexes such as ChiNext, sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Also being tested are 30-year bond futures, short-term interest rate futures and forex derivatives including dollar-yuan futures.
Foreign investors say they desperately need such tools to manage China risks.
MSCI, which added Chinese A shares into its emerging markets benchmark in 2018, decided in March to quadru-ple China’s inclusion factor to 20% — a process that will be completed later this month.
But any proposal by MSCI to increase that ratio further may be denounced by global investors who fret over the lack of effi cient hedging tools in China, said Wei Zhen, head of China Research at MSCI, who predicted huge appetite for MSCI China A index futures. The limited access
to derivatives also contributed to FTSE Russell deciding not to add China to its widely-tracked government bond index in September.
“If I want to be able to trade inter-est rates and manage my exposure, I need to be able to trade China govern-ment bond futures,” said David Camp-bell, head of fi xed income at lobby group ASIFMA.”And right now, that’s not avail-able to the vast majority of foreign inves-tors investing in China.”
While eff orts to launch derivatives stall on the Chinese mainland, overseas exchanges are competing to off er deriva-tive products to fi ll the vacuum.
The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is ag-gressively promoting an “all-China en-velope” of risk management tools that include MSCI China futures, USD/CNH futures and iron ore futures and options.
Greater participation outside Asia pushed trading volumes in SGX’s listed yuan futures to record highs this year.
The Hong Kong stock exchange has also seen rapid growth in yuan futures trading and is planning new products, including MSCI China A-share index futures. “This is the number one prod-uct that people want in the world right now,” said Alex Siu, co-head of equities product development at HKEX.” China is not fully open yet. That’s the power of Hong Kong.”
Investors look at computer screens showing stock information at a brokerage house in China. Shanghai is losing market share in derivatives to other financial centres such as Singapore and Hong Kong, where rival exchanges that are subject to less government interference are rushing in with China-related products.
An external view of the the Hong Kong Stock Exchange building. The Hang Seng index closed up 1.5% to 27,496.44 points yesterday.
BloombergLondon
The S&P 500 may be trading at record highs, but Goldman Sachs Group Inc is telling its
rich clients that US stocks still reign supreme among assets.
“The main returns in our view still come from having an overweight to US equities,” Silvia Ardagna, manag-ing director in the investment strategy group within Goldman Sachs Private Wealth Management, said in an in-terview in London. “The US has the prominence over others.”
The reason is simple, according to the Goldman unit, which manages about $500bn. With global growth slowing and Germany slipping into a technical recession, the US economy is looking more robust in the medi-um-term compared to other coun-tries. And this may just be the case as US payrolls on Friday showed surpris-ing resilience in October, validating the Federal Reserve’s signal to pause rate cuts.
The progress in US-China trade talks is making high-net-worth cli-ents keener to put their cash to work, Ardagna said. And the facts back this up as risk assets are becoming more popular, with $6.1bn going into global stock funds in the week through Oc-tober 30. That was after weeks of re-demptions when US equity funds lost about $58bn since the start of the year, according to Bank of America Corp and EPFR Global data.
“The de-escalation of trade ten-sions between the US and China has triggered the question whether inves-tors have been too negative and there could be some positive surprises,” said Ardagna, a former associate professor at Harvard University. “If we get bet-ter economic data and there’s a stabi-lisation in the manufacturing and the services sector remains robust, this rally can clearly extend.”
Many fund managers have chosen to sit out this year’s rally in equi-ties and hide in cash or bonds amid fears that global growth is stalling and the decade-long bull market is nearing its end. Whereas Friday’s jobs data were reassuring, trade ten-sions can re-emerge at any moment. On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials were casting doubts about reaching a compre-hensive long-term trade deal with the US.
Yet, yesterday, stocks around the world rallied after the two nations signalled further progress toward a breakthrough in discussions.
Goldman Private Wealth Man-agement’s preference for US eq-uities also comes amid an array of challenges haunting European stocks, including Germany’s re-cession. The team is neutral on UK assets because of political uncer-tainty, and Ardagna says that even Brexit’s resolution wouldn’t be enough for investors to stop being sceptical about Europe unless eco-nomic growth picks up.
But there are a few exceptions to the asset manager’s wariness of European equities. Eurozone bank stocks make the cut because of low valuations and improved fundamen-tals and it’s overweight on Spanish stocks because of their pricing and as domestic growth outpaces the re-gion.
Still, although European and emerging-market equities trade at a discount to the US, Goldman Private Wealth Management doesn’t antici-pate lower valuations will deliver sub-sequent outperformance.
“We expect the data to hold up well in the US,” Ardagna said. “If the 2% growth in the US gets validated by high-frequency data for the fourth quarter, the market will digest well the Fed’s message that they’ll be less aggressive in their rate cuts going for-ward.”
Alimtiaz Investment GroupRas Al Khaimah White Cement
Kuwait Reinsurance Co KscKuwait & Gulf Link Transport
Humansoft Holding Co KscAutomated Systems Co Kscc
Metal & Recycling CoGulf Franchising Holding Co
Al-Enma’a Real Estate CoNational Mobile Telecommuni
Sanad Holding Co KsccUnicap Investment And Financ
Al Salam Group Holding CoAl Aman Investment Company
Mashaer Holding Co KscManazel Holding
Tijara And Real Estate InvesJazeera Airways Co Ksc
Commercial Real Estate CoNational International Co
Taameer Real Estate Invest CGulf Cement Co
Heavy Engineering And Ship BNational 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 Ind
Kuwait Finance HouseGulf North Africa Holding Co
Hilal Cement CoOsoul Investment Kscc
Gulf Insurance Group KscUmm Al Qaiwain General Inves
Aayan Leasing & InvestmentAlrai Media Group Co KscNational Investments CoCommercial Facilities CoYiaco Medical Co. K.S.C.C
Dulaqan Real Estate CoReal Estate Asset Management
57.40
307.00
900.00
14.00
23.00
127.00
99.00
1,085.00
126.00
61.60
158.00
68.00
3,150.00
65.00
52.00
55.00
51.10
752.00
0.00
40.20
26.30
55.50
73.20
31.00
37.00
980.00
92.00
63.70
27.00
58.00
406.00
81.60
18.70
850.00
17.00
469.00
95.90
337.00
478.00
678.00
57.60
90.00
77.10
615.00
69.00
58.20
40.40
123.00
201.00
66.50
350.00
95.40
-5.90
0.00
0.00
0.72
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.98
0.00
-1.45
1.91
-9.72
0.00
0.00
-0.78
1.08
0.00
-4.06
-1.13
-0.36
0.27
0.32
-7.96
-6.58
1.88
4.43
0.00
0.00
-0.49
-0.12
13.33
0.00
-2.30
0.00
0.74
-0.88
0.21
-0.29
0.00
0.00
-8.30
0.00
11.47
1.75
-0.25
-0.81
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
321,000
817,126
-
51,346
-
14,000
-
-
330,809
12,710
-
605,018
215,568
500
-
-
706,662
44,308
-
777,729
1,476,779
228,174
813,800
137,000
100,500
624,483
983,095
20,226
1,595,702
-
957,220
1,136,677
3,361
-
677,768
-
283,509
110
2,216,327
2,538,589
-
-
-
-
95,333
17,542,936
156,300
599,986
96,236
-
-
-
OMAN
Company Name % Chg Volume
Voltamp Energy SaogVision Insurance Saoc
United Power/Energy Co- PrefUnited Power Co Saog
United Finance CoUbar Hotels & Resorts
Takaful OmanTaageer FinanceSweets Of OmanSohar Power Co
Sohar International BankSmn 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
Phoenix Power Co SaocPackaging Co Ltd
OoredooOminvest
Oman United Insurance CoOman Telecommunications Co
Oman Refreshment CoOman Qatar Insurance Co
0.17
0.11
1.00
2.40
0.08
0.13
0.12
0.11
0.55
0.07
0.11
0.07
1.05
1.19
0.29
0.12
0.60
0.50
1.38
3.15
0.28
0.40
0.07
2.21
0.52
0.34
0.29
0.58
1.25
0.09
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1.45
0.00
0.00
0.00
-3.25
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
3.35
4.76
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.35
0.00
0.00
0.00
50,000
-
-
-
-
-
448
3,500
-
-
1,627
25,500
-
-
-
223,000
-
-
-
-
166,500
157,736
22,539
-
-
-
254,989
33,534
-
-
Sultan Center Food ProductsKuwait Foundry Co Sak
Kuwait Financial Centre SakAjial Real Estate Entmt
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
0.96
2.31
0.00
-0.46
0.00
-0.62
-4.90
1.66
0.00
-2.07
0.00
-0.21
0.00
0.00
-1.13
0.00
1.53
0.40
0.00
0.15
-5.26
0.91
329,414
120
-
581,868
271,403
15,500
32,859
500
575,841
403,566
94,665
1,433,584
-
497,122
2,498,994
-
37,001
577,995
-
339,570
304,605
788,006
42.00
398.00
88.50
218.00
53.40
160.00
23.30
42.80
750.00
284.00
312.00
937.00
505.00
268.00
262.00
40.00
26.50
25.40
850.00
67.00
7.20
55.50
Lt Price
LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES
BUSINESS5Gulf Times
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange yesterday. The S&P 500 may be trading at record highs, but Goldman Sachs Group is telling its rich clients that US stocks still reign supreme among assets.
