Tuesday, July 2, 2019Shawwal 29, 1440 AH

BUSINESSGULF TIMES

Gloom over trading on Saudi bourse

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TECH EDGE: Page 16

Qatar Insurance wins ‘Best Digital Transformation in Insurance Award’

Qatar growth to double in 2019 on upbeat economy, says PwCBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

An expected increase in hydrocar-bons output; non-oil expansion boosted by Qatar Petroleum’s (QP)

localisation drive; and fresh digital in-vestment supported by 5G rollout, off er prospects to many sectors in potentially doubling the economic growth, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

“The Qatari economy has recovered from a period of low energy prices and the impact of regional political uncertainties and is looking ahead to new opportuni-ties. These will come as a result of eco-nomic reforms, such as the new foreign investment law, as well as from projects such as the North Field LNG (liquefi ed natural gas) expansion,” Bassam Hajha-mad, Qatar Senior Partner, said, adding “the rate of economic growth is expected to roughly double in 2019.”

Finding that Qatar is no longer required to limit its crude output based on quo-tas; PwC said Total’s investment in Al Shaheen fi eld may also raise oil output capacity. There is also scope for gas pro-duction growth, particularly when the Barzan comes on stream, it added.

Non-oil growth would be boosted by the ongoing localisation drive, including the QP-led Tawteen initiative. A new round of digital investment – supported by the launch of 5G networks, new government platforms and technology ranging from blockchain to artifi cial intelligence – off ers growth potential in many sectors. The 5G cellular networks should become available towards the end of 2019, it said.

The IMF (International Monetary Fund) had estimated a smaller hydrocar-bons contraction in 2018 than the prelim-inary data indicates, and therefore the re-bound in the sector in 2019 is likely to be stronger than the fund had expected, lift-

ing the overall growth beyond its forecast.Oil prices started 2019 at just $54 a bar-

rel but rallied steadily to a four-year high of $75 in late April. Their annual average is likely to be similar to 2018. LNG spot prices have been weak in 2019, coming close to a record low of $4 per mmBtu at one point.

“However, most of Qatar’s LNG is sold on contracts indexed to oil prices, which limits the impact of lower spot prices,” PwC said, adding the fi scal balance would be supported by oil prices and also benefi t from the excise taxes introduced in January.

The 2019 budget projects a small sur-plus based on a conservative oil price as-sumption of $55 and expenditure rising by 1.7%. In reality, the oil price is likely to be

substantially higher, providing scope for both additional expenditure and also a larger surplus, it said.

Qatar lifted the 12-year moratorium on its LNG expansion in 2017 and since then development plans have been pro-gressively expanded. The plan now is for a more than 40% increase in annual LNG output to 110mn tonnes.

QP launched a tender in April for the main engineering, procurement and con-struction contracts and has indicated that it would fi nalise partnerships with global oil majors in mid-2019. The four com-panies operating the existing trains are frontrunners, but others are also bidding and QP has indicated that it might con-sider operating some of the trains.

Highlighting that once these deci-sions have been made, construction work should begin soon afterwards, given plans to commission the trains by 2024; PwC said, “This will provide a boost to the construction sector and many fi rms in the supply chain. QP will also progress plans for new downstream petrochemical plants to utilise ethane and other byprod-ucts.”

The report also said alongside the gas expansion, Qatar’s diversifi cation goals would continue. The new foreign invest-ment law and the associated funding incentives may begin to attract inwards investment during 2019 and that inves-tors would also consider the advantages of new infrastructure.

Doha to host CAPA Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and Regulatory Summit again in February 2020CAPA Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and Regulatory Summit will return

to Doha next year and will be held on February 5 and 6 in partnership

between Qatar Airways and CAPA – Centre for Aviation.

As the first aeropolitical gathering of its kind in the Middle East,

the inaugural summit in February 2019 was a resounding success,

concluding with agreement on the ‘Doha Declaration,’ a manifesto

that calls for a political re-commitment to the principles of liberalisa-

tion to foster a more flexible regulatory framework for international

air transport.

The summit united more than 300 local and international delegates

to hear from more than 35 experts across the aviation, legal and

government sectors.

The 2020 summit will again invite senior aviation and transport ex-

ecutives, regional and national regulatory authorities, ambassadors,

off icials and members of the academia, to tap into the latest develop-

ments in aviation regulation and policy over two days of meaningful

discussions.

The high-level forum will examine key issues such as regional and

global aviation policy trends, institutional and regional challenges to

liberalisation, EU comprehensive agreements, the increasing role of

politics in aviation and the role of ICAO in the 21st century.

Qatar Airways group chief executive, HE Akbar al-Baker said, “Qatar

Airways is delighted to host the CAPA-Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and

Regulatory Summit again in 2020. We look forward to welcoming in-

dustry leaders and senior decision makers to Doha to continue these

critical discussions to help promote debate on the future strategic

direction and ongoing liberalisation of our industry.”

CAPA executive chairman Peter Harbison said, “CAPA continues to

pioneer discussion on critical developments that have a significant

impact on the aviation industry. Aviation regulation remains a focal

point for discussion in the Middle East and across the globe. It’s crucial

that we continue to dissect key issues around ownership and control,

open skies and market access to ensure the industry propels forward.

“We are pleased to partner with Qatar Airways again in 2020 and we

invite all industry leaders to join us in Doha to be part of the discus-

sions and engage with senior decision makers across the industry.”

For more information on the CAPA-Qatar Aviation Aeropolitical and

Regulatory Summit or to register, visit qatar20.capaevents.com, or

contact events@centreforaviation.com

HE al-Baker: Promoting debate to shape aviation’s future.

Buy sentiments in UK residential market strengthening: QIB (UK)The sentiments in the UK residential market are reportedly

strengthening with sales improving in London’s prime markets, ac-

cording to the QIB (UK).

“Sales are improving in London’s prime markets, where most buyers

and sellers are now accommodating the impact of changes in stamp

duty and fewer are allowing Brexit uncertainties to interfere with

their longer term property strategies,” it said in a report.

As sentiment in prime London has improved, so have transac-

tion volumes: Knight Frank reported significant first quarter 2019

growth in the number of offers made in Prime Central London (PCL),

as buyers position themselves for life after Brexit, in some cases

buying properties they have been following since the PCL correc-

tion began.

Discounts on asking prices are still a feature of the market, but

many feel that now is the time to submit offers, while properties and

discounts remain available.

According to LonRes, discounts off asking prices in PCL have

recently been averaging 13%. Discounts on “super prime” homes

(worth more than £10mn) have recently been as high as 21%.

Most prime London agents QIB (UK) works with are reporting anxi-

ety over stock shortages, not least, because many vendors, who

previously struggled to sell their properties, removed them from

availability, by renting them out.

Prime London rents are particularly sensitive to stock levels – the

number of tenancies agreed in Prime London increased 11% in the

year to April 2019 versus the previous 12-month period, not least

because some buyers have chosen to rent before purchasing in the

face of political uncertainty. Prime rents in central London were

0.2% higher over the year to January 2019.

“With the recent announcement of an extension to the proposed

Brexit date to October 2019, prospective purchasers who have been

waiting for clarity on the UK economy, may now need to decide

whether to continue to wait (and perhaps miss the market opportu-

nities arising from vendor-nerves), or to enter the market and pur-

chase a London investment property, or residence,” the report said.

Initiative to promote Philippines as trade and tourism destinationBy Peter AlagosBusiness Reporter

Plans are underway for the staging of the ‘MSC Arab Business Delega-tion to the Philippines,’ an initiative

supported by the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), which involves trade and tourism tours in select destina-tions in the Philippines slated this month.

In a ceremony held recently in Doha, Police Chief Superintendent Rhodel O Sermonia of the Philippine National Po-lice (PNP), and Abdulrahman Hassan, managing partner of Management So-lutions Consultancy (MSC) signed an agreement for the trade mission.

“The initiative will cover eight days of intensive trade and tourism tours to fi ve prosperous regions, nine progressive provinces, and 10 cosmopolitan cities,” according to Joseph Rivera, Peza invest-ment promotions partner for the Middle East.

“The delegates include businessmen from Qatar, Jordan, Pakistan, and India, among others, while some will be accom-panied by their Filipino business part-ners,” said Rivera, who is also the concur-rent co-ordinator for the trade mission.

He said MSC, being the Qatar-based proponent of the trade mission, partnered

with the Association of Chief of Police of the Philippines Incorporated (ACPPI) led by Sermonia, who is also the director of the PNP’s Global Police Community Re-lations (GPCR) programme.

Aside from Peza, Rivera said the trade mission will be held in co-operation with the Chamber of Furniture Industries of

the Philippines (CFIP), among other pri-vate agencies, as well as the local govern-ment of Iloilo City and the provinces of Iloilo, Antique, Guimaras, and Bataan.

“At the outset, MSC will collaborate with ACPPI, through the GPCR pro-gramme, in jointly promoting the Philip-pines as a premier investment and tourist

destination by co-hosting promotional and business missions to the Philippines organised by MSC,” Rivera said.

He also said the agreement “was time-ly,” and stressed that Peza had witnessed an increase in the number of Qatari visi-tors to the Philippines, particularly those engaging in business.

“The number of Qatari visitors to the Philippines has recently increased with more of them travelling for business pur-poses. We are pleased that more business establishments are opening on both sides.

“With the timely addition of Qatar Air-ways fl ight from Doha to Davao, there is no doubt that trade and economic relations between Qatar and the Philippines will surely prosper,” Rivera told Gulf Times.

In 2018, Rivera said a delegation com-prising Qatari and Kuwaiti investors vis-ited the Philippines to explore investment opportunities in the export manufactur-ing and halal sectors, as well as in the IT, business process outsourcing (BPO), and agro-industrial food processing indus-tries.

Asked for the latest updates from Peza, Rivera said: “There is an ongoing fea-sibility study and due diligence on the retirement village project in Iloilo City by GBS-Blackleaf Consortium of Qatar, through its subsidiary in the Philippines, Philcof-Asia.”

Police Chief Superintendent Rhodel O Sermonia (2nd from left) of the Philippine National Police, and Abdulrahman Hassan, managing partner of Management Solutions Consultancy, shaking hands after the agreement signing ceremony held recently in Doha. Looking on are (from left) Police Chief Inspector Renante F Pinuela of the PNP and Joseph Rivera, Peza investment promotions partner for the Middle East.

This file photo taken on February 6, 2017 shows part of the Ras Laff an Industrial City, Qatar’s principal site for production of liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquids, some 80 kilometres north of Doha. Qatar lifted the 12-year moratorium on its LNG expansion in 2017 and since then development plans have been progressively expanded. The plan now is for a more than 40% increase in annual LNG output to 110mn tonnes.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 2, 20192

Foreign investors unable to lift gloom over Saudi tradingBloombergDubai

The opening of Saudi Arabia’s equities market to foreign in-vestors four years ago has so far

done little to boost depressed trading volumes on the Riyadh bourse.

Figures released yesterday show that the total value of stocks traded there in 2018 rose only 4.1% from the previous year to about 871bn Saudi riyals ($232bn). That’s about 60% be-low 2014, the year before the market was opened to foreigners, as the low oil price and a slowing economy have deterred investors and new issuers across Gulf markets.

It isn’t just trading volume that remains weak. The amount raised through initial public off erings last year was $893mn, about 87% lower than in 2014, according to data com-piled by Bloomberg. That’s despite the eff orts of Saudi authorities and the Tadawul stock exchange to at-tract foreign investors to what was one of the most restricted markets in the world, amid a broader programme to stir the country’s economy away from oil.

Foreigners could be key to boosting trading volume this year, since many have started adding Saudi shares for the fi rst time. They’ve been net buyers in every week of 2019, as the kingdom started to be included in emerging-market reference indexes compiled by FTSE Russell and MSCI Inc. Local individual and institution-al investors, on the other hand, have mostly been net sellers.

Turkish assets rally after Trump seen softening sanctions threatBloombergDubai/Istanbul

The lira and Turkish stocks ad-vanced after US President Donald Trump’s indicated he

may reassess his threats to sanction Turkey over its purchase of a Rus-sian missile defence system, fuelling speculation that any penalty im-posed will be benign.

The currency climbed more than 2% against the dollar, pushing the dollar-lira pair below its 100-day moving average. It’s now testing its 50-week moving average, a level it hasn’t closed below since September 2017. The country’s banking stocks helped push the benchmark Borsa Istanbul 100 In-dex up as much as 3.2%, and credit de-fault swaps declined to the lowest level since March on a closing basis.

“The sanctions will go into eff ect latest by August, but they will be mild,” GlobalSource Partners ana-lysts including Atilla Yesilada wrote in a note to clients.

Anxiety among investors over the S-400 delivery, which may come as soon as next month, has contributed to the weak performance of Turk-ish assets this year. In June, people familiar with the matter said the Trump administration was weigh-ing three sanction packages, one of which would all but cripple the Turk-ish economy.

Alleviating the threat of sanctions

may help ease bearish bets on the currency, especially given the allure of Turkey’s 5.3% real yields. It also helps that investors worldwide are relieved the US and China called time on their trade war, buying up risky assets while the truce lasts.

The lira added 2.3%, the most in emerging markets, to 5.6610 per dollar as of 2.20pm in Istanbul. The main stock gauge’s advance was strong enough for its 14-day relative strength index to signal that it may rise too far, too fast. The benchmark has climbed about 19% since hitting

a 2017-low in May. And fi ve-year credit default swaps fell a sixth day to 376 basis points, the lowest level since March 21.

Although the recent meeting Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan created “some opti-mism” about the potential fallout of the S-400 deal, “it remains unclear how the sides will agree on avoid-ing sanctions despite pressures from the US Congress,” Global Securities’ analysts including Sertan Kargin and Evren Gezer wrote in their morning note.

South Africa the next emerging market for Islamic financeBy Arno MaierbruggerGulf Times Correspondent Bangkok

South Africa, Africa’s second largest economy, is now joining the continent’s nations with an expanding Islamic finance industry. Experts are indicating that Shariah-compliant banking and finance service providers have the potential to establish themselves as a significant niche market and raise awareness for an alternative, ethical form of banking. Although Islam in South Africa is a minority religion, practised by about 2% of the total population of 57mn people, it has been one of the fastest-growing religions in the country particularly owing to an immigration wave of African Muslims following the end of apartheid in 1994 and to a growing number of conversions since then.With the growing number of Muslims, demand for Shariah-compliant services such as Islamic banking and finance is naturally growing and significant developments have taken place over the past few years. Among them was the inclusion of Islamic financial transactions in South Africa’s tax legislation in 2010 for the first time ever, which paved the way for the issuance of the debut South African sovereign sukuk in 2014 at a volume of $500mn, the first international sukuk issuance from Africa. Additionally, a local currency sukuk is being prepared and could be issued before the end of 2019.Over time, Islamic banks or at least Islamic windows at banks began to establish themselves in South Africa. Banks off ering Islamic banking services are Absa Bank, First National Bank, Standard Bank, HZB Bank and FirstRand Bank. “We find the Islamic finance industry in good shape with most of the South African Islamic finance institutions delivering consistent double-digit growth, and this in trying economic conditions,” says Amman Muhammad, CEO of First National Bank’s Islamic banking unit FNB Islamic Banking South Africa.

“Furthermore, we are also witnessing new entrants to the industry, this from all the various financial disciplines, not just from the banking sector, but, also from the insurance and asset management sectors. In addition, we have noticed a fair level of curiosity from other big financial institutions looking to off er Islamic financial products and services,” he adds.Muhammad noted that he would meanwhile categorize the market itself as “an emerging Islamic financial market as opposed to being just a potential market.” Awareness of potential clients was growing, driven by a greater variety of products for customers looking for an Islamic finance alternative, he says.This has also prompted various institutions to widen and improve

specific regulations to foster the market further. Among them is the South African Banking Association, which is working with various financial regulators and the National Treasury to establish consistent compliance and governance standards for Islamic finance. The Islamic banking industry in the country is also working on specific liquidity management solutions and stepping up industry-specific skills training, while the South African government is levelling the playing field for Islamic financial products by providing Islamic finance-related legislative inclusions and amendments.“South African Islamic finance institutions have benefited from these developments and are now more easily able to develop quality Shariah-compliant banking and investment products,” Muhammad says, adding that “I anticipate that the Islamic financial services industry will evolve to become an even more relevant player in the overall South African banking industry.”

Gulf TimesExclusive

A Saudi investor monitors share prices at the Saudi Stock Exchange, or Tadawul, in the capital Riyadh. The opening of Saudi Arabia’s equities market to foreign investors four years ago has so far done little to boost depressed trading volumes on the Riyadh bourse.