US stocks rule as wealthy clients turn gutsy: Goldman
Stock markets rallyas jobs optimismlingers in the USAFPLondon
Global stock markets rallied yesterday as optimism from a forecast-busting US jobs re-
port lingered and confi dence grew that China and the United States will fi nally sign off on a mini trade pact.
Investor sentiment was also lifted by British Airways owner IAG, which agreed to buy Spain’s Air Europa for €1.0bn ($1.2bn), sending its share price up 1.2% in London.
European markets were “starting off the week in positive fashion, with stocks following their Asian counter-parts higher amid optimism over an upside surprise to Friday’s jobs report and US-China talks,” said IG analyst Joshua Mahoney.
London’s FTSE 100 closed 0.9% up at 7,369.69 points, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 ended 1.4% higher at 13,136.28 points and Paris’ CAC 40 fi nished adding 1.1% at 5,824.30 points, while the EURO STOXX 50 gained 1.1% at 3,662.81 points.
Wall Street stocks also pushed high-er, striking new records, building on a strong performance on Friday after the Labour Department said the US creat-ed 128,000 net new jobs in October, far surpassing the 80,000 expected, while the fi gure for the previous two months was also revised upwards.
The reading came days after data showed the world’s top economy slowed slightly in July-September but not as much as projected, which sug-gested it is stabilising.
“The bullish sentiment on Wall Street has been underlined by the fresh all-time highs achieved in the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100,” said market analyst David Madden at CMC Markets UK.
“The US-China trading relationship is heading in the right direction, which is driving the rally,” he added.
Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok and Taipei each piled on more than 1% while Shanghai jumped 0.6%.
In Europe, Frankfurt, Paris and Mi-lan enjoyed gains of more than 1%.
The upbeat mood was enhanced by comments from Chinese Vice Premier
Liu He that indicated trade talks with Washington were on track.
Liu said he had spoken on Friday to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, with both sides saying the talks were “con-structive”. Progress on the discussions has provided support to equities for the past few weeks, with speculation that Don-ald Trump and Xi Jinping will meet this month to sign off on the mini pact.
While the agreement would only be the fi rst part of a wider deal, it would be a major step after more than a year of a trade war that has undermined the world economy.
However, National Australia Bank’s Rodrigo Catril warned there were still important issues to address.
“As much as the US-China trade up-dates continue to point to a phase one deal looking like a certainty, the con-tentious issues on whether the US will cancel the planned December tariff s and remove some of the current tariff s in line with China’s demands remains an unknown and if the issue is not resolved then a deal could easily col-lapse,” he said in a note.
Land Securities Group PlcLegal & General Group PlcLloyds Banking Group Plc
London Stock Exchange GroupMicro Focus International
Marks & Spencer Group PlcMondi Plc
Melrose Industries PlcWm Morrison Supermarkets
National Grid PlcNmc Health Plc
Next PlcOcado Group Plc
Paddy Power Betfair PlcPrudential Plc
Persimmon PlcPearson Plc
Reckitt Benckiser Group PlcRoyal Bank Of Scotland Group
Royal Dutch Shell Plc-A ShsRoyal Dutch Shell Plc-B Shs
Relx PlcRio Tinto Plc
Rightmove PlcRolls-Royce Holdings PlcRsa Insurance Group Plc
Rentokil Initial PlcSainsbury (J) Plc
Schroders PlcSage Group Plc/The
Segro PlcSmurfit Kappa Group Plc
Standard Life Aberdeen PlcDs Smith Plc
Smiths Group PlcScottish Mortgage Inv Tr Plc
Smith & Nephew PlcSpirax-Sarco Engineering Plc
Sse PlcStandard Chartered Plc
St James’s Place PlcSevern Trent Plc
Tesco PlcTui Ag-Di
Taylor Wimpey PlcUnilever Plc
United Utilities Group PlcVodafone Group Plc
John Wood Group PlcWpp Plc
Whitbread Plc
2,097.50
2,252.00
2,041.00
2,401.00
898.20
548.60
422.30
7,463.00
583.60
168.86
2,788.00
629.20
1,727.80
4,442.00
604.20
2,026.00
510.80
2,064.00
205.45
2,347.00
3,181.00
71.78
2,018.00
4,854.00
2,878.00
7,342.00
3,145.50
275.50
380.10
2,423.00
1,306.00
6,574.00
724.60
255.00
1,755.60
811.20
2,004.00
1,751.00
1,900.00
597.60
1,435.00
550.60
4,715.00
1,146.00
1,745.40
782.40
5,376.00
133.30
3,203.00
215.00
919.80
268.30
58.25
7,060.00
1,029.20
184.35
1,678.50
221.60
200.10
898.20
2,370.00
6,584.00
1,344.50
0.00
1,387.00
2,274.00
699.60
5,906.00
217.00
2,311.00
2,306.00
1,848.00
4,327.00
592.80
735.40
534.40
446.80
207.00
3,113.00
720.20
845.40
2,754.00
310.00
372.10
1,656.50
513.00
1,661.00
8,210.00
1,283.00
718.20
1,066.00
2,258.00
239.20
1,041.50
168.20
4,602.50
864.00
160.30
365.40
983.20
4,179.00
2.64
0.09
0.99
0.88
0.90
0.81
0.62
-0.03
0.38
1.00
1.70
-0.76
3.25
-0.69
-1.21
0.70
2.76
1.43
1.03
-0.34
1.69
0.70
-0.93
0.29
0.91
0.44
-0.27
1.10
0.13
0.12
3.49
0.09
0.64
5.83
-0.31
-9.61
-0.30
0.81
0.11
1.49
-2.71
1.47
0.07
1.51
2.83
0.31
0.34
0.19
0.98
2.82
-1.33
0.90
1.64
0.31
0.67
2.56
2.72
1.65
0.78
-0.24
6.52
-0.69
0.41
0.00
2.14
-0.66
2.13
-0.25
1.07
2.23
2.33
-0.59
3.81
0.75
1.49
1.37
-1.41
1.17
0.26
-0.41
0.64
4.48
1.54
2.54
1.01
1.48
-0.18
1.61
-0.58
1.73
2.65
0.36
0.55
1.02
0.12
-0.21
-0.51
1.14
8.27
1.84
1.33
1,637,369
414,897
212,001
1,082,764
1,589,691
2,299,890
3,341,776
640,796
2,368,274
25,167,747
1,167,875
774,021
4,109,675
181,519
1,317,174
242,090
24,681,900
383,512
5,897,997
232,325
280,503
7,289,815
1,239,296
110,440
446,157
84,867
1,326,080
862,303
1,760,586
472,213
1,375,636
174,897
882,283
28,053,901
2,375,827
5,700,989
170,018
424,513
265,513
9,722,855
588,172
5,182,886
159,861
349,199
1,523,413
711,165
94,154
3,250,632
248,910
3,629,489
1,203,588
5,317,377
66,227,576
179,716
467,813
3,747,879
654,111
3,445,136
1,669,677
2,468,527
457,093
188,590
483,430
-
3,274,666
412,518
845,297
303,233
6,290,391
3,444,318
1,917,342
1,047,235
2,107,597
750,931
1,763,707
741,816
1,309,613
2,224,785
321,566
576,757
628,803
265,533
2,281,865
2,751,763
383,118
1,613,335
1,095,488
91,198
1,050,796
2,189,997
422,060
339,636
6,768,584
514,801
4,456,814
1,069,129
499,752
18,945,882
1,507,538
844,736
143,437
-
FTSE 100
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Japan Airlines Co LtdRecruit Holdings Co Ltd
Softbank CorpKyocera Corp
Nissan Motor Co LtdT&D Holdings Inc
Toyota Motor CorpKddi Corp
Nitto Denko CorpHitachi Ltd
Takeda Pharmaceutical Co LtdJfe Holdings IncSumitomo Corp
Canon IncEisai Co Ltd
Nintendo Co LtdShin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd
Mitsubishi CorpSmc Corp
3,376.00
3,622.00
1,501.00
6,945.00
696.40
1,202.00
7,551.00
3,039.00
5,930.00
4,104.00
4,000.00
1,350.00
1,663.50
2,961.00
7,621.00
41,500.00
12,030.00
2,731.50
48,340.00
0.06
0.30
1.08
-2.76
1.02
-1.48
0.12
1.33
-1.82
0.86
1.83
-1.24
-5.64
-0.03
-3.37
7.46
-1.07
-1.18
2.44
3,293,800
3,018,500
6,956,100
1,534,500
14,692,800
2,694,900
3,228,500
3,779,500
529,500
4,522,000
7,995,500
2,164,800
8,571,700
2,518,700
2,254,600
4,238,300
881,700
4,695,200
244,400
TOKYO
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Nidec CorpIsuzu Motors Ltd
Unicharm CorpNomura Holdings Inc
Daiichi Sankyo Co LtdSubaru Corp
Sumitomo Realty & DevelopmenNtt Docomo Inc
Sumitomo Metal Mining Co LtdOrix Corp
Asahi Group Holdings LtdKeyence Corp
Mizuho Financial Group IncSumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdin
Japan Tobacco IncSumitomo Electric Industries
Daiwa Securities Group IncSoftbank Group Corp
Panasonic CorpFujitsu Ltd
Central Japan Railway CoNitori Holdings Co Ltd
Ajinomoto Co IncDaikin Industries Ltd
Mitsui Fudosan Co LtdOno Pharmaceutical Co Ltd
Toray Industries IncBridgestone Corp
Sony CorpAstellas Pharma Inc
Hoya CorpNippon Steel Corp
Suzuki Motor CorpNippon Telegraph & Telephone
Jxtg Holdings IncMurata Manufacturing Co Ltd
Kansai Electric Power Co IncDenso Corp
Sompo Holdings IncDaiwa House Industry Co Ltd
Dai-Ichi Life Holdings IncMazda Motor Corp
Komatsu LtdWest Japan Railway Co
Kao CorpMitsui & Co Ltd
Daito Trust Construct Co LtdOtsuka Holdings Co Ltd
Oriental Land Co LtdSekisui House Ltd
Secom Co LtdTokio Marine Holdings Inc
Aeon Co LtdAsahi Kasei Corp
Kirin Holdings Co LtdMarubeni Corp
Mitsubishi Ufj Financial GroMitsubishi Chemical Holdings
Fanuc CorpFast Retailing Co Ltd
Ms&Ad Insurance Group HoldinKubota Corp
Seven & I Holdings Co LtdInpex Corp
Resona Holdings IncFujifilm Holdings Corp
Yamato Holdings Co LtdChubu Electric Power Co Inc
Mitsubishi Estate Co LtdMitsubishi Heavy Industries
Sysmex CorpShiseido Co Ltd
Shionogi & Co LtdTerumo Corp
Tokyo Gas Co LtdTokyo Electron Ltd
East Japan Railway CoItochu Corp
Ana Holdings IncMitsubishi Electric Corp
Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Gr
16,090.00
1,253.00
3,685.00
494.90
6,861.00
3,122.00
3,939.00
3,014.00
3,592.00
1,718.50
5,428.00
74,470.00
169.20
3,981.00
2,427.50
1,480.00
502.90
4,192.00
980.80
9,518.00
22,280.00
16,300.00
2,073.00
15,170.00
2,794.50
2,071.00
772.20
4,500.00
6,619.00
1,840.50
9,408.00
1,591.50
5,271.00
5,369.00
505.60
6,053.00
1,274.50
4,912.00
4,298.00
3,750.00
1,734.50
993.00
2,495.50
9,482.00
8,740.00
1,852.00
14,430.00
4,462.00
15,890.00
2,347.00
9,905.00
5,833.00
2,176.50
1,206.50
2,305.50
756.10
565.90
826.60
21,185.00
67,670.00
3,498.00
1,697.50
4,046.00
983.10
471.70
4,746.00
1,798.00
1,608.00
2,131.00
4,300.00
7,220.00
8,907.00
6,342.00
3,545.00
2,635.00
22,245.00
9,937.00
2,284.00
3,706.00
1,561.00
3,861.00
0.03
-1.14
-0.11
-0.08
-3.91
-0.03
-0.10
1.31
-1.75
0.70
-0.04
8.21
0.24
0.13
-1.16
-1.10
2.70
0.05
6.97
-1.07
-0.07
-1.27
0.66
-0.39
0.49
1.17
0.19
-0.51
-0.09
-0.97
-2.03
0.00
2.61
-0.13
-0.75
3.24
0.79
-2.96
0.56
0.40
-2.86
-1.19
-2.48
0.69
-0.05
-0.83
0.42
-1.67
0.03
0.21
-1.59
-0.60
-0.39
-0.41
0.02
-1.27
-0.68
-0.48
-1.92
0.92
-0.31
-1.99
-1.32
-2.52
-0.72
-0.71
-1.43
-1.08
1.12
-2.32
1.88
-0.68
-2.70
-0.14
-0.42
0.77
0.89
0.57
-0.43
0.29
-0.49
TOKYO
Company Name Lt Price % Chg
Ck Hutchison Holdings LtdHang Lung Properties Ltd
Ck Infrastructure Holdings LHengan Intl Group Co Ltd
China Shenhua Energy Co-HCspc Pharmaceutical Group Lt
Hang Seng Bank LtdChina Resources Land Ltd
Ck Asset Holdings LtdSino Biopharmaceutical
Henderson Land DevelopmentAia Group Ltd
Ind & Comm Bk Of China-HWant Want China Holdings Ltd
Sun Hung Kai PropertiesNew World Development
Geely Automobile Holdings LtSwire Pacific Ltd - Cl A
Sands China LtdWharf Real Estate Investment
Clp Holdings LtdCountry Garden Holdings Co
Aac Technologies Holdings InShenzhou International GroupPing An Insurance Group Co-H
China Mengniu Dairy CoSunny Optical Tech
Boc Hong Kong Holdings LtdChina Life Insurance Co-H
Citic LtdGalaxy Entertainment Group L
Wh Group Ltd
73.55
17.38
57.35
56.00
15.78
20.80
167.80
34.55
55.75
12.16
39.65
82.15
5.82
6.83
119.70
11.32
15.20
75.90
39.85
46.55
83.30
11.50
51.50
109.00
93.25
32.25
132.50
27.70
20.80
10.50
55.10
8.64
1.03
0.70
1.24
3.70
0.38
4.94
1.64
1.92
1.83
3.75
0.63
3.33
1.93
3.17
0.93
0.89
2.29
0.73
1.92
0.11
1.03
3.23
0.00
0.55
1.63
1.42
2.40
2.03
1.22
1.35
1.75
1.77
4,254,929
3,523,003
2,553,884
2,508,633
16,150,933
52,092,302
1,438,133
20,207,120
5,695,645
43,436,922
4,790,176
29,586,750
218,933,146
13,125,695
3,330,780
14,126,075
45,596,340
1,002,979
11,343,202
4,947,066
4,134,114
38,630,451
9,246,845
2,197,321
22,638,897
12,344,138
5,226,218
14,883,465
56,917,293
12,333,706
9,385,367
34,996,797
HONG KONG
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Hong Kong & China GasBank Of Communications Co-HChina Petroleum & Chemical-HHong Kong Exchanges & Clear
Bank Of China Ltd-HHsbc Holdings Plc
Power Assets Holdings LtdMtr Corp
China Overseas Land & InvestTencent Holdings Ltd
China Unicom Hong Kong LtdLink Reit
Sino Land CoChina Resources Power Holdin
Petrochina Co Ltd-HCnooc Ltd
China Construction Bank-HChina Mobile Ltd
15.50
5.49
4.57
250.00
3.31
60.10
56.60
45.95
26.05
327.60
7.86
85.75
12.06
9.95
3.88
12.26
6.48
64.20
0.52
1.10
1.33
1.05
1.85
0.84
0.62
0.88
2.96
1.87
1.03
-0.87
1.86
-0.40
1.84
2.51
1.89
-0.08
18,713,572
16,104,519
126,279,786
3,910,008
249,498,500
21,465,219
3,038,867
4,928,252
17,143,396
14,776,025
41,155,034
5,834,352
4,760,775
3,930,176
109,043,474
40,696,977
347,007,015
27,504,720
HONG KONG
Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume
Adani Ports And Special EconAsian Paints Ltd
Axis Bank LtdBajaj Finance Ltd
Bharti Airtel LtdBharti Infratel Ltd
Bajaj Auto LtdBajaj Finserv Ltd
Bharat Petroleum Corp LtdCipla Ltd
Coal India LtdDr. Reddy’s Laboratories
Eicher Motors LtdGail India Ltd
Grasim Industries LtdHcl Technologies Ltd
Housing Development FinanceHdfc Bank Limited
Hero Motocorp LtdHindalco Industries Ltd
Hindustan Petroleum CorpHindustan Unilever Ltd
Icici Bank LtdIndiabulls Housing Finance L
Indusind Bank LtdInfosys Ltd
Indian Oil Corp LtdItc Ltd
Jsw Steel LtdKotak Mahindra Bank Ltd
Larsen & Toubro LtdMahindra & Mahindra Ltd
Maruti Suzuki India LtdNtpc Ltd
Oil & Natural Gas Corp LtdPower Grid Corp Of India Ltd
Reliance Industries LtdState Bank Of India
Sun Pharmaceutical IndusTata Steel Ltd
Tata Consultancy Svcs LtdTech Mahindra Ltd
Titan Co LtdTata Motors Ltd
Upl LtdUltratech Cement Ltd
Vedanta LtdWipro Ltd
Yes Bank LtdZee Entertainment Enterprise
391.00
1,785.90
742.60
4,113.00
378.00
214.85
3,212.05
8,706.60
522.20
468.30
215.00
2,797.80
21,740.70
137.05
783.80
1,155.90
2,181.30
1,236.85
2,643.50
197.95
319.10
2,158.15
470.50
218.80
1,352.30
709.00
138.70
260.75
250.20
1,571.05
1,452.20
586.40
7,424.00
120.55
147.40
194.75
1,457.65
314.30
437.95
409.15
2,193.95
769.50
1,298.80
172.20
594.25
4,238.70
157.60
256.60
66.15
296.10
0.32
1.11
-0.76
1.06
1.33
6.12
-0.64
3.84
0.54
-0.19
3.81
1.49
-1.07
1.41
1.04
0.34
2.48
-0.26
-2.35
2.17
-0.58
-0.97
1.78
0.09
-2.00
3.07
-2.77
-0.21
5.30
-0.56
0.19
-0.57
-2.55
-0.78
2.25
-1.29
0.05
0.24
0.09
2.42
-0.32
1.19
-0.24
-1.63
0.97
1.82
2.97
-0.77
-0.68
-4.33
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
+129.47
+14.09
+38.69
+55.42
+384.43
+522.90
+80.94
+57.52
+167.80
+87.10
-76.27
-0.51
+446.54
+20.69
+6.73
+136.93
+50.70
+6.97
+462.07
-26.85
+129.47
+14.09
+38.69
+55.42
+384.43
+522.90
+80.94
+57.52
+167.80
+87.10
-76.27
-0.51
+446.54
+20.69
+6.73
+136.93
+50.70
+6.97
+462.07
-26.85
Doha Securities Market
Kuwait Stocks Exchange
Oman Stock Market
10,200.98
4,750.44
4,020.88
+4.85
-14.83
+13.41
“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.”