Iran says Opec unity necessary for co-operation with non-Opec producers

Members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) should have unity among themselves, Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh was quoted as saying yesterday, adding that Tehran backed co-operation with non-Opec oil exporter states, according to Reuters. “Without unity among members of Opec, it is meaningless to plan co-operation between Opec and non-Opec countries,” the Oil Ministry’s website SHANA quoted Zanganeh as saying before leaving Tehran to attend an Opec meeting in Vienna.Opec members were set to meet later yesterday in Vienna followed by a meeting with non-Opec states today, where both sides are expected to extend the current output restrictions of 1.2mn barrels per day for another six to nine months.“While we have not been hostile to any country, some members of the Opec have taken the path of hostility with our nation,” SHANA reported Zaganeh saying.Iran has objected to policies put forward by its regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia.“Iran supports co-operation with non-Opec states, but as long as some members of Opec are hostile against other members, like Iran, Opec’s understandings with non-Opec states are meaningless and there is no room for co-

operation,” Zanganeh said. Recent unexplained attacks on oil and fuel tankers in the waters near the Straits of Hormuz and Iran’s shooting down of a USunmanned drone aircraft are recent signs of the escalation of the dispute between the US and Iran over its nuclear programme.In May 2018, the US exited a 2015 deal between Iran and world powers that curbed the Iranian nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international financial sanctions on Iran.After withdrawing, Washington reimposed sanctions and further tightened them from the start of May, ordering all countries and companies to halt all imports of Iranian oil or be banished from the global financial system.The US has also dispatched extra troops to the region to counter what it describes as Iranian threats.Saudi Arabia has backed Washington’s “maximum pressure” approach towards Iran.“An organisation, where two members strive to challenge the interests of other members, is doomed to dissolution and talks of Opec-non-Opec agreements would be meaningless,” Zanganeh said.Prior to reimposition of the US sanctions, Iran was the third-largest oil producer in Opec.

A money changer counts Turkish lira banknotes at a currency exchange off ice in Diyarbakir, Turkey (file). The currency added 2.3%, the most in emerging markets, to 5.6610 per dollar as of 2.20pm yesterday in Istanbul.

BUSINESS3Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

No real hiccups in Swiss stocks trading as dispute with EU worsensReutersLondon

Swiss stocks traded without any major glitches yester-day, the fi rst day they were

banned from trading on Euro-pean Union exchanges, as inves-tors entered uncharted territory amid an escalating dispute be-tween Switzerland and Brussels.

Traders, fund managers and investors had prepared before the move, which blocked them from trading Swiss shares, includ-ing Nestle and Novartis, on EU exchanges after talks to resolve a dispute between Brussels and Switzerland collapsed last month.

In a heated row over a stalled partnership treaty, Switzerland retaliated by forbidding access to its stock markets.

EU exchanges would typically see almost a third of the volume in Zurich-listed shares.

Many investors see the esca-lating dispute as a test for how Brussels will treat Britain as it negotiates its exit from the EU.

Switzerland has said market equivalence is a technical matter that should be not used to make a political point.

Dealers and fund managers said they had not seen a major disruption in trading or immedi-ate impact on prices.

A spokesman for the Swiss stock exchange said trading was “unremarkable”. Most ma-jor institutional investors have already access to SIX, so they can move their business, trade over-the-counter or use some investment banks’ own internal trading platforms, called “sys-tematic internalisers”. “Brokers and banks are set up to do it.

So it’s not a massive issue and it doesn’t restrict liquidity par-ticularly,” said Edmund Shing, global head of equity derivatives strategy at BNP Paribas.

But smaller asset manag-ers without access to exchanges would have to use their brokers to do so, adding to costs and making executing trades more complicated.

Last week, many European stock investors and brokers had rushed to fi nd workarounds be-fore the measures were put in place. Many hoped a deal would still be agreed to end the standoff in the short term.

A trader in Frankfurt said it was business as usual, with his fi rm trading Swiss stocks over the counter.

A source at a Swiss bank said trading was going “smoothly” after fi elding lots of questions from clients over the past few days. Gilles Guibout, fund man-ager at AXA Investment Man-agers in Paris, said his company had made a “few adjustments” but nothing fundamentally dif-ferent to continue to trade Swiss shares.

Angelo Meda, head of equi-ties at Banor SIM in Milan, said his company had always used the SIX Swiss Exchange to trade Swiss shares, so it was seeing no impact.

The Swiss Market Index was up 1% yesterday, in line with broader gains across Europe after Washington and Beijing agreed to resume trade talks, averting a further escalation of a protracted dispute.

The SMI has a market capital-isation of about €1.1tn ($1.3tn), more than 10% of the pan Euro-pean STOXX 600 index’s total.

Blackstone nears deal for $1.1bn of Spain mortgages

BloombergLondon

Blackstone Group LP is close

to agreeing on a deal valued at

about €950mn ($1.1bn) to sell a

portfolio of Spanish mortgages

to CarVal Investors LLC, people

with knowledge of the transac-

tion said.

CarVal’s bid topped off ers

from Goldman Sachs Group Inc

and Elliott Management Corp,

the people said, asking not to

be identified as the process is

confidential.

The portfolio of mortgages,

which has a face value of €1.1bn,

was carved out of a €6.4bn book

of loans that Blackstone bought

from Catalunya Banc SA in 2014

for about €3.6bn, they said.

The loans Blackstone is selling

are now performing and are

among the best of those original-

ly sold by Catalunya Banc. They’re

held by multiple Blackstone man-

aged funds, including Blackstone

Real Estate Partners Europe IV LP,

the people said.

Spokesmen for Blackstone and

CarVal declined to comment.

Private equity firms including

Blackstone and Cerberus Capital

Management LP have bet heavily

on the recovery in Spain, buying

up properties and mortgages

in the aftermath of the financial

crisis that hit the country’s real

estate market especially hard.

The strategy has been lucrative

as Spain’s property market has

outperformed other southern

European countries where banks

have made far less progress in

dealing with soured loans.

Blackstone has spent the past

five years servicing most of the

loans while taking control of

some of the other properties to

rent or sell. Carving out the best

portion of the remaining loan

book means potential buyers can

secure cheap credit to finance the

purchase, maximising the price.

Gold sinks most in a year as trade truce deals blow to the bullsBloombergLondon

Gold tumbled back below $1,400 an ounce after the US and China reached a truce in their trade war, dealing a blow to havens.

Prices fell the most in a year after Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to resume negotia-tions. Still, the setback may be temporary as in-vestors now train their focus on US jobs data due on Friday for clues on the Federal Reserve’s next move on policy.

“Gold was well overdue a period of consolidation and gold bulls should welcome it,” said Ross Norman, chief executive offi cer of gold brokerage Sharps Pix-ley Ltd “This provides a welcome entry point.”

Bullion hit a six-year high last week as top central banks including the US Federal Reserve adopted a more dovish tone and tensions spiked between the US and Iran. Driven by speculation that US interest rates may soon be headed lower, investors ploughed into bullion-backed exchange-traded funds, which swelled 5% in June, the most since 2016.

Spot gold dropped as much as 2%, the big-gest intraday decline since June 2018, and was at $1,391.68 in London yesterday. Prices rallied 8% last month. A gauge of the US dollar rose 0.2% yesterday after sagging 1.6% in June.

Gold’s pull-back was a natural reaction to the dollar-friendly news, said David Govett, head of precious metals trading at Marex Spectron Group in London.

“I don’t think we collapse from here, but I do think we have seen the highs now.” After meet-ing Xi, Trump said he would hold off imposing additional tariff s on Chinese imports and delay restrictions against Huawei Technologies Co, let-ting US companies resume sales to China’s largest telecommunications equipment maker. Further details on the deal were light though.

With China-US trade tensions temporarily out of the way, gold traders’ focus is back toward fun-

damentals, and “fundamentals are still reason-ably ok,” Wei Li, head of iShares EMEA investment strategy at BlackRock, told Bloomberg Television.

Still, prices were seen remaining under pressure yesterday on improved risk sentiment, with the downside seen at $1,380 and further declines de-pendent on the dollar strengthening more, Mum-bai-based Kotak Securities Ltd said in a note. In other precious metals, spot silver fell 0.1%, plati-num gained 0.5% and palladium was 0.7% higher.

Traders seen sticking to Fed interest rate cut bets as tariff s remainBloombergNew York

It might take more than a few friendly words between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping

to substantially reduce bond traders’ bets on Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts.

The US and China declared a truce in their trade war on Saturday that was heavy on hoopla but light on details. While the positive noises out of the Group-of-20 summit in Osaka under-pinned risk appetite, at least initially, uncertainties over still unresolved trade disputes and the economic outlook could return to cloud investor sentiment.

This Friday’s US jobs report may pro-vide more evidence about the state of the American economy than the Trump-Xi handshake.

And the weekend’s events only served as a reminder that tensions remain – not just on the trade front, but also around issues such as North Korea, the Middle East and the European Union.

Stocks received a boost in yesterday’s trading, but with investors still smarting from the rapid re-escalation of US-Chi-na tensions in May, fi xed-income traders appeared reluctant to substantially trim the amount of US central-bank easing they had priced in.

“Markets will probably not feel com-fortable fully pricing out the possibility of more upsets on the negotiations front, given what has happened in the past 2 months,” said Alvise Marino, a New York-based foreign-exchange strategist at Credit Suisse.

Futures traders shaved a few basis points off the amount of cuts they an-ticipate, but continue to price a quarter-point cut in July as a certainty and around a percentage point of easing for the com-ing year.

US and German government bonds both rebounded from early declines Monday as manufacturing data from across most of the euro area came in weaker than economists estimated. American factory gauges are scheduled for release later.

Financial markets have see-sawed in recent weeks between optimism and gloom about the global economy’s pros-pects. The concern prompted the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other central banks to raise the possibil-ity of interest-rate cuts or other stimulus to off set the dampening eff ects of tit-for-tat tariff s between the world’s two largest economies.

After meeting with Xi, Trump said he would hold off imposing an additional $300bn in tariff s on Chinese imports, a concession Beijing demanded to re-

start negotiations. Trump also said he would delay restrictions against Huawei Technologies Co, letting US companies resume sales to China’s largest telecom-munications equipment maker.

As the two sides return to the nego-tiating table, what remains in place are US tariff s on about $250bn in Chinese imports, much of which only went into eff ect in May.

Since trade talks collapsed on May 10, Trump has raised tariff s on $200bn of Chinese goods to 25% from 10%. He had indicated ahead of the just-completed G-20 summit that the next step could be a 10% tariff on all remaining imports from China – some $300bn worth, in-cluding products from smartphones to children’s clothes.

Given the overhang of the existing duties, traders will likely be reluctant to pare Fed easing wagers unless US in-fl ation pressures pick up, according to Bipan Rai, North American head of for-eign-exchange strategy at Canadian Im-perial Bank of Commerce.

“Despite the market-friendly out-come, the old tariff s are still in place, and the G-20 statement still didn’t denounce protectionism,” said Toronto-based Rai. “What’s needed is information that in-fl ation expectations will stabilise.”

While the White House released no details about the arrangement worked

out by the US and Chinese leaders, the weekend’s positive vibes may still help temper market expectations for a 50-ba-sis point reduction at the US central bank’s July policy meeting.

Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis Presi-dent James Bullard cautioned last week that such a move would be “overdone.” “The tariff threat will linger for some time, weighing further on US business investment plans,” said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp in Sydney. “This will con-cern the Fed at the July meeting, but con-fi rmation of the talks resuming should help further reduce market pricing” for a 50-basis-point cut, he said.

For Credit Suisse’s Marino, the week-end’s de-escalation increases the focus on upcoming data releases in the days ahead. The monthly US jobs report this Friday will be a major indicator, as will manufacturing data from the Institute for Supply Management that’s scheduled for release.

With some of the trade uncertainty removed from markets, these domes-tic signposts could point the way for markets.

“If no new tariff news emerge, I would almost think that the biggest risk from here becomes if US data surprises strong,” Marino said. “Payrolls and ISM this week will be important.”

Pedestrians walk past the New York Stock Exchange. Stocks received a boost yesterday, but with investors still smarting from the rapid re-escalation of US-China tensions in May, fixed-income traders appeared reluctant to substantially trim the amount of US central-bank easing they had priced in.

Copper rally continues as trade war truceraises risk appetiteBloombergLondon

Copper advanced after notching up its first monthly gain since February as a trade truce between the world’s biggest economies fuels a relief rally across risky assets. Nickel fell after China manufacturing data missed estimates.The outcome of a meeting between President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, over the weekend alleviates the immediate risk of more tariff s in a dispute that has gripped investors for more than a year. The agreement also brightened the demand outlook for China, the top metal user.Still, the price response was subdued as uncertainties over trade disputes and the global economic outlook remain in place, analysts said.“It was interesting that gold sold off pretty hard, but copper hasn’t reacted too strongly,” said Colin Hamilton, managing director for commodities research at BMO Capital Markets. “People want more evidence that something is actually going to happen.”A gauge of the US dollar rose 0.2% yesterday. Nickel pared this year’s best rally among major base metals as

an update on China’s manufacturing sector indicated the economy remains fragile. The metal is most affected amid rising Chinese supply of an alternative grade and a lull in summer demand, said Jia Zheng, trader with Shanghai Minghong Investment Management Company.Most industrial metals advanced last month – or at least saw smaller losses than before – yet the relief rally may be short-lived amid diff erences in statements from the US and China and the fact that the talks haven’t reached a conclusion, according to Zheng.Neither side is in a rush for a deal, UBS Group AG analysts wrote in a note. A manufacturing report for the US is expected to show further reasons to worry about the global economy. Manufacturers in the euro area remained firmly stuck in a slump last month as new orders slid and business confidence remained subdued.Copper jumped as much as 1.4% before settling at $6,026/tonne yesterday in London. Orders to withdraw metal from LME warehouses jumped 16% and stockpiles continued fall from highest in almost a year, while inventories in China advanced Nickel sank 2.1% to $12,430/tonne. Aluminium gained 0.2%, while zinc declined 0.4%.

Gold tumbled back below $1,400 an ounce aft er the US and China reached a truce in their trade war, dealing a blow to havens

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 2, 20194

Huawei reprieve is good and bad news for Asia tech equitiesBloombergShanghai

Stock markets in Asia surged in a relief rally yesterday after the world’s largest economies de-

clared a truce in their trade war. The sector that just won the biggest re-prieve is tech stocks.

President Donald Trump’s decision to allow US Corps to resume sales to Huawei Technologies Co, China’s larg-est telecommunications-equipment maker, and plans to hold off imposing an additional $300bn in tariff s made tech stocks the best performers in Asia yesterday.

The MSCI Asia Pacifi c Infotech In-dex soared as much as 2%, while the regional benchmark climbed 0.9%.

Shares of chipmakers – among the biggest contributors to the MSCI Asia Pacifi c Index – have been embroiled in the US and China trade confl ict for more than a year. Trump’s move to cut off supplies to Huawei in May added to the sector’s wall of worry. Volatility has soared by about 300% since its low just

before the trade spat escalated. China’s Shanghai Composite Index and Japan’s Topix each closed 2.2% higher. Japan chip stocks: Ulvac rallied 5.4%, Ad-vantest gained 6.2%, Sumco advanced 3.2%, Tokyo Electron up 4.8%. South Korea: SK Hynix rose 0.7%, LG Innotek soared 4.6%.

Taiwan’s Largan Precision surged by the 10% daily limit in Taipei and Tai-wan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co added 4%.

Samsung Electronics Co – the world’s biggest chipmaker – erased early gains and fell 0.9% after Japan said the exporters of chip materials to South Korea will have to apply for individual approvals from July 4, citing a worsen-ing bilateral trust relationship. SK Hy-nix Inc, a supplier to both Huawei and US companies, stayed buoyant.

On the fl ipside, Huawei’s limited supply of imported chips that had helped boost China’s domestic pro-ducers amid Trump’s blacklist may be negatively impacted. Watch Unigroup Guoxin, Ingenic Semiconductor, Wu-han P&S Information Technology, Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics and

Konfoong Material. “The most fragile part of the tech sector in our view re-mains semiconductor names, due to the uncertainty surrounding Huawei and the entity list combined with per-sistent price decline in memory chips,” said Frank Benzimra, head of Asia eq-

uity strategy at Societe Generale SA. Trump’s decision to hold off on an ad-ditional levies will be good for suppli-ers of personal computers and smart-phones.

“We expect the market to react positively as the next batch of tar-

iffs impacting PCs and smartphones now will not be imposed,” Citigroup analyst Arthur Lai said in a June 30 report. Lai pointed to companies that are “fast and flexible enough to adapt to operating environment changes” like Taiwan’s Delta Electronics, Mi-cro-Star International, Inventec and Wistron.

China investors can fi nally turn their focus elsewhere after the Trump-Xi meeting showed some progress on trade. Fund managers weren’t expecting much as the two leaders met on Saturday at the Group of 20 summit in Japan. An agreement to resume negotiations will be wel-comed by investors.

Chinese video surveillance giants could rally – Hangzhou Hikvision Dig-ital Technology Co and Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co – after the US and Chi-na agreed to resume negotiations. In May, the US administration considered barring both companies from purchas-ing US technology.

Hyundai Rotem rose 5.9%, Hy-undai Elevator climbed 8.5%, Namhae Chemical gained 3.7%, Hyundai Engi-

neering climbed 2.6%, HDC Hyundai Development advanced 0.6%. As dis-putes over wording on climate change and trade became a focus at the G-20, a Japanese stock that could bear the brunt of any issues on this front is Hi-tachi Zosen.

There are more than 370 waste-to-power plants operating in Japan, ac-cording to the environment ministry’s Kurisu. Japanese companies including Hitachi are producing and exporting the facilities.