981,100
2,152,000
1,184,400
15,236,100
1,692,600
1,188,400
951,800
5,485,600
1,141,200
5,496,200
493,700
925,200
65,799,500
600,300
4,705,600
2,696,100
6,913,900
12,020,600
19,440,700
1,095,800
242,200
242,600
927,100
425,800
2,193,100
1,478,300
5,439,100
978,500
5,817,800
8,765,900
1,185,200
2,665,200
1,748,700
1,648,500
9,442,400
9,905,600
3,805,500
3,050,200
829,700
1,808,700
6,736,700
3,875,400
6,538,400
314,800
1,692,000
7,307,400
302,500
1,026,500
718,900
1,441,200
489,800
1,584,600
1,476,400
2,360,600
1,410,500
7,630,200
40,595,400
7,168,500
711,000
395,500
775,400
3,519,500
3,003,100
4,289,700
8,615,400
1,033,400
2,436,100
1,552,800
2,384,600
1,855,100
671,200
1,697,600
1,164,400
847,800
1,402,600
1,183,500
716,600
4,417,900
906,900
4,250,300
3,493,300
3,146,855
821,893
7,851,370
1,863,158
7,620,719
16,966,469
330,025
552,812
4,681,345
2,393,325
8,489,492
808,849
157,014
7,028,979
2,504,708
1,511,084
6,580,464
4,967,588
760,461
15,421,372
2,979,670
1,523,698
16,254,715
42,777,294
3,641,707
29,381,982
11,549,826
7,895,272
17,613,567
1,434,393
1,459,894
3,128,961
824,953
7,894,331
11,733,406
8,536,355
6,429,329
31,535,656
4,646,694
28,934,434
2,646,411
4,936,914
1,706,003
40,641,411
1,912,912
875,545
26,458,173
1,920,535
420,997,681
31,754,992
Volume
Volume
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Tuesday, November 5, 20196
The bull statue outside the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. The DAX 30 ended 1.4% higher at 13,136.28 points yesterday.
BUSINESS
Gulf Times Tuesday, November 5, 201910
Zinc and lead supply hits push expected surpluses into 2020By Andy HomeLondon
Zinc and lead are both in short supply
on the London Metal Exchange (LME).
Headline zinc stocks of 53,875 tonnes are
back at April levels, while “live” tonnage of
27,800 tonnes is the lowest it’s been in at
least 20 years.
Lead stocks are a little higher at 70,075
tonnes but have failed significantly to
rebuild from July’s decade low of 55,475
tonnes.
Unsurprisingly, both LME contracts are
experiencing time-spread tightness.
Zinc closed last week with cash metal
commanding a $61-per tonne premium
over metal for three-month delivery.
Lead’s front-month curve structure is
also in backwardation to the tune of $7.25
at Friday’s close.
The sister metals have defied expec-
tations of a shift into supply surplus
throughout this year and they continue
to do so.
Even though both are seeing flagging
demand, particularly from the automotive
sector, supply bottlenecks have kept each
market in supply deficit this year, accord-
ing to the International Lead and Zinc
Study Group.
Indeed, ILZSG has just widened its ex-
pected 2019 zinc supply deficit to 178,000
tonnes from an assessment of 121,000
tonnes at the Group’s last meeting in May.
That’s despite a downgrade to demand,
which is now expected to decline by 0.1%,
largely due to weakness in Europe, where
usage is forecast to contract by 3.7% this
year.
Supply, though, just hasn’t come
through in the way anticipated at the
start of the year. Back in May the Group
was looking for world mine production
to surge by 6.2% this year, laying the
ground for a 3.6% increase in refined
metal output.
Those forecasts have been slashed to
just 2.0% and 2.5% respectively.
Mine supply has increased as expected
in Australia, but the impact has been off set
by sharp declines of 6.4% in Peru and 7.8%
in the United States.
The anticipated rise in refined produc-
tion has only really played out in China,
where output is expected to lift by 7.1%
this year.
Outside of China, smelter hits have
caused a bottleneck in the supply chain.
European production will fall by 3.5%
this year due to lower output at Nyrstar’s
plants in France and the Netherlands,
while the permanent closure of the
100,000-tonne per year Vladikavkaz
smelter in Russia has blown a lasting hole
in regional capacity.
A string of smaller smelter outages
will also depress output in Australia, India
and Canada, the ILZSG said. The Group’s
revisions to its May forecasts for the lead
market are even more dramatic.
The global refined market was expected
to register a supply-usage surplus of
71,000 tonnes this year but that has just
been revised to a shortfall of 46,000
tonnes. Lead too is expected to see a fall
in demand this year, led by a 1.1% decline
in China, which is seeing weakness in
automotive production and “increased use
of lithium-ion batteries in both the motor-
cycle and e-bike sectors and for Uninter-
ruptable Power Supply (UPS) stationary
backup systems,” according to ILZSG.
However, lead supply has misfired
even more than zinc with the Group now
forecasting global refined production
to contract by 0.3% this year, compared
with an expectation in May that it would
grow by 2.5%.
The main culprit is Nyrstar’s Port Pirie
lead smelter in Australia.
The plant went down in May and fol-
lowing a restart was out of action again in
August. Canada’s Belledune smelter has
also seen production hit by industrial ac-
tion, while Glencore’s permanent closure
of its Palpala plant in Argentina last year
has served to reduce Latin American treat-
ment capacity.
While events this year confounded a
market narrative of zinc and lead tran-
sitioning from supply deficit to surplus,
ILZSG’s forecasts suggest the shift has
simply been delayed not cancelled.
The Group is forecasting a zinc market
surplus of 192,000 tonnes and a lead mar-
ket surplus of 55,000 tonnes in 2020.
This year’s demand weakness is ex-
pected to fade with expectations that zinc
usage will increase by 0.9% and lead by
0.8% next year.
But the delayed supply surge is
expected finally to arrive with full impact
next year. Zinc mined and refined supply
are forecast to rise by 4.7% and 3.7% re-
spectively with lead mine supply up 3.9%
and refined output up 1.7%.
This year’s smelter bottlenecks are ex-
pected largely to clear next year, although
Port Pirie’s technical travails remain a key
variable for lead’s supply chain.
Both zinc and lead prices have spent
much of 2019 on the back foot with the
market trading the elusive surplus story.
It’s only in the last couple of weeks that
there’s been something of a collective
double-take, primarily because visible
exchange stocks have shown no sign of re-
building. LME three-month lead last week
hit a year-to-date high of $2,265 per tonne,
although it has since been knocked back
to a current $2,160.