South Korea President Moon Jae-in’s meeting with Trump on Sunday could also give Korea’s stocks a jolt yesterday:

Auto stocks and their suppliers: Kia Motors, Hyundai Motor, SL Corp, Hy-undai Wia, Mando Corp and Hankook Tire Korean steel: Posco Southeast Asia Vietnam’s recent fame as a big winner of the US-China trade war, putting itself in Trump’s crosshairs, may lead to some moves in the na-tion’s stock market: Kinh Bac City, Gemadept, Thanh Cong Textile, Vi-etnam National Textile & Garment Group, FPT Corp, Mobile World.

Yen declines, yuan gains

ReutersTokyo

The yuan gained and the safe-

haven yen slid against the dollar

yesterday as appetite for risk-

sensitive currencies improved

after the United States and

China agreed to restart their

troubled trade talks.

The dollar rose 0.25% to

¥108.190, extending its recovery

from near a six-month low of

¥106.78 set last Tuesday.

After meeting Chinese Presi-

dent Xi Jinping in Japan on Satur-

day on the sidelines of Group of

20 summit, US President Donald

Trump said he would hold back

on tariff s and that China will buy

more farm products.

Trump also said the US

Commerce Department would

study over the next few days

whether to take Huawei off the

list of firms banned from buying

components and technology

from US companies without

government approval.

“Most of the discussions that

took place between the United

States and China at the G20

had already been anticipated,

but the mention of Huawei was

a bit of a surprise,” said Yukio

Ishizuki, senior currency strate-

gist at Daiwa Securities.

“There were more dollar

short positions than expected,

and these are being covered.

But once these shorts are

covered, the dollar’s advance is

likely to slow ahead of the non-

farm jobs report.”

Economists polled by Reuters

expect US non-farm payrolls,

which will be released on Friday,

to have risen to 160,000 in June

from 75,000 in May.

Other key US data due this

week include Wednesday’s In-

stitute of Supply Management’s

(ISM) non-manufacturing activ-

ity index for June.

“Focus now shifts to US fun-

damentals with the G20 over,”

said Koji Fukaya, director at FPG

Securities.

“Some Fed off icials curbed

easing views recently and the

data will help the market get a

clearer picture of whether the

Fed stands poised to cut rates

this month.” At a June 18-19 policy

meeting the Federal Reserve

opened the door for possible

interest rate cuts later this year.

But comments last week

from central bank off icials,

including Chair Jerome Powell,

had cooled expectations for

aggressive rate cuts.

The Swiss franc, another

safe-haven currency, fell 0.4% to

0.9801 franc to the dollar.

Off shore Chinese yuan was

up 0.3% at 6.8470 per dollar

after brushing 6.8166, its high-

est level since May 9.

Supported by the green-

back’s rise against the yen, the

dollar index against a basket

of six major currencies added

0.25% to 96.352.

Against a broadly stronger

dollar, the euro fell 0.15% to

$1.1351 and the Australian dollar

declined 0.35% to $0.7001.

The Turkish lira was up 0.7%

at 5.7431 per dollar after Turkish

President Tayyip Erdogan said

over the weekend that the Unit-

ed States did not plan to impose

sanctions on Ankara for buying

Russian defence systems.

The US Treasury 10-year yield

was up about 3.5 basis points at

2.031%, putting some distance

between a 2-1/2-year low of

1.974% plumbed on June 20.

US-China trade truce lifts EM stocksReutersLondon

Emerging market stocks be-gan the second half of 2019 on a bright note yesterday as

investors fl ocked to riskier assets after the United States and China agreed to resume trade talks, while the prospect of no US sanctions on Turkey helped its markets outper-form.

The MSCI’s index of developing world stocks climbed 0.5% to touch its highest level in nearly two-months, with Chinese stocks rally-ing more than 2% on the thawing of US-China trade tensions.

President Donald Trump off ered concessions to China including no new tariff s and an easing of restric-tions on tech company Huawei, at the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan over the weekend.

Trump said China agreed to make unspecifi ed new purchases of US farm products and return to the negotiating table.

The temporary truce in the long-drawn trade war helped risk appe-tite, with the onshore Chinese yuan hitting a 10-day high against the dollar. “There were some expec-tations that there would be some sort of truce in the trade talks, it just actually got confi rmed follow-ing the G20 meeting,” said Jason Tuvey, senior economist, Capital Economics.

Tuvey, however, cautioned the truce could be temporary and fur-ther escalation is trade tensions was possible.

Other Asian currencies were more

subdued, with the Korean won, In-dian rupee and Taiwanese dollar dipping against a strong dollar.

Data showed factory activity shrank in most Asian countries in June as the simmering US-China trade confl ict put further strains on the region’s manufacturing sector.

The Turkish lira outshone emerging peers with a 1.8% jump after President Tayyip Erdogan said he had heard from Trump there would be no sanctions over Tur-key’s purchase of Russian S-400 defence systems.

The lira, which had been hit by concerns over potential US sanc-tions, rose to its highest level in a month to fi rm 5.6936 per dollar on

the news and Turkey’s dollar-de-nominated bonds jumped.

Its main BIST 100 stock index rose 2.4%, led by gains in bank stocks.

A jump in oil prices helped Rus-sia’s rouble fi rm while Moscow-listed shares hit a fresh record high.

In East Europe, the Czech crown and the Polish zloty weakened against the euro, while the Hungar-ian forint held onto slight gains.

The Markit Purchasing Man-agers’ Index (PMI) showed Czech manufacturing business sentiment dropped to a near 10-year low in June, while another set showed contraction in Polish factory activ-ity accelerated in June.

Sensex snaps falling streakBloombergMumbai

Indian equities tracked gains in global stock markets after Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reached a truce in the US-China trade war, agreeing to resume talks.The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex climbed 0.7% to 39,686.50 points at the close in Mumbai, halting a two-day decline. The NSE Nifty 50 Index also gained by the same magnitude.Indian stocks have eked out gains since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s re-election in late May, but investors are watching to see whether a government budget plan – due on July 5 – will boost economic growth, which fell to the slowest pace in five years in the January-March quarter. Companies start reporting quarterly earnings next week.“There may be a re-emergence of risk appetite in global financial markets, as participants heave a sigh of relief post the US-China trade talks,” said Jagannadham Thunuguntla, senior vice president and head of research for wealth at Centrum Broking in Mumbai. Indian equities should outperform emerging market rivals as policy rolls out from the new government, Ridham Desai and Sheela Rathi, analysts at Morgan Stanley India wrote in an investor note on June 30.Corporate earnings and another interest rate cut from the central bank could also boost the market, while global cues could induce volatility, they wrote.Fourteen of the 19 sector indexes compiled by the BSE advanced, led by a gauge of property stocks.Twenty-three of the 31 Sensex members and 33 of the 50 Nifty stocks gained. Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s 5.8% rally was the steepest among the Nifty

companies, trimming its decline this year to 25%. Eveready Industries India Ltd dropped by its daily 5% limit after PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP quit as the battery maker’s auditor.Meanwhile the rupee yesterday strengthened for sixth consecutive sessions against US dollar on a narrower current account deficit and a temporary US-China trade war truce.The rupee traded at 68.95 a dollar, up 0.14% from its previous close of 69.03. The Indian currency had opened at 68.95 a dollar and touched a high of 68.90.India’s current account deficit for March quarter stood at $4.60bn or 0.7% of gross domestic product against $17.7bn, or 2.7% of GDP a previous quarter. That compares with a median $6.1bn deficit estimated in a Bloomberg survey.Donald Trump and Xi Jinping’s meeting over the weekend, at which the leaders of the two largest economies agreed to resume negotiations. Traders will now focus on US jobs data due on Friday for clues on the Federal Reserve’s next move on policy.The 10-year bond yield was at 6.9%, compared with Friday’s close of 6.879%. Bond yield and prices move in opposite direction. So far this year, the rupee has risen 1% against the greenback. During the period, foreign investors bought $11.42bn in Indian equities and $1.16bn in the debt market.Asian currencies were trading higher. China Off shore was up 0.41%, China renminbi 0.38%, Thai baht 0.37%, Philippines peso 0.3%, Indonesian rupiah 0.13%, Taiwan dollar 0.09%. However, Japanese yen was down 0.35%, South Korean won 0.12%. The dollar index, which measures the US currency’s strength against a basket of major currencies, was at 96.358, up 0.24% from its previous close of 96.13.

Asian markets surge on Trump-Xi breakthroughAFPHong Kong

Asian markets surged yesterday after Donald Trump and Xi Jin-ping agreed to restart trade talks,

reviving hopes of an end to their tariff s war, while oil prices also rallied on news that Saudi Arabia and Russia will ex-tend their output caps.

Trump’s historic visit to North Ko-rea, where he met leader Kim Jong-un, soothed geopolitical concerns and added to the upbeat mood on trading fl oors.

After a highly anticipated meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Saturday, the US president said nego-tiations to resolve the standoff between the world’s two biggest economies were “back on track” and threatened new lev-ies on Chinese goods would be held off .

Trump also signalled a softer posi-tion on Chinese telecom giant Hua-wei, a major bone of contention in the row, by saying US companies could sell equipment “where there’s no great na-tional security problem”, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Sunday.

While there had been a quiet sense of optimism the talks would end with an agreement to return to the negotiat-ing table, the apparent concession on Huawei took some by surprise and pro-

vided some extra buying support. The news was much-needed after Trump sparked volatility in early May with his shock decision to hit China with new tariff s and halt talks that had seemed to be nearing a positive end.

“After spending the better part of two months in trade war purgatory and with G20 done and dusted, risk markets have responded to Saturday’s events in a reveller tone,” said Stephen Innes at Vanguard Markets.

“Indeed, investors heaved a massive, but exhausted, sigh of relief that both the US and China opted to push the reset button and restart trade negotia-tions amidst other pleasantries — now we’ll have to see whether it all sticks.”

Shanghai jumped 2.1% in the morn-ing while the Chinese yuan climbed to its strongest level in almost two months. Soft factory activity data in-dicated continued weakness in the world’s number two economy, though analysts said the readings could press the central People’s Bank of China to unveil fresh stimulus measures.

Tokyo ended the morning 1.8% high-er, Singapore rallied 1.2% and Taipei was 1.5% higher, with Sydney, Seoul, Wellington and Manila also higher.

Hong Kong was closed for a public holiday.

Oil prices were also on a roll, with both main contracts jumping more than 2% as the Trump-Xi agreement came with news that Russia and Opec cartel kingpin Saudi Arabia had agreed at the G20 to extend a deal to limit output.

Innes added that “even with some long-term uncertainty on US-China trade leaking into the equation, I think medium-term risks to oil prices re-mained skewed to the upside, as Mid-dle East tension continues to percolate, and we anticipate more easing from the PBoC.

Both positives for oil prices”. The op-timistic tone hit demand for safe haven gold, which sank below $1,400. In To-kyo, the Nikkei 225 closed up 1.8% to 21,658.93 points and Shanghai — Com-posite ended up 2.1% to 3,041.75 points. and Hong Kong was closed for a holiday.

Investors look at computer screens in front of an electronic board showing stock information at a brokerage house in Shanghai. The Composite index closed up 2.1% to 3,041.75 points yesterday.

BUSINESS5Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

Russians do without as government stockpiles $100bnBloombergMoscow

Russia is getting a lot of credit on the global financial stage for diverting excess oil revenues into a rainy-day fund to protect the economy from the ups and downs of energy prices. But the policy isn’t winning the Kremlin much popularity from consumers.The government has managed to save up more than $100bn under the fiscal rule since it was introduced in February 2017. That’s reduced the country’s vulnerability to oil prices, but it’s also kept money away from ordinary Russians, struggling after half a decade of falling incomes.Under the rule, the government diverts revenues from oil exports if Brent crude is trading above $40 a barrel and can use the stockpile if the oil price drops

below that level. The price of oil, the nation’s main export earner, hasn’t dropped below $40 since the rule was implemented and the rouble has missed out on the kind of surge it saw in 2016 when oil prices rallied.“There is an asymmetry built into the fiscal rule,” said Alex Isakov, an economist at VTB Capital in Moscow. “While purchases of FX are essentially unlimited, sales are limited to the amount of hard currency previously accumulated.”The International Monetary Fund and major credit ratings agencies have heaped praise on the policy for limiting Russia’s vulnerability to the kind of oil price shock that sank the rouble four years ago. But some economists argue that the rule takes more from consumers than it gives back because it keeps the rouble artificially weak when times are good,

while only off ering limited protection when times are bad.A weaker rouble benefits Russia’s export sector but hurts consumers by pushing up the price of imported goods, including food.Central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina argued last year that the money redirected to the wealth fund would have otherwise been purchased by banks and used by companies to pay down debts or keep on accounts abroad. She has publicly opposed a Finance Ministry proposal to spend some of the saved up money on infrastructure projects, because that could risk pushing up inflation.“During a period of high oil prices, saving a large share of windfall revenues reduces the oil-related fiscal stimulus to the economy and mitigates inflationary pressures,” analysts at

S&P Global Ratings wrote in a research note published in March. The federal budget ran the widest surplus in a decade last year, but consumers are increasingly being forced to tap savings and amass credit card debt to tie them over. Incomes adjusted for inflation are expected to fall for a sixth year in 2019.The rouble has weakened about 5% since the policy was introduced, even as the price of Brent crude increased 17%. Bloomberg economist Scott Johnson estimates it may have averted almost 10% of appreciation, leaving households poorer in the near term.“The state keeps the rouble intentionally weak with the help of the budget rule,” said Kirill Tremasov, a former Economy Ministry official who’s now an analyst at Loko-Invest in Moscow. “It would make more sense to use a policy like this in a wealthier country.”

Trump-China truce benefi ts seen as mainly short-termBloombergNew York

US President Donald Trump’s statements on Chinese trade over the weekend – including

suspending plans to widen tariff s and a relaxation of sanctions against Huawei Technologies Co – off er a short-term boost at best to stocks, according to asset managers and analysts.

Stocks in Asia, US equity futures and the yuan jumped after the American and Chinese presidents reached a truce in the trade war and agreed to resume talks. European futures also advanced. Even so, many observers remained sceptical, with Daniel Gerard, head of Investment and Risk Advisory for APAC at State Street Global Exchange, saying the “threat and uncertainty re-main” that ties will break down again.

Here’s what market observers are saying:

Morgan Stanley, Michael Zezas: “There’s no indication of progress on key sticking points,” Zezas wrote in a note. “An uncertain pause doesn’t do

enough to remove the overhang. After the initial reaction, we see the most upside to EM fi xed income, and the most downside to US HY credit, US equities and the dollar.”

Morgan Stanley is watching three “signposts”: Whether meetings and calls resume; details showing key issue gaps are closing; and “domestic push-back” in both countries.

Citi, Cesar Rojas: “Investors and policy-makers shouldn’t stop wor-rying about trade,” economist Rojas wrote in a note.

With “no material de-escalation of tensions but only a pause until further progress,” the economy faces impacts from both current tariff s and questions about more to come, he said.

Rojas added that a US-China pause also allows the US to “focus on the next targets (USMCA ratifi cation, Mexican tariff s vs immigration, and the auto tariff s threat vs EU/Japan) while China could still become the focus particu-larly going into the 2020 electoral year.”

Veda, Henrietta Treyz: Two things may be true at this point, Treyz wrote in a note. Either “the Trump adminis-

tration is not as serious about extract-ing comprehensive systemic reform out of China as we have long believed,” or that “the readout from the G-20 is substantially more optimistic than the reality of the situation.”

She added that few technical de-tails of the Trump/Xi agreement are known, similar to the “state of play” out of the Argentina G-20 in 2018, when details weren’t clarifi ed for sev-eral days, and “substantial confusion ensued. Already, commentary out of Beijing is walking back some of the happy talk of the G-20 and we expect to see more of that in the coming days.”

Raymond James, Ed Mills: Mills ex-pects an immediate positive market reaction to what will be viewed as “de-escalating the recent US-China ten-sions and thus geopolitical risk.”

He also expects a “view that the ‘Trump put’ continues with his focus on the market implications of his ac-tions.” At the same time, Mills warned that there’s likely to be signifi cant po-litical backlash from the Huawei deci-sion, while “longer term, nothing real-ly changed in the US-China trade war,

and we expect renewed tensions in the coming weeks/months.” Goldman Sachs, Alec Phillips: With a lack of de-tails on when trade negotiations might resume or any deadline for a deal, “we continue to think that renewed talks are unlikely to result in the broad agreement the US had sought a few months ago, and that it is slightly more likely that the US will impose tariff s on additional imports from China.”

The easing of restrictions of US companies’ dealings with Huawei is only likely to be “for a short period and limited to a subset of products.” Me-diolanum Asset Management, David Holohan: “At fi rst glance, it appears to be a successful outcome for China,” but the US moves “don’t address the main issues that caused them to break down before.”

Now that the trade dispute has been removed as an element in the Federal Reserve’s next round of considera-tions, bank stocks will probably “react very well to any reduction in expecta-tions of super dovish global monetary policy, which is a distinct possibility.” Automotive, capital-goods and com-

modities shares will also benefi t from the truce as well as from Opec devel-opments.

Berenberg, Ulrich Urbahn: “The trade truce is positive in the short term as it lifts investor sentiment and as equity positioning is still only moderate,” but gains will only be sustained if third-quarter economic data improve – and even then, vola-tility could increase if a trade deal and better macro figures “lead to a less dovish Fed.”

Makor Capital Markets, Stephane Barbier de la Serre: Positives include resumption of talks and “construc-tive albeit cautious rhetoric from both sides;” negatives include current tar-iff s remaining, questions over Hua-wei’s status and “nothing really new, conceptually or technically.”

Stock reaction will probably be “muted, inasmuch as markets had largely anticipated such a ‘truce’ con-fi guration,” and there’s unlikely to be lasting eff ects on the dollar, gold, in-terest rates or commodities. “Inves-tors who had bought some charac-teristically cyclical equities ahead of

the summit in anticipation of positive breakthroughs will legitimately be tempted to lighten exposure” and re-turn to defensives or bonds.

Oddo BHF, Sylvain Goyon: “At face value,” the truce “is a positive – but is likely to be a transitory positive.” In-dustrial-goods and car stocks are likely to benefi t the most, but will eventually face a “gravitational pull” amid weak-ening economic and earnings growth as well as potentially “blurred” Fed ac-tions amid continued uncertainty over US-Chinese trade ties.

“And of course all that is not tak-ing into account any possible twist or tweet.”

London & Capital Asset Manage-ment, Roger Jones: The truce will prompt “moderately positive reaction” in equities, with industrial, tech and commodities stocks the main benefi ci-aries because open global markets are most important to their supply chains. Even so, “I am sceptical that this will be anything more than just words as ultimately there is an ongoing power struggle between the two countries for global dominance.”

Italian bonds rally amid hopes EU will hold off fi re on budgetBloombergLondon

Italian bond investors are growing increasingly con-fi dent that the nation will

avoid punishment from the Eu-ropean Union over its budget.

The securities surged yester-day to send benchmark yields below 2% for the fi rst time since May 2018, another milestone in their comeback from a selloff last year sparked by a burgeoning budget defi cit. The debt still of-fers investors the highest yields in the euro area after Greece.

Italian bonds have enjoyed a change of fortunes over the past couple of months as the prospect of more stimulus from the Eu-ropean Central Bank combines with a more conciliatory attitude from the government.

Offi cials, including the na-tion’s Finance Minister Giovanni Tria, have been adamant that spending will remain within the EU’s rules.

“Italy has given the Commis-sion enough to stand down for now, and in any case the Coun-cil will not pick this fi ght now,” wrote Imogen Bachra and Giles

Gale, strategists at NatWest Markets. “Markets are in des-perate need of yield.

Per unit of credit, Italy is very cheap.” Benchmark 10-year yields dropped 10 basis points to 1.99%, adding to the debt’s four-week rally, the longest run of gains since March. NatWest rec-ommended investors buy fi ve-year bonds versus their German peers, to target that spread fall-ing to 160 basis points. It fell nine basis points on Monday to 192 basis points.

Tria told reporters at the Group-of-20 summit in Japan that he expected a positive out-come from the Commission. The cabinet is set to meet Monday evening to approve an update to the budget to take into account the country’s better-than-ex-pected fi scal performance in the fi rst half of the year. Higher revenues and lower spending on welfare programmes mean the 2019 defi cit should stand at 2.1%, in line with previous com-mitments.

That might be enough for the Commission, but when the EU executive meets on Tuesday its focus will mostly be on the gov-ernment’s plans for 2020.

Trade truce lifts US bond yields

ReutersNew York

US Treasury yields rose yesterday

as China and the United States’

agreement to restart trade talks

caused investors to pare their

safe-haven holdings of bonds,

although the selling was limited

by worries about global economic

growth.

US government debt pro-

duced a 5.18% total return in

the first six months of 2019,

marking its strongest first half

in three years, according to an

index compiled by Barclays and

Bloomberg.

Investors had piled into US

government debt and other

perceived low-risk assets on

fears about a further escalation

in trade tensions between the

world’s biggest economies after a

G20 summit in Osaka, Japan this

weekend.

But Washington and Beijing

agreed to renegotiate after US

President Donald Trump off ered

concessions, including no new

tariff s and an easing of restric-

tions on tech company Huawei,

while China approved making

unspecified new purchases of US

farm products.”

What is a truce for now

represents to us more sentiment

than anything else,” said Gregory

Faranello, head of US rates at

AmeriVet Securities.

The benchmark 10-year Treas-

ury yields were up 3.30 basis

point at 2.033%, while two-year

yields were 5.60 basis points

higher at 1.797%.

Golden six months for South African stocks defy economic gloomBloombergNairobi

South African investors have been caught up in a dramatic contrast in the fi rst half of 2019: a stumbling

economy, but a stock market that raced to its best start in 12 years.

Even as the economy endured its worst contraction in a decade in the second quarter, the Johannesburg Stock Ex-change’s benchmark index was charting gains that have reached 10% by the end of June.

That’s largely thanks to global demand for materials and to investors seeking havens in precious metals in uncertain times.

“The JSE and its performance is not a refl ection of the state of the South Afri-can economy; it just refl ects the nature of the stocks that are listed on the market, the majority of which predominantly sell in US dollars,’’ Olwethu Notshe, port-folio manager at Sentio Capital, said by phone.

“The South African economy itself is not doing well and that is evident from the performance of SA Inc stocks, like the banks and retailers.’’

An index of platinum companies has outshone all other sectors, surging more than 60% as miners enjoy bumper prices for the palladium and rhodium they ex-tract alongside their main product. Gold miners are up 46%, refl ecting bullion prices at six-year highs.

More broadly, mining companies which account for a quarter of Johannes-burg’s market value, have gained almost 30%, on pace for the best year since 2016.

With the South African currency vul-nerable to the vagaries of global trade tensions and emerging-market volatility, many of the equities traded in Johannes-burg off er an enticing zone of shelter for investors.

“Because the rand is a risk asset, if we get increased trade tensions and negative news, we will see rand softness, and with 70% of the JSE being rand hedges, we may see the stock market remain elevat-

ed,’’ Notshe said. Naspers, MTN Market giant Naspers Ltd, which accounts for 19% of the main index, contributed the most points to the benchmark’s advance as it climbed 22%.

The second half will see Naspers list-ing Prosus NV, the vehicle for its inter-national assets, in Amsterdam. That will chip away at the skewed valuation of the media and internet group, which the market puts at less than its 31% stake in Tencent Holdings.

“The silver bullet that will resolve this is when they start to unbundle all the other unlisted assets in Prosus,” Notshe said. “For example, they can unbundle the classifi ed business, since that has broken even already and the subsidiary can stand on its own.”

MTN Group Ltd, the fi fth-biggest driver of the South African market’s gains, was buoyed by the May listing of its Nigerian business, a breakthrough in easing sometime fractious relations with

regulators in the continent’s most-pop-ulous country. MTN has gained 25%, on course for its best year since 2013.

“The listing of MTN in Nigeria now means that Nigerian pension funds will own part of the company, so when the regulator hands out sanctions, they will be handing out those sanctions on their own pension fund members, and we think this will act as a deterrent to that, and will therefore be positive for MTN,” Notshe said.

An employee passes the sculpture outside the stock exchange in Johannesburg, South Africa. Even as the economy endured its worst contraction in a decade in the second quarter, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s benchmark index was charting gains that have reached 10% by the end of June.

Dollar in cross-hairs as trade truce fails to derail Fed betsBloombergSingapore

The US-China trade truce hasn’t been enough to shake out one favourite trade:

Shorting the dollar.The easing of tensions has done

little to shift the market’s expecta-tions for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, which means markets will keep selling the greenback, accord-ing to Aberdeen Standard Invest-ments. Should the US and China eventually reach a full-fledged trade deal, the greenback will lose appeal as a haven, AMP Capital In-vestors Ltd says.

The dollar has weakened about 2% from this year’s high in May after the Fed signalled it was open to lowering borrowing costs for the first time in more than a dec-ade. Funds have cut long positions on the world’s reserve currency for three straight weeks, with swap markets indicating a rate cut in July will kick off an easing cycle.

“The US dollar has peaked, and once a deal is eventually announced and the Fed cuts interest rates, we’ll see it trend even lower,” said Shane Oliver, head of investment strategy at AMP Capital in Sydney. “It won’t fall in a straight line, but it will fall.”

Emerging markets will be the biggest beneficiaries, Oliver said.

Aberdeen Standard Investments is shorting the greenback against the Aussie and some Asian currencies, said David Choi, head of Australian macro – fi xed income in Sydney.

“Without a material geopolitical shock in markets, which the G-20 meeting averted to some degree, we think there is room for the US dol-lar to depreciate against the cycli-cal currencies like the Australia and New Zealand dollars,’’ Choi said. “We do see dollar weakness as one

of the key themes in markets going forward.”

Before the G-20 meeting, futures traders had priced in about a per-centage point of Fed cuts in the com-ing year. While they trimmed bets a little yesterday, the market still expects a quarter-point move this month and further easing after that.

Treasury 10-year yields climbed yesterday as part of a market-wide risk-on move, but they’re still close to 2%. Citigroup Inc even recom-mends that investors position for a further drop in yields amid global central-bank dovishness.

“Even in the most hawkish Fed scenario a rate cut is coming in

2019,” wrote Citigroup strategists led by Jabaz Mathai. A long position in Treasuries will “benefit from any easing-induced reach for yield.”

The greenback advanced against major peers yesterday following the rise in yields. Some dollar holders were unswayed by the weekend de-velopments.

Salter Brothers Asset Manage-ment Pty has been buying the dol-lar against the Aussie for the past 18 months and says it will keep doing so until it sees a definitive end to the trade war.

“We’ve been at a trade truce be-fore,” said George Boubouras, Mel-bourne-based director at the money

manager. “Until there’s more signs of global growth momentum, of a time-line to a trade deal, we’re happy to maintain the long dollar trade.”

The Intercontinental Exchange Dollar Index climbed toward its 200-day moving average before giving up some of that move. A fail-ure to rise above that level could embolden US currency bears.

Global economic weakness was again highlighted yesterday, with euro-area and UK manufacturing figures dropping more than ex-pected. Those followed disappoint-ing data from Japan and China. The European Central Bank will cut rates by 20 basis points and restart quantitative easing in September, according to Goldman Sachs.

With few details released so far about the US-China trade truce, traders will look to this Friday’s US payrolls report for indications on the strength of the world’s big-gest economy and the prospect for policy easing.

There’s scope for the dollar to weaken this week as attention turns from trade to the prospects of a July Fed cut, Joseph Capurso, senior currency strategist at Common-wealth Bank of Australia, wrote in a note. “We believe a 25 basis point cut to the Fed funds rate on 31 July is a virtual certainty,” he said.

QIC Ltd, which manages the equivalent of $60bn, has ratcheted up short positions in the dollar against the euro and the yen.

“Six-to-12 months ago, there was a clear period of exceptional-ism in the US,” said Stuart Sim-mons, senior portfolio manager at QIC in Brisbane. “They had excep-tional Fed policy compared to other central banks, corporate earnings, equity market performance. Now you’re at an inflection point where that exceptionalism is being chal-lenged in almost all areas.”

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 2, 20196

Zad Holding CoWidam Food CoVodafone Qatar

United Development CoSalam International Investme

Qatar & Oman Investment CoQatar Navigation

Qatar National Cement CoQatar National Bank

Qatar Islamic InsuranceQatar Industrial Manufactur

Qatar International IslamicQatari Investors Group

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

Qatar Fuel QscQatar First Bank

Qatar Electricity & Water CoQatar Exchange Index Etf

Qatar Cinema & Film DistribAl Rayan Qatar Etf

Qatar Insurance CoQatar Aluminum Manufacturing

Ooredoo QpscNational Leasing

Mazaya Qatar Real Estate DevMesaieed Petrochemical Holdi

Al Meera Consumer Goods CoMedicare Group

Mannai Corporation QscMasraf Al Rayan

Al Khalij Commercial BankIndustries Qatar

Islamic Holding GroupInvestment Holding Group

Gulf Warehousing CompanyGulf International Services

Ezdan Holding GroupDoha Insurance Co

Doha Bank QpscDlala Holding

Commercial Bank PqscBarwa Real Estate Co

Al Khaleej Takaful GroupAl Ahli Bank

12.97

6.26

7.03

14.00

0.43

0.56

65.00

6.50

19.21

5.76

3.76

7.52

2.46

16.90

23.00

3.90

0.86

21.68

0.41

16.62

103.82

1.74

24.07

3.62

9.97

65.65

0.79

7.58

2.62

14.51

7.09

3.68

3.85

1.20

11.69

2.42

0.59

50.42

1.91

7.21

1.24

2.55

0.93

4.80

34.85

1.79

0.80

0.70

2.79

-0.14

1.45

-0.70

-1.06

1.25

-1.52

0.00

-1.54

-1.05

0.27

-1.60

1.81

-0.39

-4.18

2.14

1.21

0.25

0.79

0.12

-8.42

0.63

2.84

-0.40

0.35

1.28

-0.26

0.38

-0.07

4.26

-0.54

0.79

0.00

1.65

-0.41

-1.83

-3.04

-1.04

0.84

1.72

-3.41

-0.43

2.78

2.50

-1.16

0.13

3,000

723,646

704,792

687,689

194,256

148,634

2,927

46,305

1,032,789

27,150

27,869

705,991

958,294

345,842

127,320

1,000

5,449,132

118,778

5,194,918

288,198

500

148

129

613,490

218,379

196,393

261,393

29,743

3,518,019

52,135

3,086,055

195,388

3,582,449

388,677

1,026,272

1,500,948

14,707,975

80,002

313,976

654,576

1,000

1,597,453

488,078

594,311

152,190

2,740,799

950,730

QATAR

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

OMAN

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

KUWAIT

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Oman PackagingOman Oil Marketing Company

Oman National Engineering AnOman Investment & Finance

Oman Intl MarketingOman Flour Mills

Oman Fisheries CoOman Europe Foods Industries

Oman Education & Training InOman Chromite

Oman ChlorineOman Ceramic Company

Oman Cement CoOman Cables Industry

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

National Real Estate DevelopNational Mineral Water

National Life & General InsuNational Gas Co

National Finance CoNational Detergent Co Saog

National Biscuit IndustriesNational Bank Of Oman Saog

Muscat Thread Mills CoMuscat Insurance Co Saog

Muscat Gases Company SaogMuscat Finance

Muscat City Desalination CoMajan Glass Company

Majan CollegeHsbc Bank Oman

Hotels Management Co InternaGulf Stone

Gulf Mushroom CompanyGulf Investments Services

Gulf Invest. Serv. Pref-SharGulf International Chemicals

Gulf Hotels (Oman) Co LtdGlobal Fin Investment

Galfar Engineering&ContractGalfar Engineering -Prefer

Financial Services Co.Financial Corp/The

Dhofar TourismDhofar Poultry

Dhofar Intl DevelopmentDhofar Insurance

Dhofar Generating Co SaocDhofar Fisheries & Food Indu

Dhofar CattlefeedDhofar Beverages Co

Construction Materials IndComputer Stationery Inds

Bankmuscat SaogBank Nizwa

Bank Dhofar SaogArabia Falcon Insurance Co

Aloula CoAl-Omaniya Financial Service

Al-Hassan Engineering CoAl-Fajar Al-Alamia Co

Al-Anwar Ceramic Tiles CoAl Suwadi Power

Al Sharqiya Invest HoldingAl Maha Petroleum Products M

Al Maha Ceramics Co SaocAl Madina Takaful Co Saoc

Al Madina Investment CoAl Kamil Power Co

Al Jazerah Services -PfdAl Jazeera Steel Products Co

Al Jazeera ServicesAl Izz Islamic Bank

Al Buraimi HotelAl Batinah PowerAl Batinah Hotels

Al Batinah Dev & InvAl Anwar Holdings Saog

Al Ahlia Insurance Co SaocAhli Bank

Acwa Power Barka SaogAbrasives Manufacturing Co S

A’saff a Foods Saog0Man Oil Marketing Co-Pref

#N/A Invalid Security#N/A Invalid Security

0.27

1.07

0.13

0.09

0.52

0.66

0.07

1.00

0.23

3.64

0.39

0.42

0.23

0.81

0.08

0.31

5.00

0.09

0.30

0.15

0.14

0.70

3.92

0.16

0.08

0.84

0.16

0.06

0.11

0.18

0.17

0.11

1.25

0.12

0.31

0.06

0.11

0.14

9.50

0.07

0.08

0.39

0.18

0.10

0.49

0.18

0.30

0.17

0.19

1.28

0.11

0.26

0.04

0.26

0.41

0.09

0.14

0.10

0.53

0.11

0.02

0.75

0.11

0.08

0.08

0.84

0.18

0.09

0.02

0.38

0.55

0.23

0.12

0.08

0.88

0.08

1.13

0.08

0.10

0.36

0.11

0.66

0.05

0.60

0.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.31

1.14

0.00

0.00

1.41

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.50

0.00

1.32

-9.78

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.88

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

2.50

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-2.82

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

3.92

2.63

4.11

0.00

-2.22

2.41

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

4.27

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

2.08

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-

-

100,221

75,517

-

-

393,042

-

-

-

7,388

-

64,090

49,927

71,924

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

940,000

-

-

-

880,064

-

-

-

-

2,296,164

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

91,350

-

1,409

-

-

-

99,302

28,053

33,500

-

-

-

16,000

-

4,003,056

6,350

773,907

-

13,734

300,882

-

-

-

-

304,765

-

-

238

-

-

307,979

-

4,002

-

-

-

-

-

-

Al-Madar Finance & Invt CoGulf Petroleum Investment

Mabanee Co SakcInovest Co Bsc

Al-Deera Holding CoMena Real Estate Co

Amar Finance & Leasing CoUnited Projects For Aviation

National Consumer Holding CoAmwal International InvestmeEquipment Holding Co K.S.C.C