Andy Home is a columnist for Reuters.
The views expressed are those of the author.
China reviews Xi’s options to visit US to ink Trump trade dealBloombergBeijing
China is reviewing locations in the US where President Xi Jin-ping would be willing to meet
with Donald Trump to sign the fi rst phase of a trade deal between the world’s two largest economies, people familiar with the plans said.
Offi cials in Beijing had hoped that if Xi travelled to the US to sign stage one of the agreement it would be as part of a state visit, but they’re open to having him go even if it isn’t, people familiar with the matter said. No fi nal decision has been made, said a Chinese offi cial, who asked not to be named discussing the private negotiations.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang yester-day met a US delegation that includ-ed National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien and US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross at a regional summit in Bangkok.
Before meeting Li, Ross told a morn-ing business forum that the US was “very far along” with “phase one” of a trade deal with China. Earlier, Trump told reporters that a trade agreement, if completed, would be signed some-
where in the US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross signals the US and China are on track to sign the fi rst phase one of a trade deal.
“We’re relatively close to an agree-ment,” O’Brien told reporters in Bang-kok yesterday, adding that Trump in-vited Xi to the US if the two sides are ready to sign the phase one agreement. “I’m cautiously optimistic about it.”
In an interview with Bloomberg on Sunday, Ross expressed optimism the US would conclude an initial agree-ment with China this month before working on additional phases. He also said licenses would be coming “very shortly” for US fi rms to sell compo-nents to China’s Huawei Technologies Company.
US equity futures advanced along with stocks worldwide on signs that trade tensions are easing. China’s off -shore strengthened as much as 0.27% to 7.0227 per dollar on Monday, at one point breaking through its 100-day moving average for the fi rst time since May.
Ross called the phase one agreement “particularly complicated” and said the US was “making sure that each side has a very correct and clear, detailed understanding of what each side has
agreed to.” Iowa, Alaska, Hawaii and locations in China were all possible places for Trump and President Xi Jin-pingto sign the deal after the cancella-tion of this month’s Asia-Pacifi c Eco-nomic Co-operation summit in Chile.
“We’re in good shape, we’re making good progress, and there’s no natural reason why it couldn’t be,” Ross said. “But whether it will slip a little bit, who knows. It’s always possible.”
Ross and National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien are leading a down-graded American delegation to meet-ings hosted by the 10-member Asso-ciation of Southeast Asian Nations in Thailand. Ross said yesterday that the Trump administration remained “fully committed” to the Indo-Pacifi c re-gion, amid questions over US strategy fuelled by the president’s absence.
Asian leaders were separately ex-pected to announce a breakthrough on another trade pact, the China-backed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, at the end of the meet-ings. It remained uncertain whether the pact would include India, which jeopardised it with last-minute re-quests.
Ross in the interview downplayed the signifi cance of RCEP, which would
lower tariff s in an area that represents roughly a third of the global economy, and defended US engagement in Asia after Trump skipped the Asean meet-ings for a second straight year.
Contentious issues remain and the terms aren’t yet known, but RCEP would at least partly fi ll a trade gap left by Trump’s 2017 withdrawal from the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership.
Southeast Asia collectively has the world’s fifth largest economy and has struggled to wade through the economic fallout of US-China trade tensions.
Top American and Chinese negotia-tors both spoke on the phone on Friday and described the talks as “construc-tive” as they look to lower tensions in a trade war that has roiled global growth. On Saturday, after the call, Chinese state media reiterated the nation’s core demands, including the removal of all punitive tariff s.
The deal would see China increase purchases of US agriculture products, keep its currency stable and open fi -nancial services markets to American fi rms. In return, Beijing wants the US to do away with new import taxes due to take eff ect December 15 on goods in-cluding smart-phones.
Ross remained non-committal on whether the Trump administration would suspend the December tariff hike. He also said further phases of the deal would depend on things involving legislation on the part of China and an enforcement mechanism.
Asked about a potential meeting be-tween Xi and Trump, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang re-peated that the two are in “in touch by various means” at a regular briefi ng in Beijing yesterday.
Chinese offi cials have cast doubts about reaching a comprehensive long-term trade deal even as the two sides close in on the phase one agreement, Bloomberg reported last week. China has stated for months that a fi nal deal must include the removal of all puni-tive tariff s, and has baulked at reforms in areas such as state-run enterprises that could jeopardise the Communist Party’s grip on power.
Trump has placed dozens of Chinese fi rms on the Commerce Department’s “entity list,” hampering their abil-ity to purchase American software and components. It fi rst targeted Huawei in May for national security reasons, and last month added 28 more companies including artifi cial intelligence giants
SenseTime Group Ltd, Megvii Tech-nology Ltd and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Company.
Entities on the list are prohibited from doing business with American companies without being granted a US government license, although some have maintained relationships with banned companies through interna-tional subsidiaries. China’s govern-ment has signalled it will hit back over the blacklist, and the companies have denied wrongdoing.
The blacklist is also hurting Ameri-can companies that do business with China, and particularly Huawei. Trump said in June after meeting with Xi in Japan that he’d “easily” agreed to allow American fi rms to continue cer-tain exports to Huawei, and weeks later Trump said he’d accelerate the approv-al process for licences.
Still, none have been granted so far. The president as recently as this month green-lit the approval of licenses in a meeting with advisers, according to people familiar with the matter, but an announcement has yet to be made.
Ross on Sunday said the licences “will be forthcoming very shortly,” noting that the government received 260 requests.
TSMC to keep supplying Huawei, quashes talk of US pressureBloombergTaipei
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co will continue making chips for
Huawei Technologies Company, after Taiwan’s government de-nied a report that Washington asked it to lean on the semicon-ductor giant to suspend business with its No 2 customer.
The Trump administration hasn’t asked the island’s gov-ernment to freeze the fl ow of chips to Huawei, Taiwan Cabinet spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka told Bloomberg News by telephone. “Our government has not re-ceived any request from the US government to stop TSMC from supplying Huawei,” she said, re-sponding to a Financial Times report about pressure from the White House.
TSMC said it wasn’t aware of any American request to cut off Huawei, which Washington blacklisted in May citing threats to US national security. Hua-wei has denied those claims. Its shares gained as much as 3% in Taipei yesterday to an intraday record high.
On Saturday, chairman Mark Liu told reporters the company will grow signifi cantly in 2020, when top client Apple Inc trots out its fi rst fi fth-generation-capable iPhones.
TSMC is the largest producer of made-to-order chips for most of the world’s biggest tech Corps from Apple to Qualcomm Inc. It plays a crucial role, as the most advanced manufacturer, in driv-ing global electronics and for Huawei in particular, given the Chinese giant hasn’t ramped up its own in-house chip-making but needs semiconductors for its smartphones and network-ing gear. Freezing out Huawei could disrupt more than 10% of TSMC’s annual revenue.
Months after the Trump ad-ministration blacklisted China’s Huawei, its business continues to thrive while global technology fi rms remain unsure whether they can work with the Chi-nese company or not. TSMC’s Liu discussed Huawei with of-fi cials from the US Department of Commerce during a trip to the US earlier this year, compa-ny spokeswoman Elizabeth Sun told Bloomberg News by phone, without elaborating on what they discussed.
The commerce department in May added Huawei to what’s known as the entity list in an ef-fort to block US companies from selling components to China’s largest technology company. Several of the largest US Corps, like Intel Corp and Micron Technology Inc, have resumed some business with the Chinese fi rm.
After a closer look at the rules, they determined they could continue supplying some products based on an export control law. The rule doesn’t subject a product or service to the entity listing’s constraints if a company can prove that a piece of technology owes less than 25% of its origins to US-based activities.
Taiwan and the US had been “in close communication” over information technology security issues, Taiwanese presidential spokesman Ernesto Ting said in a text message. “We believe TSMC and other Taiwanese companies will co-operate with the US and other major countries to ensure tech security,” he said.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross expressed opti-mism over the weekend that the US would reach a “Phase One” trade deal with China this month, and said licenses would be coming “very short-ly” for American companies to sell components to Huawei.
India exits China-backed trade agreement as 15 nations ready to signBloombergBangkok
India pulled out of a trade pact cover-ing much of Asia, paving the way for 15 other countries to sign the China-
backed regional trade deal next year.India conveyed its decision to pull out
of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, foreign ministry offi cial Vijay Thakur Singh told reporters in Bangkok yesterday. The government took the decision in the national interest, she said. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi decided not to join the deal in order to protect service workers and farmers, an offi cial told reporters in New Delhi yester-day. India had pushed the other 15 nations to address its concern over defi cits and open their markets to Indian services and investments, the offi cial said.
“India has signifi cant outstanding is-sues, which remain unresolved,” RCEP countries said in a joint statement yes-terday. “All RCEP Participating Coun-tries will work together to resolve these outstanding issues in a mutually satis-factory way.