Arkan Al Kuwait Real EstateGfh Financial Group Bsc

Energy House Holding Co KscpKuwait Co For Process PlantAl Maidan Dental Clinic Co KNational Shooting CompanyAl-Ahleia Insurance Co Sakp

Wethaq Takaful Insurance CoSalbookh Trading Co Kscp

Aqar Real Estate InvestmentsHayat Communications

Soor Fuel Marketing Co KscTamkeen Holding Co

Alargan International RealBurgan Co For Well Drilling

Kuwait Resorts Co KsccOula Fuel Marketing Co

Palms Agro Production CoMubarrad Holding Co Ksc

Shuaiba Industrial CoAan Digital Services Co

First Takaful Insurance CoKuwaiti Syrian Holding Co

National Cleaning CompanyUnited Real Estate Company

AgilityKuwait & Middle East Fin Inv

Fujairah Cement IndustriesLivestock Transport & Tradng

International Resorts CoNational Industries Grp Hold

Warba Insurance CoFirst Dubai Real Estate Deve

Al Arabi Group Holding CoKuwait Hotels Sak

Mobile Telecommunications CoEff ect Real Estate Co

Tamdeen Real Estate Co KscAl Mudon Intl Real Estate Co

Kuwait Cement Co KscSharjah Cement & Indus Devel

Kuwait Portland Cement CoEducational Holding Group

Bahrain Kuwait InsuranceAsiya Capital Investments Co

Kuwait Investment CoBurgan Bank

Kuwait Projects Co HoldingsAl Madina For Finance And In

Kuwait Insurance CoAl Masaken Intl Real Estate

Intl Financial AdvisorsFirst Investment Co Kscc

Al Mal Investment CompanyBayan Investment Co Kscc

Egypt Kuwait Holding Co SaeCoast Investment Development

Privatization Holding CompanInjazzat Real State Company

Kuwait Cable Vision SakSanam Real Estate Co Kscc

Ithmaar Holding BscAviation Lease And Finance C

Arzan Financial Group For FiAjwan Gulf Real Estate Co

Kuwait Business Town Real EsFuture Kid Entertainment And

Specialities Group Holding CAbyaar Real Eastate Developm

Dar Al Thuraya Real Estate CKgl Logistics Company Kscc

Combined Group ContractingJiyad Holding Co Ksc

Warba Capital Holding CoGulf Investment House Ksc

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

Osos Holding Group Co

128.00

23.00

711.00

69.00

13.90

35.50

27.80

437.00

55.00

46.00

22.60

78.00

68.40

24.30

217.00

1,220.00

12.20

430.00

34.50

41.80

75.70

89.20

118.00

6.50

176.00

96.00

51.50

119.00

75.00

59.20

165.00

10.80

38.30

43.00

56.00

60.50

762.00

38.50

54.60

196.00

22.50

228.00

64.00

30.10

74.00

100.00

528.00

20.00

375.00

19.40

305.00

72.50

1,199.00

312.00

200.00

34.40

122.00

353.00

218.00

18.10

323.00

70.00

23.00

36.10

13.20

43.00

455.00

37.20

56.50

79.00

21.10

49.50

22.30

250.00

31.80

13.30

40.80

90.00

72.90

14.80

179.00

40.00

187.00

49.80

73.50

57.00

580.00

263.00

102.00

-0.78

0.88

0.28

0.00

-0.71

3.80

0.00

5.30

0.00

0.00

3.67

0.00

2.55

8.97

0.00

0.00

1.67

0.00

0.00

-0.24

9.87

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.58

-0.83

0.00

0.34

0.00

-0.92

-9.88

-0.46

-3.45

-1.47

-0.78

7.84

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.44

0.00

1.01

-1.07

0.00

-0.19

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.29

0.97

-0.08

2.30

0.00

3.93

0.00

0.86

-0.91

0.56

-1.22

0.00

0.00

-1.63

-4.35

-1.38

0.00

1.09

0.00

0.25

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.40

-0.63

-6.99

0.00

0.00

0.69

0.68

0.00

-2.20

-0.53

-0.40

-8.13

0.53

0.35

0.00

0.00

431,301

205,680

721,732

100,000

7,601

1,490,748

-

40

-

-

10

-

237,105

10,500

25,020

-

121,539

1

1

50,460

92,620

-

181,515

65,000

-

-

225,712

20,604

-

10

-

1,020,003

2,500

2

4,650

7,100

1,833,760

653

-

-

-

8,189,482

-

319,200

1,000

-

8,436,440

-

-

-

40

20,080

3,465

1,000

-

12,359

290,451

3,308,107

1,590,565

1,029,119

6,041

-

-

1,214,720

504,000

60,001

-

231,501

212,100

26,250

-

-

-

717,205

126,511

204,167

-

-

200

3,765,810

-

734,941

236,127

105,006

50,000

2

250,837

11,536,375

-

Al-Eid Food KscQurain Petrochemical Industr

Advanced Technology CoEkttitab Holding Co Sak

Real Estate Trade Centers CoAcico Industries Co Kscc

Kipco Asset Management CoNational Petroleum Services

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

56.00

347.00

1,000.00

14.40

22.00

128.00

84.00

1,030.00

136.00

64.90

145.00

79.00

3,175.00

77.70

70.00

188.00

37.90

665.00

0.00

52.00

38.60

57.70

69.00

29.80

42.50

964.00

94.00

62.00

31.00

54.90

378.00

75.00

22.00

860.00

28.00

440.00

75.10

337.00

394.00

720.00

60.80

118.00

63.00

638.00

64.30

45.00

36.50

110.00

197.00

66.50

350.00

188.00

0.00

-0.29

0.00

-10.00

-4.76

-1.54

-1.18

0.98

-1.45

7.27

0.00

0.13

4.06

-9.12

0.00

0.00

4.99

-0.75

0.00

0.00

0.78

-0.52

-2.82

3.11

3.66

0.94

1.29

2.48

6.16

5.17

0.27

-1.06

0.00

0.00

-1.75

0.00

0.13

0.00

-1.01

0.84

-0.33

9.26

8.62

3.74

-26.18

-0.88

-6.89

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

9.94

-

342,060

-

1,080,164

57,200

102,427

1

1

5,262,515

68,035

-

10,080

254,038

25,000

-

-

451,162

3,480

-

1

2,732,101

50,001

1,703,816

500

939,890

572,407

1,208,867

50,281

266,253

179,271

79,500

706,425

55,610

-

190,045

-

1,432,001

1

46,131

11,363,326

644,450

750

1

667,216

8,992

2,920,080

99,918

754,092

3,116

-

-

1,000

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

0.18

0.11

1.00

2.67

0.07

0.13

0.13

0.10

0.55

0.10

0.10

0.08

1.05

1.07

0.30

0.10

0.60

0.56

1.38

3.09

0.46

0.36

0.08

2.21

0.47

0.34

0.18

0.55

1.47

0.09

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-1.89

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

-0.55

0.00

0.00

0.00

0.00

1.14

0.73

0.00

0.00

496

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

180

6,909,702

40,000

-

-

-

-

-

627

-

-

-

32,837

-

-

75,000

4,761,040

8,000

76,198

-

-

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

-1.03

0.00

-1.02

0.00

-2.63

-1.62

0.00

0.89

1.24

0.96

0.00

-0.10

0.39

-1.82

0.00

0.00

0.00

-3.40

0.00

3.86

0.99

-2.58

62,000

56,752

95,175

-

367,365

11

-

608,655

178,351

145,001

387,770

3,286,126

48,085

12,994,589

8,133,296

40,000

2,045

107,320

-

10,150

1,272,000

1,400,500

48.00

267.00

87.10

134.00

37.00

182.00

29.00

45.10

900.00

315.00

316.00

977.00

517.00

269.00

303.00

34.90

30.20

25.60

840.00

59.20

10.20

56.60

Lt Price

LATEST MARKET CLOSING FIGURES

An employee counts US one-hundred dollar banknotes at the Hang Seng Bank headquarters in Hong Kong. The easing of tensions has done little to shift the market’s expectations for Federal Reserve interest-rate cuts, which means markets will keep selling the greenback, according to Aberdeen Standard Investments. Should the US and China eventually reach a full-fledged trade deal, the greenback will lose appeal as a haven, AMP Capital Investors says.

Global stocks rally on Trump-Xi breakthroughAFPLondon

Stock markets surged yesterday after US President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jin-

ping agreed on the sidelines of the G20 summit to restart trade talks, reviving hopes of an end to their tariff war.

Trump’s historic visit to North Ko-rea also at the weekend, where he met leader Kim Jong-un, further soothed geopolitical concerns and propelled the dollar, as investors shunned ha-vens, notably gold.

Oil prices also rose after Opec and its oil producing allies appeared fi rmly on course to extend their oil output caps.

“European markets are uniformly higher, particularly the heavily Chi-na-exposed DAX” index in Frankfurt, noted Fiona Cincotta, a senior market analyst at City Index trading group.

Across Europe, London’s FTSE 100 jumped 1.0% to close at 7,497.50 points; Paris’ CAC 40 was up 0.5% at 5,567.91, Frankfurt’s DAX 30 rose 1.0% at 12,521.38.

German stocks were supported also by offi cial data showing unemploy-ment in Germany held steady in June.

US stocks were also higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up

around 125 points in the late New York morning having, however, given up about half of its opening gains.

The broader S&P index even set a new record high at the opening.

However Wall Street optimism may take a hit after fresh data yesterday showed that US manufacturing activ-ity last month fell to its lowest level in nearly three years.

“US stocks are nicely higher in early action to begin the third quarter, with global markets rallying on the week-end’s G-20 summit in Japan that de-livered a trade truce between the US and China that agreed to hold off on implementing further tariff s,” analysts at Charles Schwab said.

Trump said negotiations to resolve the standoff between the US and China — the world’s two biggest economies — were “back on track”, adding that he would hold off imposing threatened new levies on Chinese goods.

Trump also signalled a softer posi-tion on Chinese telecom giant Hua-wei, a major bone of contention in the row, by saying US companies could sell equipment “where there’s no great na-tional security problem”.

China meanwhile pledged to buy more US agricultural machinery.

“Investors heaved a massive, but exhausted, sigh of relief that both the

US and China opted to push the reset button and restart trade negotiations amidst other pleasantries — now we’ll have to see whether it all sticks,” said Stephen Innes at Vanguard Markets.

Elsewhere yesterday, the WTI oil price jumped back above $60 per bar-rel for the fi rst time in a month after Saudi Arabia and non-Opec producer Russia said they would extend caps on crude output.

“Everyone supported the proposi-tion to extend for nine months the limits agreed in December,” Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters after a gathering of oil minis-ters and before the group’s main meet-ing later yesterday.

Oil prices gave up some of their gains, however, as analysts suspected Opec and its allies couldn’t put to rest all of the worries hanging over the oil market.

“As such, the new deal will probably fail to address the rising non-Opec supplies at a time the world economy is slowing, which could mean lower demand growth,” Forex.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada told AFP.

“Thus, the oil market is likely to be oversupplied again in due course, which means prices may struggle to push signifi cantly higher from here,” he added.

Apple IncAmerican Express Co

Boeing Co/TheCaterpillar Inc

Cisco Systems IncChevron Corp

Walt Disney Co/TheDowdupont Inc

Goldman Sachs Group IncHome Depot Inc

Intl Business Machines CorpIntel Corp

Johnson & JohnsonJpmorgan Chase & Co

Coca-Cola Co/TheMcdonald’s Corp

3M CoMerck & Co. Inc.