India’s fi nal decision will depend on satisfactory resolution of these issues.” India is welcome to join RCEP whenever it’s ready, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told reporters in Bangkok yesterday. Asian leaders had hoped to an-nounce a breakthrough on the trade pact this week. “It’s the 15 nations that have decided to move forward fi rst,” Le said, adding that a few issues won’t be com-pleted before the end of the year.
“There won’t be any problem for the 15 nations to sign RCEP next year,” he added. “We are taking an open attitude - when-ever India is ready, it’s welcome to get onboard.” China has sought to acceler-ate the pact covering a third of the global
economy as it faces slowing growth from a trade war with the US, which withdrew from the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership after Donald Trump took offi ce in 2017.
A deal would further integrate Asia’s economies with China just as the Trump administration urges Asian nations to shun Chinese infrastructure loans and 5G technology. India has long been the main holdout on due to domestic opposition over worries it would be fl ooded by cheap
goods from China. It made last-minute demands in the run-up to the Bangkok meetings that ended up derailing the talks. The Philippines said on Saturday that negotiations wouldn’t be completed until February.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who is leading a downgraded US delegation to Asean, downplayed the signifi cance of RCEP in an interview on Sunday. Most Southeast Asian leaders skipped a sum-
mit yesterday with US representatives after Trump decided to avoid the annual meetings for a second straight year.
“RCEP is not much of an agreement,” Ross told Bloomberg. “It’s not a free trade agreement, it’s not anything remotely like TPP, nor anything remotely like our separate arrangements with Japan and with South Korea. So I don’t think you want to blow that out of proportion. It’s a very low-grade treaty.”
Thailand Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha speaks at the closing ceremony of the 35th Asean Summit and related summits in Bangkok yesterday. India pulled out of a trade pact covering much of Asia, paving the way for 15 other countries to sign the China-backed regional trade deal next year.
Merkel cheers VW’s electric push amid growing climate critiqueBloombergZwickau
Angela Merkel’s visit to a re-vamped Volkswagen AGelec-tric-car plant in Zwickau yes-
terday is a stark reminder of what’s at stake both for the German chan-cellor and VW boss Herbert Diess.
Merkel — who critics say has long been soft on the auto industry — has come under fi re for failing to make more progress in curbing green-house-gas emissions, while Diess is attempting to manage the expen-sive shift to electric vehicles for the masses without ruining the world’s biggest carmaker.
“This will mean a paradigm shift in mobility that has never been re-alised in automotive history,” Merkel told a crowd of VW employees and grandees from Saxony yesterday. German government is prepared to undertake “great eff ort” to incen-tivise purchases of electric autos, including making them aff ordable to regular drivers. “It’s important that we establish the policy framework anew.”
Merkel’s visit to the factory in the eastern state of Saxony marks the production start for the VW brand’s fi rst mass-market vehicle based on a technology developed solely for bat-tery-powered cars. Customers have placed deposits for more than 35,000 ID.3 cars. Success for the model, which starts at just under €30,000 ($33,500) and will hit showrooms across Europe next summer, is vital for the massive investment to pay off and safeguard jobs.
“There is a lot of talk about the de-cline of the German auto industry at the moment,” Diess said at the event. “If that’s going to happen, depends on us.”
The chancellor’s foray into eastern Germany comes just days after her Christian Democrat party slumped to a disastrous result in an election in the neighbouring state of Thur-ingia, stoking fresh doubts about the stability of her ruling coalition in Berlin. Voters have deserted her Christian Democrat-led bloc and her junior coalition partner, the So-cial Democrats, in droves amid gains for the far-right and environmental-ist Greens.
For VW, the ID. 3 represents a fi rst stage in its attempt to manage a tran-sition away from the combustion engine without infl icting too much damage on its balance sheet, some-thing no automaker has yet accom-plished. The company targets selling 22mn electric models through 2028.
Robotic arms sit on the produc-
tion line for the all-electric ID. car range at the Volkswagen AG automo-bile manufacturing plant in Zwickau.
The Zwickau plant, which had been making Golfs and Passats, marks the traditional automaking industry’s fi rst site being switched directly to all-electric cars from combustion-powered models. The company plans to produce 100,000 vehicles at the plant next year.
“The production start of the ID.3 ushers in a new era for Volkswagen — one comparable to the fi rst Beetle or the fi rst Golf,” Thomas Ulbrich, VW brand board member responsible for electric mobility, said in a statement. The factory is going “from 100% in-ternal combustion engines to 100% electric drives.”
Construction work to convert the Zwickau factory into Europe’s larg-est plant exclusively making fully-electric vehicles is on track to fi nish in 2021, VW said. Upon completion, it will churn out as many as 330,000 cars per year, slightly less than Tesla Inc’s targeted global deliveries for 2019.
An employee holds a charger for a VW E-Golf at an electric charging station in front of the Volkswagen AG plant in Zwickau.
It’s unclear, though, how many German customers will switch to electric cars in a country with a rich automotive heritage centred on combustion engines. Charging infrastructure in Europe’s largest economy remains patchy. Adoption
has been tepid and forced Merkel to push back a target of 1mn electric cars on German roads by two years to 2022.
VW has earmarked about €30bn to develop the industry’s largest fl eet of electric cars, more than any other company. Zwickau is leading the push with plans to produce six diff erent models for the group’s VW, Audi and Seat brands. The company will have a total of eight factories worldwide by 2022 that make elec-tric vehicles.
Top offi cials from German auto-makers, parts suppliers and labour unions are due to meet Merkel and key regional leaders in Berlin yes-terday evening for their latest dis-cussion about electric mobility,
including plans to boost charging infrastructure.
Merkel said in a podcast on Sun-day previewing the meeting that the government’s focus is on pro-moting electric vehicles but that it’s also open to hydrogen technology. It wants 1mn charging stations to be in place by 2030, she said.
Encouraging consumers to buy electric cars via a so-called “En-vironment Bonus” funded by the government and automakers is one option under consideration, Merkel added.
“It’s not a question if the electric car will prevail, but how fast the adoption will be in diff erent mar-kets,” Diess said in Zwickau.
“Germany must drive the change.”
Fiat deal would leave Peugeot CEO with a European headacheBloombergParis
PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
NV’s plan to combine into the world’s
fourth-largest automaker will face a
laundry list of challenges, with the bleak
outlook for Europe near the top.
The Peugeot car manufacturer and Fiat
mapped out an accord on Thursday for a
50-50 Netherlands-based holding com-
pany to be headed by PSA chief executive
off icer Carlos Tavares. They said the deal
would lead to €3.7bn ($4.1bn) in annual
synergies without factory closures.
Investors sent PSA shares tumbling as
much as 14% after digesting the details,
which show the French carmaker paying a
premium of around 32%. Fiat shares rose
as much as 11%.
The combination would create a global
powerhouse and leave Tavares, who has
successfully turned around PSA and the
loss-making Opel brand it acquired, to figure
out how to integrate Fiat’s struggling opera-
tions in Europe. The Italian-American manu-
facturer published earnings on Thursday
that showed a widening loss in the region.
“Fiat-Chrysler is in a very bad situation” in
Europe, said Jean-Pierre Corniou, a partner
at SIA consultancy in Paris. Only the Ameri-
can brands, RAM and Jeep are attractive,
and the Fiat plant utilisation rate is around
50% in some parts of Italy, he said.
The contrast with PSA is striking. Sales of
Fiat Chrysler branded cars including Fiat,
Jeep, Lancia, Chrysler, Alfa Romeo and
Maserati, fell 10% in Europe during the first
nine months of 2019, based on data from
the European Automobile Manufacturers
Association. At the French carmaker, the
second-largest in sales in the region, they
were little changed, against an industry
decline of 1.6%.
The plan for their tie-up is unfolding at
an exacting time for global car manufac-
turers who are having to grapple with a
deepening industry slump and a wall of
investment required for new technologies.
The deal would bring together the billion-
aire Agnelli clan in Italy and the Peugeot
family of France. Yet their deep national
roots, along with the French government’s
12% stake in PSA, will make slimming down
all the more diff icult. France is one of the
biggest shareholders of PSA, and while the
government has signalled support for a
deal, it has also warned it would scrutinise
the jobs impact and governance struc-
ture of the new company. Italian Industry
Minister Stefano Patuanelli also said the
government would make sure the deal and
expected cost cuts don’t aff ect jobs in Italy.
The combination makes economic and
strategic sense, but “there are significant
hurdles to overcome and execution risks
if the deal goes through,” Oddo BHF
analysts wrote in a note. These include
headcount and under-utilised plants in
Europe as well as the challenge of gaining
antitrust clearance for a combined com-
pany that would have a strong presence in
France, Italy and Spain, they said.