Microsoft CorpNike Inc -Cl B

Pfizer IncProcter & Gamble Co/The

Travelers Cos Inc/TheUnitedhealth Group Inc

United Technologies CorpVisa Inc-Class A Shares

Verizon Communications IncWalgreens Boots Alliance Inc

Walmart IncExxon Mobil Corp

202.29

125.02

359.42

136.15

54.70

125.05

141.01

0.00

207.02

209.67

140.07

48.09

139.48

113.74

51.42

206.57

174.78

84.54

136.02

85.71

43.71

110.24

150.37

242.63

131.31

173.58

56.80

54.55

110.26

76.77

2.21

1.28

-1.26

-0.10

-0.05

0.49

0.98

0.00

1.18

0.82

1.57

0.46

0.14

1.74

0.98

-0.52

0.83

0.82

1.53

2.10

0.90

0.54

0.57

-0.57

0.85

0.02

-0.59

-0.23

-0.21

0.18

3,656,701

381,774

455,374

451,146

3,357,687

398,312

695,703

-

187,983

309,538

302,399

3,515,780

409,179

881,053

804,054

231,010

166,443

934,221

2,641,760

678,172

1,788,183

615,785

65,831

336,356

303,344

647,794

913,094

658,545

420,792

1,407,768

DJIA

Company Name Lt Price % Chg Volume

Anglo American PlcAssociated British Foods Plc

Admiral Group PlcAshtead Group Plc

Antofagasta PlcAuto Trader Group Plc

Aviva PlcAstrazeneca PlcBae Systems Plc

Barclays PlcBritish American Tobacco Plc

Barratt Developments PlcBhp Group Plc

Berkeley Group Holdings/TheBritish Land Co Plc

Bunzl PlcBp Plc

Burberry Group PlcBt Group Plc

Coca-Cola Hbc Ag-DiCarnival PlcCentrica Plc

Compass Group PlcCroda International Plc

Crh PlcDcc Plc

Diageo PlcDirect Line Insurance Group

Evraz PlcExperian Plc

Easyjet PlcFerguson Plc

Fresnillo PlcGlencore Plc

Glaxosmithkline PlcGvc Holdings Plc

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PlcHargreaves Lansdown Plc

Halma PlcHsbc Holdings Plc

Hiscox LtdIntl Consolidated Airline-Di

Intercontinental Hotels Grou3I Group Plc

Imperial Brands PlcInforma Plc

Intertek Group PlcItv Plc

Johnson Matthey PlcKingfisher Plc

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

2,266.00

2,425.00

2,229.00

2,272.00

949.20

552.60

422.10

6,469.00

494.40

152.52

2,861.50

577.20

2,032.50

3,744.00

546.40

2,117.00

557.90

1,885.00

195.40

2,980.00

3,517.00

88.58

1,899.50

5,090.00

2,615.00

7,050.00

3,372.00

334.10

665.60

2,405.00

966.00

5,662.00

852.80

277.70

1,590.40

669.60

1,752.00

1,953.00

2,015.00

661.80

1,718.00

472.30

5,326.00

1,127.50

1,888.40

826.80

5,620.00

111.00

3,353.00

215.70

844.00

272.30

57.23

5,586.00

2,125.50

210.60

1,824.00

185.40

203.40

839.10

2,518.00

5,470.00

1,210.50

0.00

1,735.00

1,992.00

826.60

6,162.00

222.00

2,596.50

2,603.00

1,932.00

4,915.50

542.60

857.40

586.40

396.00

197.40

3,106.00

812.40

738.80

2,464.00

297.30

365.00

1,589.50

545.50

1,718.50

9,320.00

1,136.00

713.40

1,100.00

2,052.00

231.40

771.20

159.40

4,908.50

780.40

127.94

476.00

1,012.00

4,674.00

0.96

-1.54

0.95

0.80

2.11

0.88

1.34

0.48

-0.20

1.82

4.09

0.80

0.87

0.35

1.49

1.93

1.70

1.24

-0.54

0.27

1.09

0.91

0.66

-0.59

2.07

0.43

-0.35

0.69

0.06

0.88

1.34

1.11

-2.00

1.59

0.88

2.73

1.74

1.77

-0.25

0.75

1.54

-0.96

2.98

1.26

2.25

-0.98

2.14

2.78

0.72

0.37

1.30

1.04

1.13

1.82

2.98

-0.05

1.90

2.52

0.99

0.39

4.79

-1.01

3.73

0.00

1.11

-0.25

0.88

-0.84

1.00

0.93

0.85

1.18

0.72

1.48

2.02

1.66

-0.38

0.74

1.84

1.25

1.18

3.44

0.92

0.69

1.57

2.83

0.79

1.47

1.25

-0.11

0.18

0.20

2.07

-0.16

1.05

0.29

-0.31

-1.07

5.31

2.20

0.97

3,350,548

949,926

494,098

1,492,523

3,171,104

4,379,150

7,490,072

1,630,163

3,978,151

25,719,768

3,451,476

2,892,138

4,262,085

314,553

2,940,569

1,189,104

24,252,043

2,023,425

31,173,508

685,837

767,198

24,346,502

2,158,981

559,401

1,268,723

259,038

3,680,425

2,348,199

2,589,850

1,239,022

2,774,420

505,297

1,630,883

36,834,840

5,987,808

2,145,439

400,577

871,501

2,122,044

15,630,159

397,147

11,012,912

462,950

1,493,039

2,268,136

2,703,964

303,142

14,683,201

538,170

8,068,609

1,664,471

9,729,523

116,050,534

439,262

782,120

7,234,492

1,293,226

10,359,801

8,814,222

6,658,246

605,765

857,787

2,821,328

-

3,652,635

1,230,502

1,916,550

1,279,130

9,104,226

5,773,000

5,134,189

2,610,930

2,238,386

2,179,559

4,330,620

2,450,046

5,179,524

6,357,020

400,120

1,529,277

1,737,382

450,826

6,315,173

4,000,697

695,792

2,732,740

1,345,721

177,623

2,349,329

6,354,102

1,982,026

1,135,756

16,018,079

1,201,259

8,467,326

1,441,954

3,558,309

77,626,055

3,071,003

3,758,991

500,822

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

3,507.00

3,628.00

1,405.00

7,160.00

789.60

1,202.00

6,874.00

2,755.50

5,394.00

4,045.00

3,857.00

1,604.00

1,660.00

3,183.00

6,265.00

40,050.00

10,315.00

2,910.50

41,850.00

1.86

0.95

0.39

1.78

2.33

2.78

2.78

0.44

1.45

2.43

0.89

1.36

1.68

1.18

2.86

1.42

2.79

2.48

4.18

1,318,100

3,196,700

6,745,000

1,469,800

12,220,200

2,390,100

5,846,900

6,090,700

1,180,600

2,712,800

3,710,100

2,935,800

4,304,500

2,665,400

1,102,300

1,420,800

1,666,700

5,837,700

243,400

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

15,245.00

1,247.00

3,316.00

386.70

5,980.00

2,733.50

3,966.00

2,538.50

3,244.00

1,626.50

4,869.00

68,520.00

157.70

3,991.00

2,401.00

1,442.00

490.50

5,227.00

923.30

7,540.00

21,745.00

13,900.00

1,867.00

14,520.00

2,641.00

2,004.50

817.10

4,310.00

5,781.00

1,561.50

8,275.00

1,874.00

5,141.00

5,137.00

545.80

5,080.00

1,263.50

4,642.00

4,304.00

3,283.00

1,656.00

1,146.00

2,658.00

8,765.00

8,418.00

1,798.00

14,140.00

3,688.00

13,510.00

1,814.50

9,337.00

5,481.00

1,896.50

1,194.50

2,339.50

741.70

524.30

777.90

20,540.00

65,740.00

3,496.00

1,813.00

3,707.00

992.90

453.50

5,504.00

2,247.50

1,516.00

2,030.00

4,766.00

7,297.00

8,308.00

6,315.00

3,259.00

2,592.50

15,840.00

10,225.00

2,100.00

3,616.00

1,478.00

3,843.00

3.53

1.63

2.22

1.92

6.12

4.37

3.07

1.03

0.78

1.15

0.50

3.61

1.02

2.18

0.90

1.94

3.90

1.20

2.86

0.37

0.76

-2.66

-0.05

3.23

1.09

3.75

-0.26

1.60

2.35

1.73

0.25

1.35

1.52

2.39

2.13

4.96

2.35

2.40

3.44

4.52

1.91

1.91

2.23

0.56

2.53

2.51

2.95

4.89

1.27

2.20

0.68

1.52

2.46

4.01

0.69

4.03

2.40

3.36

3.06

0.94

2.22

1.12

1.62

2.22

1.09

0.75

2.58

0.30

1.25

1.60

3.84

2.30

1.71

1.53

2.17

4.76

1.44

1.92

1.35

4.16

0.97

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

77.00

18.58

63.70

57.45

16.36

12.60

194.50

34.40

61.15

7.99

43.05

84.25

5.70

6.35

132.50

12.22

13.36

96.00

37.35

55.05

86.20

11.88

44.35

107.40

93.80

30.25

80.70

30.75

19.24

11.26

52.65

7.92

-1.53

0.32

-0.47

0.35

-0.73

-0.79

-1.37

-0.86

-0.89

-2.08

-0.35

0.06

0.35

-3.20

-0.45

-0.65

-0.45

0.21

-0.40

-1.61

-0.46

0.17

0.23

0.75

-0.27

-0.82

-0.74

0.16

-0.31

-0.35

0.57

-3.18

5,064,695

6,203,119

1,061,571

2,415,821

12,487,135

14,924,001

1,316,205

7,923,818

6,568,240

31,831,460

3,861,253

21,184,240

150,252,195

15,124,329

3,117,666

9,492,891

50,399,229

1,380,435

14,246,614

2,630,732

2,304,928

19,401,116

4,406,819

2,360,980

24,234,255

5,331,399

6,082,858

6,963,056

21,697,490

8,309,246

11,118,447

44,745,500

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

17.32

5.93

5.31

275.80

3.30

64.80

56.20

52.60

28.80

352.60

8.57

96.00

13.10

11.40

4.31

13.36

6.73

71.15

-1.25

-0.84

-0.75

-0.43

0.30

-0.38

-0.71

-0.47

2.49

-0.06

-0.46

-1.64

-0.91

0.18

-0.92

-0.74

0.75

-0.35

22,004,056

22,847,980

89,388,555

3,182,699

249,879,971

8,752,871

3,039,440

2,684,563

15,479,381

12,773,981

12,301,202

5,557,170

7,199,452

2,617,985

47,337,097

42,133,780

454,770,107

10,938,080

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

413.25

1,353.85

810.45

3,699.00

348.50

265.65

2,911.95

8,521.05

376.20

555.80

249.25

2,654.85

19,625.30

312.70

920.00

1,049.10

2,245.90

2,485.55

2,616.50

208.90

282.55

1,780.20

439.00

621.95

1,433.60

731.30

151.65

274.95

275.75

1,481.20

1,556.65

660.00

6,507.85

142.55

161.00

207.05

1,268.85

361.55

405.35

506.95

2,239.55

704.65

1,323.20

168.00

948.20

4,526.65

174.05

282.00

109.15

358.35

0.74

-0.32

0.23

0.49

0.53

-0.52

3.00

-0.04

-4.14

0.42

-1.79

4.09

2.54

0.24

0.65

-1.46

2.45

1.71

1.36

0.89

-2.59

-0.41

0.43

2.34

1.64

-0.10

-2.73

0.40

-0.31

0.28

0.22

0.71

-0.41

0.85

-4.02

0.07

1.26

0.08

1.10

0.51

0.55

-0.28

-0.86

3.35

1.15

-0.64

-0.17

0.53

0.37

5.82

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

26,725.30

2,962.95

8,098.48

16,382.20

43,366.42

101,684.20

7,497.50

5,567.91

12,521.38

9,264.60

21,729.97

1,584.85

28,542.62

6,731.40

1,777.28

39,686.50

11,865.60

3,372.26

24,995.78

6,379.69

+125.34

+21.19

+92.24

+74.47

+205.25

+717.00

+71.87

+28.94

+122.58

+65.80

+454.05

+33.71

-78.80

+32.23

-5.03

+291.86

+76.75

+50.65

+9.73

+21.06

Doha Securities Market

Kuwait Stocks Exchange

Oman Stock Market

10,560.13

4,768.94

3,876.04

+104.46

+2.41

-8.87

“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.”

981,500

2,024,200

1,324,700

17,383,900

2,231,100

2,958,200

1,415,200

4,218,900

1,358,900

3,618,000

1,070,400

449,400

83,558,200

1,447,000

7,334,900

2,208,700

8,040,500

8,181,600

7,104,200

1,114,100

414,100

536,500

1,684,600

936,700

2,384,200

1,995,900

6,897,600

1,959,400

4,864,600

4,752,100

1,049,700

3,106,800

1,322,700

3,541,000

12,421,100

10,348,500

2,807,000

1,363,200

1,321,500

2,620,500

3,836,700

2,884,300

5,515,400

438,700

1,393,000

3,498,000

348,400

1,806,600

432,500

2,223,900

567,900

1,416,800

2,880,200

3,504,900

1,917,800

6,763,500

51,049,000

7,425,600

866,400

607,100

1,359,600

3,644,400

2,219,500

5,509,900

10,756,600

1,119,400

1,058,300

1,796,900

4,137,800

1,263,700

490,200

1,947,400

904,700

1,947,200

1,421,000

2,180,600

815,900

3,769,800

946,700

5,348,600

4,648,800

1,457,022

739,182

5,896,530

913,884

3,405,198

1,697,283

628,760

102,735

5,133,734

565,463

4,839,632

1,118,522

102,153

4,567,296

832,301

1,233,848

2,090,173

2,131,040

728,762

6,353,325

5,994,596

553,283

6,871,979

10,218,339

3,446,607

3,224,968

12,534,939

5,042,447

3,935,030

1,904,359

1,537,022

3,547,891

754,667

31,289,422

15,160,240

6,306,647

6,162,080

12,348,793

2,254,468

8,544,375

2,769,940

2,073,961

1,554,897

23,990,900

2,692,425

262,438

6,528,994

1,735,921

42,545,442

13,803,574

Volume

Volume

US President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the start of their bilateral meeting at the G20 leaders summit in Osaka, Japan on June 29. Stock markets surged yesterday after Trump and Xi agreed on the sidelines of the G20 summit to restart trade talks, reviving hopes of an end to their tariff war.

BUSINESS7Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

BUSINESS11Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

ReutersSeoul

South Korea’s exports posted their biggest fall in three-and-a-half years in June, data

showed yesterday, denting govern-ment hopes for a pick-up in economic growth after a shocking decline in the first quarter.

Exports by Asia’s fourth-largest econ-omy plunged 13.5% in June from a year earlier, the trade ministry data showed, more than the 12% decline tipped in a Reuters poll and the fastest fall since Jan-uary 2016.

The data is the fi rst batch of trade fi g-ures released by a major exporting econ-

omy since US and Chinese leaders agreed over the weekend to restart their trade talks, which analysts say provided some relief for fi nancial markets but is not ex-pected to boost global trade.

“The outcome of the G20 (events) was better than expected, but that is some-how a political show, and what matters to the (local) economy is eventually the semiconductor sector,” said Oh Chang-sob, an economist at Korea Investment & Securities.

A plunge in the prices of memory chips amid a cooling global economy has hurt South Korean exports as semiconductor products account for 20.9% of the coun-try’s total exports last year.

Exports in the second quarter fell 8.4% from a year earlier after an 8.5% drop in

the fi rst quarter, dashing the govern-ment’s expectations that the economy would rebound from a 0.4% decline in the fi rst quarter.

A manufacturing survey from IHS Markit yesterday also showed South Ko-rea’s factory activity shrank at the fastest pace in four months in June while export orders dropped for an 11th consecutive month.

The deputy head of the country’s cen-tral bank also shrugged off the China-US agreement to resume talks, saying it was “positive for the short-term but uncer-tainty is high for the medium- to long-term.”

Local fi nancial markets have also showed a cautious response to the com-bination of events over the weekend, as

investors were reluctant to change their bets that the Bank of Korea would even-tually have to lower interest rates in the coming months.

“The Bank of Korea will likely cut rates in August and also trim its annual growth forecast,” said Park Sung-woo, an analyst at DB Financial Investment.

The fi nance ministry is due to an-nounce its updated policy goals and growth forecasts later this week.

The BoK held the policy interest rates unchanged at 1.75% in its May meeting, but a majority of economists are now seeing the central bank cutting rates be-tween July and August, in what would be the fi rst easing in three years.

The central bank is due to review its policy on July 18.

S Korea exports tumble,dashing recovery hopes

Japan set to tightenhigh-tech materialexports to S KoreaReutersTokyo/Seoul

Japan will tighten curbs on exports

of high-tech materials used in

smartphone displays and chips

to South Korea amid a growing

dispute over South Koreans forced

to work for Japanese firms during

World War Two, the industry

ministry said yesterday, prompting

condemnation from Seoul.

Tighter export controls, to be-

come eff ective on Thursday, would

slow the export process by several

months, hitting South Korean tech

giants, such as Samsung Electron-

ics, SK Hynix and LG Display.

The step comes amid Tokyo’s

growing frustration at what it

calls a lack of action by Seoul over

issues stemming from its top court

ruling last October that ordered

Nippon Steel to compensate

former forced labourers.

South Korea’s industry minister,

Sung Yun-mo, said: “We will take

necessary countermeasures

including filing a complaint to the

(World Trade Organisation).”

“Our government expressed

deep regret” over Japan’s tighten-

ing of its materials shipments, Sung

said. South Korea’s finance minister

also called a meeting to discuss

plans for reacting to Japan’s move,

finance ministry off icials said.

The South Korean foreign

ministry as well summoned Japan’s

ambassador and called for a with-

drawal of the curbs, it said.

Japan rejected South Korea’s

proposal last month to create a

joint compensation fund for vic-

tims with contributions from both

nations’ companies.

“South Korea has failed to show

any satisfactory measures to re-

solve the forced labour issue... and

severely damaged mutual trust,”

said an off icial of the Japanese

Ministry of Economy, Trade and

Industry.

“As trust has been lost, we

cannot have a dialogue and are un-

able to ensure that proper export

controls are being taken,” he told a

news briefing.

Japan, which says the issue of

forced labour was fully settled

in 1965 when the two countries

restored diplomatic ties, has de-

nounced the rulings and urged the

launch of an arbitration panel.

The materials to be restricted

are fluorinated polyimides, used

in smartphone displays, as well as

resists and hydrogen fluoride (HF),

which is used as an etching gas to

make semiconductors.

Resists are thin layers of mate-

rial used to transfer circuit patterns

to a semiconductor substrate.

Hydrogen fluoride is used in

etching silicon materials.

Japan will stop preferential treat-

ment for shipments of these three

materials to South Korea, requiring

exporters to seek permission each

time they want to ship, which takes

about 90 days, the ministry off icial

said.

Japan produces about 90% of

fluorinated polyimides and resists

worldwide as well as about 70%

of etching gas, making it diff icult

for chipmakers to find alternatives,

said the Sankei newspaper, which

reported the plans on Sunday.

A source at one of South Korea’s

top memory chipmakers said

chipmakers would have to try to

build stockpiles, adding that the

company relies on Japan for more

than 70% of its resists and etching

gas.

Samsung Electronics, the

world’s top memory maker, said

it was looking into the matter, but

off ered no further comment.

LG Display, a Apple supplier, said

in a statement that the company

would see “some” impact from

any trade condition changes with

Japan.

SK Hynix declined comment.

Sung, the South Korean industry

minister, said the country had been

diversifying import sources and

localising supplies to cope with

Japan’s “one-sided” measure.

In Tokyo, shares of resist maker

JSR and fluorochemicals maker

Kanto Denka Kogyo plunged,

but small South Korean material

producers gained.

Japan also plans to strip white

list status from South Korea under

a trade control law, requiring Japa-

nese exporters to seek a licence for

items that could be used in some

weapons-related applications. On

Japan’s white list are 27 countries,

from Germany to South Korea,

Britain and the United States.

South Korean exporters and

experts urged the administration

of President Moon Jae-in to step in

and resolve the tension.

“This is not a problem starting

from the business sector, and I

think our government should

stand up and try to fix this while

companies are taking a hit,” Lee

Soo-chul, a board member of

the Seoul-Tokyo Forum, a private

foundation of diplomats and

businessmen from both countries,

told Reuters. “But I am not sure if

the current government is realising

how critical this situation is,” said

Lee, a former head of Samsung

Group’s Japanese operations.

A Posco steel mill is seen in Pohang, South Korea. A manufacturing survey from IHS Markit yesterday showed South Korea’s factory activity shrank at the fastest pace in four months in June while export orders dropped for an 11th consecutive month.

Amid US tech squeeze, China’s Tsinghua Unigroup forms new DRAM chip unitReutersShanghai

Chinese state-backed semicon-ductor conglomerate Tsinghua Unigroup said it has formed a

new business unit for producing DRAM, a type of memory chip dominated by companies in South Korea and the Unit-ed States.

The move, announced in a one-sen-tence statement on Sunday, comes as Beijing tries to boost the country’s chip industry, and specifi cally its DRAM sec-tor, amid an ongoing spat over trade and technology with Washington that has underscored China’s reliance on key im-ported components.

DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, has proven especially diffi cult for Chinese companies to produce at scale.

US-based Micron Technology Inc and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co

Ltd and SK Hynix Inc together account for over 95% of global DRAM market share.

It is not clear how the new unit will aff ect operations at the conglomerate’s Unigroup Guoxin Microelectronics Co Ltd unit, which had already set out to make DRAM.

Unigroup Guoxin said in its 2018 an-nual report it has yet to mass produce LPDDR4 DRAM, the industry standard in most mobile phones.

Tsinghua Unigroup did not answer e-mailed queries about the new business unit.

Another Chinese DRAM aspirant, Fujian Jinhua, had yet to reach mass production for its chips when the US government in October placed it on an entity list that eff ectively barred Ameri-can companies from supplying it with goods and services.

Ken Kuo, vice president of research at TrendForce in Taipei, said in a note that the establishment of the new chip unit is

likely to stem in part from the Fujian Jin-hua blacklisting.

“Especially after the trade clash be-tween the US and China, how to make products that are compatible and com-petitive internationally remains a critical issue for China,” he wrote.

The US Department of Justice charged Fujian Jinhua last year with stealing trade secrets from Micron.

Fujian Jinhua denied the charges.The ban, nevertheless, has forestalled

the company’s production plans.In 2017, Tsinghua Unigroup an-

nounced plans for a $30bn plant in Nan-jing to make NAND and DRAM chips.

The facility remains under construc-tion.

Under a push known as “Made in Chi-na 2025”, Beijing has targeted high-tech sectors, including semiconductors, for support in a bid to be more self-reliant, an initiative it has backed off from pub-licly after provoking the ire of the United States, which complains about Chinese

industrial subsidies. According to the China Semiconductor Industry Asso-ciation, China imported approximately $260bn worth of semiconductors in 2017, exceeding the value of crude oil imports.

Locally-made chips met less than 20% of domestic demand the same year.

Beijing’s eff orts to narrow the tech-nology gap are widely expected to inten-sify as US-China relations sour.

A component sales ban that the US Commerce Department imposed on Shenzhen-based phonemaker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd in May threatened to derail the company’s future, as it remains highly depend-ent on US-made hardware and soft-ware.

Over the weekend, President Don-ald Trump suggested the ban would be eased when he said US companies could continue to sell to Huawei, as long as the transactions pose no “great, national emergency problem”.

Sugar production in Indiaseen slipping from recordBloombergNew Delhi

Sugar output in India may drop to a three-year low next season from a record as dry weather parches fi elds in

some major growing areas.Production in the country, which vies with

Brazil as the world’s top grower, may slide to 28.2mn metric tonnes in the year that be-gins on October 1 from an estimated 32.95mn tonnes this year, the Indian Sugar Mills As-sociation said in a statement yesterday, citing its preliminary crop estimates.

While prolonged droughts shrivelled cane plants in parts of Maharashtra and Karna-taka, a delayed monsoon has further reduced crop prospects. A lower harvest would trim a record domestic surplus, potentially cur-

tailing exports and supporting global prices. India swings between being a sugar importer and exporter, depending on the size of local output. The monsoon, which waters more than half of India’s farmland, arrived on the southern coast more than a week later than normal, according to the India Meteorologi-cal Department. Rainfall across the country was 33% less than normal in June, it said. Rain in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s top sugar producer, was 61% lower than the long-term average, while Maharashtra, the No 2 grower, received 25% less than normal.

India will still need to export sugar in 2019-20 due to ample domestic surplus

Opening sugar stockpiles seen at an all-time high of 14.5mn tonnes on October 1, compared with a normal requirement of 5mn tonnes at that time

Sugar cane area in the country estimated at

4.93mn hectares in 2019-20, a drop of 10.4% from a year earlier.

Sugar production in top producer Ut-tar Pradesh seen rising to 12mn tonnes from 11.82mn tonnes year earlier on better yields; cane acreage in the northern state estimated at 2.36mn hectares, compared with 2.41mn hectares in 2018-19.

Sugar output in Maharashtra is likely to plunge 34.7% to 7mn tonnes next year; cane area is expected to slump by almost 30% to 823,000 hectares due to poor rain and low reservoir levels.

Acreage in Karnataka estimated at 420,000 hectares vs 502,000 hectares in 2018-19; sugar production seen at 3.5mn tonnes vs 4.37mn tonnes. Acreage in Tamil Nadu esti-mated at 230,000 hectares vs 260,000 hec-tares in 2018-19; sugar production seen at 750,000 tonnes vs 860,000 tonnes.

Samsung Electronics Double-Data-Rate modules with memory chips are arranged for a photograph in Seoul. Japan will tighten curbs on exports of high-tech materials used in smartphone displays and chips to South Korea, the industry ministry said yesterday.

Bank Indonesia needs to innovate, says deputy governor nomineeBloombergJakarta

Indonesia’s central bank must be quick to adapt and

innovate in response to a volatile global economy

and rising uncertainty, according to the woman

who’s expected to be the next senior deputy

governor.

“Bank Indonesia needs to give clear signals to

the market and business players on the economy’s

direction in the future,” Destry Damayanti, Presi-

dent Joko Widodo’s sole candidate for the position,

told lawmakers in Jakarta yesterday.

She cited the trade war and Indonesia’s current-

account deficit as key challenges for the economy,

adding that a shallow financial sector is also con-

tributing to volatility.

Damayanti, 55, is currently a commissioner at

the Indonesia Deposit Insurance Corp., which helps

to promote financial stability. She is set to replace

Mirza Adityaswara as senior deputy governor at the

central bank when his term expires in July.

A former economist at PT Bank Mandiri, she’ll be

the first woman to hold the senior deputy role since

2009. Rosmaya Hadi is currently the only woman

deputy governor.

Damayanti joins the central bank at a time of

heightened global uncertainty as US-China trade

tensions continue to weigh on global growth. Bank

Indonesia has signalled it is ready to begin easing

monetary policy after raising interest rates by 175

basis points last year. Regional central banks from

India to New Zealand have already started cutting

rates.

The global economy faces a future “full of

volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity,”

Damayanti said. Bank Indonesia must be “adaptive

and innovative in order to minimise risks that might

emerge as well as optimise various opportunities

for the sake of sustainable economic growth,” she

added.

Dian Ayu Yustina, an economist at PT Bank

Danamon in Jakarta, said Damayanti would be “a

good fit” and would make a good contribution to

macro-prudential policy. “She is also a well-respect-

ed figure among investors, bankers, analysts and

business entities,” Yustina said.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 2, 201912

ReutersDalian, China

China’s economy is likely to hit its growth target this year pro-vided a bitter trade dispute with

the United States does not worsen, and hence will not need “very big” stimulus measures to prop up growth, a central bank adviser said yesterday.

“If the Sino-US trade relationship does not deteriorate further, the possi-bility of keeping gross domestic prod-uct (GDP) growth over 6% this year is rather big,” Ma Jun told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum.

Chinese leaders have set a growth target of 6%-6.5% for 2019.

“There should be no need to take very big, new stimulus measures,” he said.

The United States and China agreed on Saturday to restart trade talks after President Donald Trump off ered con-cessions including no new tariff s and an easing of restrictions on tech company Huawei in order to reduce tensions with Beijing.

But China’s weak manufacturing readings in June, refl ecting slowing mo-mentum in a key sector driving growth, are likely to cast a shadow over the ap-parent progress US and Chinese leaders made at the G20 summit in Japan.

The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has already slashed the amount of cash banks must hold as reserve six times since early 2018 to help turn around soft credit growth.

It has also injected large amounts of liquidity into the fi nancial system and

guided short-term interest rates lower.Premier Li Keqiang raised expecta-

tions of more action last week by pledg-

ing measures to cut real interest rates on fi nancing for small and micro fi rms.

The central bank has vowed not to

adopt “fl ood-like” stimulus that ana-lysts say could exacerbate debt and structural risks.

Larry Hu, chief China economist at Macquarie Group, still expects China’s economic stimulus to “escalate to the next level” in the four quarter as the economy is seen deteriorating further, even if trade tensions de-escalate.

“The reason is that the current growth slowdown in China is related to, but not caused by the trade war,” he wrote in a note on Sunday.

Asked if the PBoC will follow in the footsteps of the US Federal Reserve in monetary easing, PBoC’s Ma said Chi-na’s monetary policymaking is prima-rily based on domestic economic con-ditions. The Fed is expected to confi rm a U-turn in global monetary policy and cut interest rates for the fi rst time since the fi nancial crisis a decade ago.

Ma said such changes in the external environment is “only for reference” in terms of its impact on the central bank’s monetary policies.

Nomura economists said on Sunday they expected China’s real GDP growth to drop from 6.4% in the fi rst quar-ter year-on-year to 6.1% in the sec-ond quarter, the lowest on record since 1990.

Some analysts’ in-house models put China’s actual growth much lower than offi cial readings suggest.

Capital Economics’ gauge has been below 6% for some time.

“The latest (PMI) survey data suggest that China’s economy is coming under renewed pressure as a result of cool-ing foreign demand and waning fi scal support, which should trigger further monetary easing,” Capital Economics said in a note yesterday.

No ‘big’ stimulus needed in China unless trade war worsens: PBoC

Ma: China’s economy is likely to hit its growth target this year provided a bitter trade dispute with the US does not worsen.

Mitsubishi still in talks with Mitsui, JOGMEC on stake in Arctic LNG-2 projectReutersTokyo

Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co and state-owned JOGMEC are still in talks with trading firm Mitsubishi Corp over the latter joining a venture that will take a stake in Russia’s Arctic LNG-2 project, Mitsui said yesterday.

Novatek PAO, Russia’s biggest private gas producer, said on Saturday it had agreed to sell a 10% stake in Arctic LNG-2, a upcoming project to liquefy natural gas in Russia, to a joint venture comprising JOGMEC – formally known as Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp – and Mitsui. Russian President Vladimir Putin told a news conference on Saturday that the Japanese investments in the

project would reach almost $3bn.Arctic LNG-2 will become the third liquefied natural gas (LNG) project for Novatek, which hopes to match Qatar in production of the super-chilled fuel.Mitsui declined to comment on terms of the deal, but said the joint venture’s investment would include 10% of the total development cost of Arctic LNG-2, estimated by Novatek

at $21bn-$23bn, as well as the cost of the 10% stake itself.“We are still talking with Mitsubishi on its possible participation in our joint venture,” Taichi Nagino, general manager of Mitsui’s Russia gas business division, told reporters yesterday.A Mitsubishi spokesman confirmed that the Japanese trading house is still considering whether or not it

would invest in the project.Mitsubishi said last month it was studying the project, but nothing has been decided.Mitsui and JOGMEC will buy the stake through a Dutch-based joint venture, of which JOGMEC owns 75% and Mitsui the rest.The venture plans to take about 2mn tonnes of LNG a year from the project, Mitsui’s Nagino said.

“We will start looking for buyers from now. We want to seek an optimal marketing strategy by taking advantage of the Arctic LNG-2’s position to be able to be a swing supplier to Europe and Asia,” he said.Novatek announced in April the sale of 20% of the Arctic LNG-2 project to two Chinese companies, and in March it agreed to sell a 10% stake to France’s Total.

Philippine retail billionaire moves from fashion to petsBloombergManila

Billionaire John Gokongwei’s Robinsons Retail Holdings Inc is considering an exit from the fashion business as it struggles to compete with cheaper, faster chains like Fast Retailing Co’s Uniqlo. Stock jumps to three-week high.The Filipino retail giant, whose fashion portfolio includes the Topshop and Dorothy Perkins brands, instead sees better returns from pet, health and beauty products where demand is growing, said chief executive officer Robina Gokongwei-Pe in an interview.Robina Gokongwei-Pe on June 21.“We are shrinking fashion, for it has become very difficult,” Gokongwei-Pe said. “There are other brands that came in who are more progressive and cheaper. We are already reducing the number of stores and we have to think if we move out altogether.”Shares rose as much as 2.2% yesterday before paring gains.The Manila-based company is relooking its business as it faces shrinking operating margins and growing competition in the low-cost space. It’s pivoting into wooing higher-spending consumers by entering into the premium grocery market, as well as expanding foreign franchises in beauty products and pet care, hoping to achieve

15% revenue growth annually for the next five years.“Pets have become very big,” said Gokongwei-Pe. “Dogs now are very spoiled. Just look at Instagram and Facebook, it’s all about dogs. You should put money where the money is, which is food, drugstores, hardware, and growing businesses like pets and beauty.”Robinsons Retail’s fashion portfolio has contracted to six brands and 40 stores at end-2018 from nine brands with 60 stores in 2014. Fashion is among the company’s specialty shops, which were cut to 341 in March from 387 at end-2018.The company in December bought the local franchise for South Korean personal care and beauty products retailer Arcova and Club Clio, adding to 15 stand-alone stores selling Elizabeth Arden, Shiseido and Benefit Cosmetics. It also procured the license for Singapore’s Pet Lovers Centre in October and plans to open a second outlet as early as this year.“Robinsons Retail is deploying its capital in a way that promises more growth,” said Miguel Ong, analyst at AP Securities Inc. “Fashion isn’t attractive as before with the rise of online platforms and brands like Uniqlo dominating the market.”Under a five-year plan targeting mid-to-high teen revenue growth, Robinsons Retail will spend between 3bn pesos ($59mn) and 5bn pesos to add 100 to 150 stores a year,

according to Gokongwei-Pe. The retailer has 1,911 stores in various formats, excluding 1,960 outlets of its The Generics Pharmacy.Revenue contribution from supermarkets will rise to 55% this year from 47% in 2018 after its acquisition of former rival Rustan Supercenters, whose 36 supermarkets cater to affluent shoppers. Robinsons Retail’s own 160 supermarkets cater mainly to mainstream consumers.The acquisition and other new stores will improve gross profit margin by 10 to 20 basis points this year, said Gokongwei-Pe.Operating margin, which fell below 5% in 2018, will shrink further due to write-offs related to the Rustan purchase. It will “definitely” improve in 2020, when the integration is completed, she said.A foreign executive has been hired to manage Mini Stop, which has potential to double its 5% sales contribution in 2018, if the convenience stores are “scientifically” ran.Robinsons Retail is considering creating its own e-commerce app for its supermarkets to fill the gap left by Honestbee’s closure in the Philippines. It may start from scratch or expand Growsari Inc., a grocery delivery service for mom-and-pop stores.The closure of Honestbee caused a dip in supermarket sales and will impact this year’s performance as same-store sales growth could have been 4.2% to 4.5% instead of 3%.

AIIB eyes up to $12bn a year in projectfi nancing

ReutersDalian, China

The Asian Infrastruc-ture Investment Bank (AIIB) aims to finance

infrastructure projects worth $10bn-$12bn annually over the coming years, and will maintain a prudent approach in investing in such deals, the bank’s vice president of policy and strategy said.

The AIIB has 97 members and was launched in January 2016 to help meet Asia’s infra-structure needs.

Since starting its operations, it has financed some $8bn in projects, mostly in Asia.

“We are gradually grow-ing our investment, and that’s very little compared to the in-frastructure finance needs,” Joachim von Amsberg told re-porters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in the northeastern port city of Dal-ian.

“It’s more important that we start with very high quality projects that really meet envi-ronmental and social standards and avoid corruption, rather than building up our invest-ment as quickly as possible. So quality comes before quantity.”

The AIIB aims to finance projects worth about $4bn this year, about 20% more than the $3.3bn it financed in 2018, the bank has said.

Von Amsberg said that the AIIB has been trying to avoid exacerbating debt risks in countries where it invests but still sees great potentials in Asia.

“We are very careful about investing in countries that face possible risks of debt distress. We are well aware how hurtful that distress can be for coun-tries,” he said.

China’s Belt and Road pro-gramme has stoked foreign criticism that its opaque fi-nancing could lead to unsus-tainable debt and that it aims more to promote Chinese in-fluence than development.

The China-US trade war is having little impact on the AIIB, which still welcomes the United States to join the bank as one of its new members, von Amsberg added.

China unlikely to make big US farm purchases anytime soonBloombergBeijing

China is unlikely to start pur-chasing large amounts of US farm products anytime soon

despite Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreeing to a truce in their trade war, according to an infl uential Chinese industry researcher.

Last time the two leaders agreed to a detente, China’s state-owned compa-nies began several rounds of US soy-bean purchases.

But “this time, it’s very diffi cult to see that happening,” said Li Qiang, chairman and chief analyst at Shang-hai JC Intelligence Co.

Barriers include tit-for-tat tariffs that remain in place, as well as the Huawei Technologies Co situation, which is still a contentious issue, he

said. While the weekend meeting be-tween Xi and Trump at the Group of 20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, spurred some optimism over the resumption of negotiations, many remain scep-tical that an end to the trade war is close.

After a truce last year, which later fell apart, China agreed to purchase about 14mn tonnes of US soybeans, but some 6mn tonnes have not yet been shipped.

The agreement reached at the week-end between China and the US doesn’t make a fi nal deal any more likely, ac-cording to academic Zhu Ning, who advises the Chinese government and central bank.

Adding to doubts are Larry Kud-low’s comments that there are no fi rm promises and no timetable for com-pletion of a potential sweeping trade agreement.

Trump isn’t off ering a “general am-nesty” to Huawei Technologies as part of an agreement to restart trade talks with China, the White House National Economic Council director said on Fox News Sunday.

Still, any speculation that China could cancel its soy purchase commit-ments already made is misplaced and China will fulfi l its earlier pledge, JCI’s Li said.

Before the weekend’s G20 meeting, Chinese customs data showed that in May the world’s biggest buyer of soy-beans cut imports from America for the fi rst time in six months.

In a report Friday, the US Depart-ment of Agriculture registered the sale of 544,000 tonnes of soybeans for shipment to China this season, but the sale was part of an earlier round of purchases, according to people famil-iar with the matter.

Soybeans spill from a collapsed grain bin in an agricultural field where floodwater had receded outside Pacific Junction, Iowa, US (file). In a report Friday, the US Department of Agriculture registered the sale of 544,000 tonnes of soybeans for shipment to China this season, but the sale was part of an earlier round of purchases, according to people familiar with the matter.

Robinson Retail Holdings’s head off ice in Manila. Robinsons Retail is considering creating its own e-commerce app for its supermarkets to fill the gap left by Honestbee’s closure in the Philippines. It may start from scratch or expand Growsari, a grocery delivery service for mom-and-pop stores.