Looming large over operations in Europe
are tougher rules on emissions that kick
in next year. Carmakers’ fleets will have
to comply with stricter caps, leaving Fiat
vulnerable to future fines. The Italian-
American company is a laggard on low-
emissions technology whereas PSA plans
to introduce 7 electric vehicles by 2021
and to make available all of its model in
either electric or hybrid versions by 2025.
Still, Fiat brings PSA a long-sought presence
in North America, a market that’s traditional-
ly been more profitable for the car industry.
Tavares also has a track record of turning
around European automotive operations.
“Tavares’ playbook has been to take on loss
making businesses and fix them, rapidly,”
Bernstein analyst Max Warburton wrote in a
note. “We believe he can achieve something
similar at Fiat in Europe.”
PSA and Fiat said they aim to reach a bind-
ing memorandum of understanding in the
coming weeks. Goldman Sachs, D’Angelin
& Co and Sullivan & Cromwell are advising
Fiat Chrysler. Perella Weinberg and Me-
diobanca’s Messier Maris are advising PSA.
The Peugeot family is advised by Zaoui &
Co and Lazard is advising Exor.
Some employees chafe as Google’s new internal rules take holdBloombergEdinburgh
A controversial new hire at Google has provided a test of the company’s new community guidelines, which it says are an eff ort to curb increased incivility at work. But some employees say the new rules smack of censorship.Tensions at the company have flared over the hiring of Miles Taylor, who previously served as chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, as a government aff airs and public policy manager. Some employees have accused Taylor of helping to support the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies.Karan Bhatia, Google’s global policy chief, told employees in a staff meeting last week that Taylor wasn’t involved in the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the US southern border. But on October 28, BuzzFeed News published
emails showing that Taylor had in fact shaped talking points for Nielsen on the administration’s detention of migrant children.On an internal Google message board on October 29 and October 30, employees posted memes that cited parts of the BuzzFeed News report and accused Bhatia of misleading employees, according to three Google employees and messages seen by Bloomberg News.At least two of those memes were deleted by company moderators, according to the three Google employees, who requested anonymity because they aren’t authorised to talk to the press. The action was considered unusual because Google has historically encouraged open debate, including on its widely used internal message boards.“It’s censorship. It can’t be described as anything else,” said a Google software engineer who has worked for the company for more than five years. “They are trying to shut down any
criticism of him and his work with the DHS.”The incident is the second case in about a week in which Google has reportedly acted to shut down criticism of Taylor’s hiring. On October 24, ahead of an all-staff meeting, the company removed questions about his appointment from Dory, an internal website on which employees vote on topics that they want management to address, BuzzFeed News reported.Alphabet Inc’s Google confirmed that it had removed several memes and a question from Dory that had violated the new guidelines, which were introduced in August. The company said it continues to welcome debate but not if it involves attacking or trolling colleagues, or calling them names.As part of the guidelines, all Google message boards now have an employee who serves as a moderator, but the company said shutting down or deleting threads is a last resort.Taylor declined to comment. He was
hired as Google continues to try to build stronger ties with Republicans after being criticised for pulling out of a military cloud contract and being accused of bias against conservatives in search results.The moderator who deleted the memes defended the decision. “We don’t allow personal attacks on individuals, including memes that exist to humiliate or make Google unwelcoming for a co-worker,” the person wrote in a post on Thursday, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News.The moderator’s actions attracted widespread discussion inside Google, with one employee arguing that it was wrong to attack a new colleague while others insisted that hiring Taylor was itself a violation of Google’s guidelines on diversity and inclusion, according to one of the workers.One meme, which wasn’t removed and was viewed by Bloomberg News, featured an image from the “The Matrix” in which Keanu Reeves’ character, Thomas Anderson, has
his mouth sealed up during an interrogation so that he can’t make a phone call. The image contained the caption: “Tell me, Mr Anderson: What good is it to expose your company’s connection to child imprisonment when your community is ‘moderated’?”The latest clash between rank-and-file employees and Google executives comes after more than 18 months of worker discontent at the company. Employees last year organised a global walkout over the company’s handling of sexual harassment complaints and launched internal campaigns against some Google projects, including a censored search engine in China and a contract with the Pentagon to analyse drone footage.In another recent example, some employees raised concerns over a mandatory new tool that was added to the Chrome browser on their work computers. An internal employee memo said the tool would automatically report staff ers who
create a calendar event with more than 10 rooms or 100 participants, which it alleged was “an attempt of leadership to immediately learn about any workers organisation attempts.” Google said the tool was merely a “pop-up reminder that asks people to be mindful before auto-adding a meeting to the calendars of large numbers of employees.”A meme that has circulated within the company in recent weeks, viewed by Bloomberg News, had summed up the current atmosphere at the company, according to one employee. It depicts an organisational chart of Google from 2014, in which workers at the bottom of the hierarchical ladder are connected directly to their bosses and there is no division between them. Next to that image there is an organisational chart from 2019, in which the connections between rank-and-file and leadership have all been severed — and both sides are pointing pistols at each other. “This is where we’re at,” the employee said. “It’s bad.”
Eurozone factories stuck in a slump as trade war still biting
ReutersLondon
Factory activity across the eurozone con-
tracted sharply last month as demand was
again stifled by the US trade war with China
and the persistent lack of clarity over Britain’s
departure from the European Union, a survey
showed.
Worryingly for policymakers at the European
Central Bank, who have restarted a €2.6tn
bond-buying programme after cutting interest
rates on deposits in September, the malaise
appears to be spread across the region.
New ECB president Christine Lagarde will have to
heal a rift between representatives of cash-rich
countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and
France, who opposed the decision to resume
bond purchases, and the struggling periphery.
But those struggles appear widespread and
manufacturing activity in Germany, Europe’s
largest economy, remained stuck in reces-
sion last month as new orders fell for the 13th
month running and factories slashed jobs at
the fastest pace in almost 10 years.
Italian manufacturing activity declined for the
13th month running while in Spain it contracted
for a fifth month as political turmoil at home
and abroad took their toll. However, the other
of the bloc’s four biggest economies, France,
bucked the trend and factory growth increased
modestly, likely supported by billions of euros
of stimulus from the government.
IHS Markit’s final manufacturing Purchasing
Managers’ Index (PMI) for the eurozone was
45.9, barely above September’s seven-year low
reading of 45.7 and its ninth month below the
50 mark separating growth from contraction.
“It was better than anticipated but it was still
heavily in negative territory.
It basically is telling us that the eurozone
manufacturing sector is in recession,” said
Peter Dixon at Commerzbank.
“To a large extent, it is because the eurozone
is being hammered by the US-China trade
dispute which is hampering world trade.”
An index measuring output, which feeds into a
composite PMI due tomorrow that is seen as a
good barometer of economic health, rose to 46.6
from September’s near seven-year low of 46.1.
New orders across the eurozone also fell, with
the related index spending its 13th straight
month below the breakeven mark, although it
did rise to 45.3 from 43.4, IHS Markit said.
US President Donald Trump on Friday sug-
gested he could sign a long-awaited trade
agreement with China that negotiations about
a “phase one” agreement were going well.
But last month he also began slapping tariff s
on EU imports such as French wine and Span-
ish olives.
Meanwhile, Britain had been due to leave the
European Union on October 31 but has now
had that delayed for the third time this year
after Prime Minister Boris Johnson failed to get
an exit deal through parliament in time.
Other forward-looking indicators in the survey
suggest there won’t be any turnaround soon
in the eurozone, despite factories cutting their
prices for a fourth month in October.
Still, morale among investors in the bloc
jumped in November to its highest level since
June on signs of an economic upswing in Asia
and resilience in the US economy, another
survey showed yesterday.
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) poses for photographs while holding a sketch of a Volkswagen ID.3 electric automobile with Herbert Diess, CEO of VW (second right), in Zwickau, Germany, yesterday. Merkel’s visit to the factory in the eastern state of Saxony marks the production start for the VW brand’s first mass-market vehicle based on a technology developed solely for battery-powered cars.
BUSINESS11Gulf Times
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
BUSINESSTuesday, November 5, 2019
GULF TIMES
HE the Governor of the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-Thani met with US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin and his accompanying delegation, in Doha. During the meeting, they stressed the importance of the Qatari-US strategic partnership, and reviewed bilateral relations between the State of Qatar and the United States in various financial and banking sectors.
QCB Governor meets US Secretary of Treasury QIC ranked again as top investment house from Mena regionQatar Insurance Company (QIC) has again been recognised as the ‘Top Investment House’ in a survey conducted by The Asset magazine, in collaboration with Benchmark Research. The survey ranked top investment houses in Asian G3 bonds (issued by Asian issuers in USD, EUR, and JPY) based on the number of votes won by their investors. More than 377 diff erent institutions, including asset managers, hedge funds, private banks, banks, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds were evaluated and shortlisted during the survey. The ranking methodology used for the survey was based on the number of votes received from top-rated analysts, economists and strategists, sales teams, and traders in these institutions. In addition, the ranking score was also subject to a weighting methodology, which was determined by the rating of the individual
casting the vote for the investors. Khalifa Turki A al-Subaey, Group President & CEO of QIC Group, stated: “We are honoured to be named as the ‘Top Investment House’ from the Mena region. The prestigious ranking serves as a testament to the resounding success of our business strategy built along a customer-centric and technologically-progressive
approach, ably backed by the investments team.”He added: “Investments are a cornerstone for the success of our business. Not only does this showcase the goodwill and reputation that QIC has built over the years of its operation, but also brings to the fore our passion and commitment in maintaining our status as a market leader in the insurance and investment management space.”
Al-Subaey: Resounding success.
Chamber highlights investment opportunities in Qatar to Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece delegationsQatar Chamber held a meeting in
Doha yesterday with representa-tives of the Greece-Qatar Busi-
ness Council and a group of journalists and bloggers from Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece.
The Chamber highlighted the features of the Qatari economy and the country’s investment climate, as well as its role in revitalising the private sector and max-imising its contributions to Qatar’s eco-nomic development.
The meeting reviewed efforts exerted by the private sector to overcome the consequences of the blockade imposed on the State of Qatar for more than two years, and it also highlighted the most important aspects of development un-der the Qatar National Vision 2030.
Qatar Chamber second vice-chair-man Rashid bin Hamad al-Athba un-derlined the importance of relations between the Qatari private sector and
its counterparts in Balkan countries, pointing out that the trade exchange between Qatar and Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece “is still below expectations and inconsistent with the great potential available in both sides.”
He said the total value of trade between Qatar and Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria amounted to about QR417mn last year (QR84mn, Bulgaria), (QR26mn, Serbia), and (QR307mn, Greece).
Al-Athba stressed that Qatar has cre-ated “one of the most attractive invest-ment climates in the world” by devel-oping a stable legislative environment and issuing new laws that protect and encourage domestic and foreign invest-ments.
He added that the Qatari economy, “one of the fastest growing and dynam-ic economies in the world,” witnessed strong performance in the past two years, “driven by the wise policies adopted by
the State” to stimulate various sectors, even as Qatar’s GDP stood at $225bn in 2018.
Citing international forecasts, al-Athba said the country’s economy will grow by 2.7% in 2019 and 3% in 2020, partly because of foreign direct invest-ment. “Expectations suggest the coun-try’s economy will grow by 3.4% by 2021, driven by higher growth in the services sector,” he said.
On Qatar’s investment climate, al-Athba said Qatar has developed mod-ern legislation governing the business environment, including the law on non-Qatari capital investment in eco-nomic activity, which allows foreign investors to own up to 100% in all sec-tors. He noted that Qatar’s free zones attract more foreign investments, while the single window facilitates the procedures of establishing companies and businesses.
Greece-Qatar Business Council chair-man Panagiotis Mihalos lauded the de-velopment of the Qatari economy, as well as its business environment, which attracts foreign investments and the record growth achieved by the State in the past two years, especially in achiev-ing self-suffi ciency in certain goods and products.
Mihalos described Qatar as “a fast and attractive market” for international busi-nesses, adding that many companies from Balkan countries hope to enter the Qatari market and open branches here.
He said the delegation seeks to learn about the progress achieved by Qatar in all fi elds, and to open new channels of communication that contribute to the promotion of trade and economic co-operation between Qatar and Balkan countries, in addition to developing the relationship of the Qatari private sector with its counterparts.
QSE index gains for second day to scale 10,200 levelsBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter
The Qatar Stock Exchange made marginal gains for the second consecutive day to scale 10,200
levels, mainly on the back of buying in the banking and transport counters.
Foreign and Gulf institutions turned bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 0.05% higher at 10,200.98 points.
Local retail investors were increas-ingly net buyers on the market, whose key benchmark is down 0.95% year-to-date.
Market capitalisation however saw 0.06% or QR33mn decline to
QR563.37bn mainly owing to microcap segments.
Islamic equities were seen declin-ing vis-à-vis gains in the main index on the market, where domestic funds and the Gulf individuals turned bear-ish.
Trade turnover rose amidst lower volumes on the bourse, where bank-ing and realty sectors together ac-counted for more than 69% of the total volume.
The Total Return Index was up 0.05% to 18,770.67 points, while All Share In-dex was down 0.01% to 3,006.39 points and Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.38% to 2,286.47 points.
The banks and fi nancial services sector index gained 0.44%, transport
(0.39%) and telecom (0.02%); while industrials declined 0.81%, insurance (0.72%), real estate (0.66%) and con-sumer goods (0.6%).
Major gainers included Commer-cial Bank, Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar Oman Investment, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Gulf International Services, Mesaieed Pet-rochemical Holding, Al Khaleej Taka-ful and Nakilat; even as Industries Qatar, Ezdan, United Development Company, Vodafone Qatar and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.
Non-Qatari funds turned net buy-ers to the tune of QR34.9mn compared with net sellers of QR1.66mn on No-vember 3.
Local retail investors’ net buying
increased significantly to QR11.95mn against QR2.66mn the previous day.
The Gulf institutions were net buyers to the extent of QR3.17mn compared with net sellers of QR4.14mn on Sun-day.
However, domestic institu-tions turned net sellers to the tune of QR40.4mn against net buyers of QR3.29mn on November 3.
The Gulf individuals were also net sellers to the extent of QR8.05mn com-pared with net buyers of QR0.24mn the previous day.
Non-Qatari individuals’ net profi t booking strengthened noticeably to QR1.56mn against QR0.38mn on Sun-day.
Total trade volume fell 32% to
88.82mn shares, while value rose 49% to QR177.25mn and transactions by 36% to 4,389.
The consumer goods sector’s trade volume shrank 78% to3.48mn equities, whereas value grew 15% to QR21.5mn and deals by 48% to 580.
The telecom sector reported 69% plunge in trade volume to 2.15mn stocks, 59% in value to QR4.64mn and 21% in transactions to 195.
The banks and fi nancial services sector’s trade volume tanked 48% to 34.95mn shares, while value increased 68% to QR80.97mn and deals by 38% to 1,583.
There was 4% fall in the real es-tate sector’s trade volume to 26.58mn equities but on 19% jump in value to
QR22.14mn and 11% in transactions to 565.
However, the insurance sector’s trade volume grew more than fi ve-fold to 4.71mn stocks and value also by more than fi ve-fold to QR11.13mn on more than tripled deals to 290.
The transport sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.52mn shares and value also more than doubled to QR10.68mn on almost doubled trans-actions to 174.
The industrials sector saw 27% surge in trade volume to 14.44mn equities, 78% in value to QR26.2mn and 33% in deals to 1,002.
In the debt market, there was no trading of treasury bills and sovereign bonds.
Huawei appointsVP for enterprise networking for Mideast expansionHuawei, a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices, has announced the appointment of Ala’a Bawab as vice president for Enter-prise Networking Business for Huawei Middle East. Based in Dubai, Bawab will be responsi-ble for driving business growth for Huawei’s Enterprise Net-working business division.As a seasoned busi-ness leader, Bawab brings a wealth of ICT expertise to Huawei. He has more than 24 years of experience covering custom-ers across various business segments like government, oil & gas, banking and telecom. Prior to joining Huawei, Bawab has worked with technology firms such as HP, EMC2, Cisco and DarkMatter, with specialisation in sales, business development and management.“We are pleased to welcome Ala’a Ba-wab to the Huawei leadership team,” said Terry He, presi-dent of Huawei Enterprise Middle East. “Huawei’s rapid growth in the Middle East region fuelled by the demand for intelligent ICT solutions in the enterprise network-ing domain, especially those powered by AI, calls for strong local talent and expertise, which Ala’a will bring with his industry background.”“Huawei is experiencing tremendous growth thanks to its customer-centricity and commitment to developing
AI-enabled ICT solutions,” said Bawab. “I am excited to be part of this phenomenal organisa-tion that has established itself as a global ICT leader.” Huawei’s Enterprise Network-ing division provides organisa-tions with solutions tailored specifically to scenarios such as campus, data centre, WAN, branch interconnection, and network security, helping them
stride towards a fully connect-ed, intelligent world.More broadly, Huawei’s enterprise business division continues to grow rapidly in the Middle East, a strategic market for Huawei worldwide. During the first three quarters of this year, Huawei’s global revenues increasing by 24.4% year-on-year. By the end of Q3 2019, more than 700 cities, 228 Fortune Global 500 companies, and 58 Fortune Global 100 companies had selected Hua-wei as their partner for digital transformation.
Qatar Chamber second vice-chairman Rashid bin Hamad al-Athba in a meeting with the Greece-Qatar Business Council and a group of journalists and bloggers from Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece, in Doha yesterday.