BUSINESS13Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

ReutersSydney

Australia’s government faces its fi rst legislative test after being returned in May’s election when

parliament meets today, as it seeks sup-port from independent senators to pass tax cuts needed to stimulate a stum-bling economy.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Liberal-led coalition wants to pass A$158bn ($110bn) in income tax cuts over a decade after campaigning heavily on its economic credentials in the run-up to its “miracle” election victory.

Morrison’s ability to pilot the legis-lation through a parliament in which independents and minor parties hold the balance of power in the upper house Senate, will off er an early glimpse of the style and tone of his three-year term.

“It’s got a less complex Senate, in terms of carving out a majority, than was the case before the election,” said Frank Bongiorno, a political historian at Australian National University. “That clearly is a benefi t.”

Morrison’s coalition will hold a two-seat majority in the lower house after appointing the speaker.

It holds 35 of 76 seats in the Senate, up from 31 before the election.

That means, in order to pass laws, it will often need to draw on cross-bench support provided either by independent or minor-party lawmakers.

Most are right of centre, sympathetic to the government and some have al-ready indicated willingness to back the tax cuts.

“(It is) in the national interest (and) the interest of our economy,” Finance Minster Mathias Cormann told ABC radio. Near-term relief, which could deliver hundreds of dollars in refunds to millions of tax-payers within weeks, would also be welcome news for hard-pressed retailers, as consumer spending

languishes and the economy grows at its slowest in a decade.

“It will provide some good support to incomes, particularly for households in the low-to-middle income bracket more likely to go out and spend,” said

Janu Chan, a senior economist at St George Bank in Sydney.

“There’s not a lot of other avenues for support,” she said, referring to Austral-ia’s record-low interest rates and head-winds such as stagnant wage growth,

high household debt and a weak hous-ing market.

The opposition Labour Party, which proposed its own tax cuts in the run-up to polls, says it supports near-term relief, but not longer-term

cuts planned to take effect in 2022. Key tasks flagged by the government are industrial relations reform and a tougher line in regulating internet gi-ants, such as Facebook Inc and Alpha-bet Inc’s Google.

Tax cuts fi rst test for Aussie govt after election victory

Australia iron ore exports to drop for first time in 18 yearsBloombergSingapore

Iron ore exports from Australia are

set to post the first annual drop

in almost two decades following

bad weather and output setbacks,

worsening a global shortage and

bolstering prices that have already

surged to a five-year high.

The world’s top shipper cut its

2019 forecast to 814mn tonnes

from 867mn tonnes in March and

boosted its estimate for this year’s

average price by almost 20%,

according to a report by the Depart-

ment of Industry, Innovation and

Science yesterday.

That would be the first contrac-

tion since 2001. Last year, Australian

exports totalled 835mn tonnes. Iron

ore has soared above $100 a tonne,

driven by the twin forces of supply

disruptions in Brazil and Australia

and strong demand from steel mills

in China.

This will push the value of Aus-

tralia’s exports to A$79bn ($55bn) in

fiscal 2020, reflecting higher prices

that are largely due to Vale SA’s dam

disaster in January, the department

said.

“The iron ore price is expected to

be higher than previously forecast –

and for a longer period – due to the

limited capacity of other operations

in Australia and elsewhere to ramp

up and replace Vale’s production

loss of high-grade supply, at least

in the short term,” the report said.

Yesterday, futures on the Singapore

Exchange surged as much 6.3% to

$120 a tonne, the highest since 2014,

while the contract in China jumped

4.1%. Benchmark spot ore was last

at $118.05 a tonne, according to

Mysteel Global.

Rio Tinto Group and BHP Group

both revised down their annual

production outlooks in the wake of

Cyclone Veronica in the first half,

and Rio in June further lowered its

output target after problems at its

sprawling operations in Western

Australia. “The seaborne iron ore

market is thus likely to stay tight,

and prices elevated, out to at least

2021,” the report said.

Global seaborne iron ore supply

is forecast to decline by 4.1% to

around 1.5bn tonnes in 2019, driven

by events stemming from the dam

collapse, the report said. Vale’s

production is expected to gradually

recover over the next three years,

with the full recovery in its produc-

tion hinging on 60mn tonnes of

production associated with the use

of tailings dams, the department

said.

At the same time, steel produc-

tion in China is heading for a

record year, the department said.

Infrastructure stimulus and good

margins will aid the sector, although

production will gradually decline

through 2021.

The world’s largest steelmaker

had pushed run-rates to a record

above 1bn tonnes a year, according

to Bloomberg calculations based on

off icial statistics.

An expected slowdown in global

economic growth in 2019 and 2020

is a key risk to the outlook, and will

likely to lead to less demand for

steel-making inputs – metallurgical

coal and iron ore, the report said.

However, China is expected

to respond to slowing growth

and US-China trade tensions by

loosening monetary policy and

increasing government spending

on infrastructure and construction

projects, it said. India is set to become

a net importer of iron ore from 2020

as steel production rises amid a tightly

regulated domestic iron ore sector

China will use more scrap material in

steel production, which will diminish

demand for imported iron ore and

metallurgical coal.

Scott Morrison, Australia’s Prime Minister, speaks during an event in Sydney. Morrison’s Liberal-led coalition wants to pass A$158bn ($110bn) in income tax cuts over a decade after campaigning heavily on its economic credentials in the run-up to its “miracle” election victory.

Sri Lankan bank eyeing overseas expansionBloombergColombo

Commercial Bank of Ceylon Plc, Sri Lanka’s biggest lender by market value, is switching focus

to its overseas operations as a slowing economy at home hurts profi t and in-creases the risk of bad loans.

The lender, which reported a 24% fall in group profi t in the quarter ended March, plans to “go more” into the re-tail banking sector in Bangladesh next year to help expand margins, chairman Dharma Dheerasinghe said.

Bangladesh accounts for 15% of profi t for the company.

The bank also has operations in My-anmar and Maldives, among others.

Sri Lanka, which last year expanded at the slowest pace since 2001 amid po-litical instability, was rocked by terror attacks on Easter Sunday, prompting tourists to fl ee the nation famous for the Temple of Tooth, Dambulla Caves and coconut palm-fringed beaches.

Damage to the tourism industry that accounts for 5% of the $87bn economy puts President Maithripala Sirisena’s attempts to revive growth at risk.

That makes the focus on Bangladesh vital for Commercial Bank as the lender can tap a nation that is forecast to ex-pand 8.1% in the year ending June 30.

“Our strategy is for overseas expan-sion,” Dheerasinghe said in an interview in his Colombo offi ce. “Even before the incidents that occurred on April 21, there were signs of non-performing loans rising and this trend is likely to continue given the present turbulent environment prevailing in the political and economic climate in the country.”

Commercial Bank’s bad-loan ra-tio rose to 4.1% in the quarter ended March while credit growth dropped.

The company’s shares have declined 18% this year, compared with an 11% drop in the main stock index.

“The entire banking sector has seen a notable slowdown in business volumes and Commercial Bank in particular saw a reducing loan book quarter-on-quar-ter,” said Vajirapanie Bandaranayake, research manager at Bartleet Religare Securities Pvt. “International opera-tions continue to be a strong return-on-equity driver.”

Commercial Bank may report a drop in full-year profi t because of rising bad loans, Dheerasinghe said, adding that

“this would be the case in the entire banking industry.”

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka on May 31 cut its benchmark interest rate for the fi rst time in more than a year, to support the fl agging economy which grew at 3.2% in 2018 amid a protracted leadership crisis.

Then came the terrorist attacks, which killed over 250 people.

“The tourism industry that was do-ing well before the Easter Sunday at-tacks has been severely aff ected and it has resulted in cascading eff ects on other industries as well,” Dheerasinghe said.

Overseas business will remain the bright spot for the Sri Lankan lender.

The bank is targeting 20% contri-bution to profi t from its foreign units and overseas expansion in the next fi ve years, the chairman said.

“It’s benefi cial to lend off shore,” Dheerasinghe said. “We have the dol-lar resources in our off shore banking units to support this. We will lend more overseas.”

Petroleum prices to remainunchanged in Pakistan this monthInternewsIslamabad

Petroleum prices will re-main unchanged in Pa-kistan for the month of

July as the government has made adjustments in tax rates, according to an official an-nouncement.

The decision was taken to provide relief to the consum-ers, said a statement issued by the finance ministry.

It said the government had decided not to increase the prices of petroleum products for July 2019.

However, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) earlier during the day issued a notification increasing the General Sales Tax (GST) on petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) from 13% to 17% to absorb requirement for a price cut.

The crude price in the in-ternational market had come down from April’s $72 per bar-rel to $64 per barrel on June 28.

Based on standard 17% GST rate (instead of 13% notified rate for HSD and petrol), the Oil and Gas Regulatory Au-thority (Ogra) had recom-mended about 77 paisa per litre reduction in the price of petrol (motor spirit) and Rs2.94 per litre cut in kerosene price.

It also proposed increase of Rs2.30 per litre and 26 paisa per litre in the rates of HSD and Light Diesel Oil (LDO), respec-tively.

With this arrangement, the existing rates of HSD, LDO, petrol and kerosene oil will remain at Rs126.82, Rs88.62, Rs112.68 and Rs98.46 per litre, respectively.

Besides the GST, the govern-ment has also been charging petroleum levy ranging be-tween Rs14 and Rs18 per litre on petrol and HSD and Rs3 and Rs6 per litre on kerosene and LDO.

Petrol and HSD are two ma-jor products that generate most of the revenue for the govern-ment because of their massive and yet growing consumption in the country.

The total HSD sales are touching 800,000 tonnes per month against the month-ly consumption of around 700,000 tonnes of petrol, while the sales of kerosene oil and LDO are generally less than 10,000 tonnes per month.

The petroleum prices have been on the rise since early 2017 except for a couple of times when they were reduced.

The government has also notified increase in electricity and gas rates by 12% and 25% respectively to become effec-tive yesterday.

Pedestrians are reflected on the window of a Commercial Bank of Ceylon branch in Colombo. The lender plans to “go more” into the retail banking sector in Bangladesh next year to help expand margins, chairman Dharma Dheerasinghe said.

Inflation in Pakistanreaches new heightsInternewsKarachi

The month of July also ushered in a steep rise in inflation across the country. The recent hike in taxes paved way for inflation to reach new heights, creating plenty of problems for citizens.Sales taxes, along with other taxes, have been imposed from yesterday. Increase in gas prices is also applied from yesterday. In the series of price hikes, the electricity prices per unit will increase by Rs0.75.In Peshawar and Quetta, the prices for vegetables and fruits will increase by Rs20 to Rs80 per kilo.The transporters alliance in Karachi decided to go on a strike from today over likely hike in the price of CNG by Rs18 in Sindh.In Quetta, the price of CNG per kilo has been raised from Rs112 to Rs132, whereas, in Peshawar it increased to Rs140.Karachi transport alliance leader Arshad Bukhari said that due to heavy increase in price of CNG it is not possible to run buses.Meanwhile, the online taxi services also announced an increase of 5% in fares.The ticket price for Railway has also been increased from yesterday, with a hike of 2% to 8%.In Faisalabad, in protest of sales tax, the textile processing mills association has announced to shut down factories.Due to the announcement, daily wage workers have been quite disgruntled.All Pakistan Textile Mills Association has distanced itself from the call for strike, saying they believe in negotiation instead of protest.

BUSINESS

Gulf Times Tuesday, July 2, 201914

ECB policymakers unite behind stimulus pledgeReutersHelsinki

Eurozone infl ation remains unac-ceptably low and the European Central Bank will ease policy fur-

ther if necessary to boost price pressures, policymakers said yesterday, just weeks after ECB chief Mario Draghi hinted at more stimulus.

With growth and infl ation slowing for the better part of the last year, the ECB has given up on plans to tighten policy, and policymakers are now debating whether to cut rates further or restart a recently shut, €2.6tn bond purchase scheme.

But with interest rates already at a record low and the ECB’s balance sheet at €4.7tn, critics say that the potency of its remaining tools is limited and more easing can only provide a modest boost.

Speaking at a conference in Helsinki, chief economist Philip Lane and Govern-

ing Council members Klaas Knot, Pablo Hernandez de Cos and Olli Rehn all em-phasised the ECB’s willingness and readi-ness to act.

“Especially when infl ation deviates from its objective for an extended pe-riod, central banks — including the ECB — should adopt clear communication strategies that leave no doubt about their absolute commitment to meeting the in-fl ation objective over the medium term,” Lane said.

The ECB has provided unprecedented stimulus for years and successfully re-vived the 19-member currency bloc only to see uncertainties over global trade and, to a lesser extent, Brexit unravel its work.

Indeed, growth in the second and third quarter of this year could weaken com-pared with the fi rst three months of the year, Knot, the Dutch central bank chief said, noting that the long-heralded re-bound appears to be delayed.

“It is indisputable that infl ation re-

mains too low,” said Knot, a policy hawk, adding that the ECB was determined to act in case of an adverse scenario.

Lane also disputed critics who argue that the ECB’s policy arsenal is nearly de-pleted.

“Our assessment is that (our) policy package has been eff ective and further easing can be provided if required to de-liver our mandate,” Lane said. “The eff ec-tiveness of the policy toolkit means that we can add further monetary accommo-dation.”

The ECB next meets on July 25.Some analysts expect it to announce

more stimulus measures then, while oth-ers don’t see a move coming until its Sep-tember 12 meeting, when it will also issue new economic projections.

At minus 0.4%, the ECB’s deposit rate is already at a record low and not far above what is considered the “eff ective lower bound” for rates.

With government borrowing costs al-ready also at record lows, more bond buys

may do little to encourage eurozone states to spend.

“In the short term... we are again in the diffi cult situation,” de Cos, Spain’s central bank governor said, referring to weak in-fl ation and slow growth.

The problem of weak price growth is not unique to the eurozone.

Major central banks around the world appear to be struggling to understand what may be a broader shift in price set-ting.

“The ECB — much like other central banks — operates in a new environment where long-run trends, such as popu-lation ageing, lower long-term interest rates and climate change have become key policy issues,” Rehn, Finland’s central bank governor, added.

Given these changes, Rehn repeated his argument that the ECB should conduct a broader review of its policy strategy, as its last review was over a decade ago and the bank has since then been forced to rein-vent its policy toolkit.

Trade acrimony could revive ‘stalled’ farm policy reform: OECD

ReutersParis

International tensions over trade

could have a positive outcome

for agriculture by reviving eff orts

to reform the most ineff ective of

policies that distribute hundreds

of billions of dollars to farmers

each year, the OECD said.

Nearly 70% of subsidies, taxes

and other financial transfers

involving farmers come from

policies that heavily distort

markets, notably by creat-

ing an artificial gap between

domestic and world prices, the

Paris-based Organisation for

Economic Co-operation and

Development said in an annual

survey of agriculture policy.

After significant steps in the early

2000s to reduce subsidies sup-

porting production and prices,

which the OECD sees as wasteful

and preventing structural

investments in farming, reform

progress “has largely stalled”

in the past decade, it said in the

report published yesterday.

A rise in trade tensions has led

to further market-disrupting

measures such as tariff s, but

could also focus attention

on addressing longstanding

distortions, Ken Ash, the OECD’s

director of trade and agriculture,

told Reuters.

“We’re choosing to be optimistic

because there’s a frustration

with subsidies in a number of

industrial sectors and in fisheries

and agriculture,” he said by

telephone.

“If it turns from conflict to co-op-

eration you could see measures

that begin to discipline the most

egregious actions that distort

not just agriculture but other

sectors as well.”

Ash declined to comment on

specific trade disputes, including

a year-old tariff battle between

the United States and China.

Agriculture is regularly a

flashpoint in trade negotiations,

notably in areas such as food

standards and genetic modifica-

tion, and has also been swept up

in the US-Chinese tussle.

Hopes of a resolution of the US-

Chinese trade war were revived

on Saturday when US President

Donald Trump and Chinese

counterpart Xi Jinping agreed to

resume negotiations.

The OECD’s survey of farm policy

in 2016-18 covering 53 countries

estimated that states off ered

$445bn per year in net transfers

to agricultural producers.

The share of gross farm revenue

coming from policy measures

was broadly stable over the

period, it said.

For all countries, the average

was around 12% of annual gross

revenue.

That included a gap between

an average of just over 18% for

members of the OECD group of

rich nations, and around 9% for

emerging countries.

But farmers in some countries,

notably Argentina and India,

lost more money than they

gained from agricultural policies

because of measures such as

export taxes, the OECD said.The European Central Bank (ECB) headquarters stand at the end of a residential street in Frankfurt. With growth and inflation slowing for the better part of the last year, the ECB has given up on plans to tighten policy, and policymakers are now debating whether to cut rates further or restart a recently shut, €2.6tn bond purchase scheme.

Performance Food tobuy Reinhart for $2bn

BloombergLondon

Performance Food Group Co

agreed to buy Reinhart Food-

service for $2bn in a combina-

tion of US food suppliers.

Performance, a distributor for

retailers and resultants, will buy

Reinhart from its owner, Reyes

Holdings LLC, in an all-cash deal,

the company said in a state-

ment yesterday. Together with

Reinhart, Performance’s sales

will rise to about $30bn.

The deal shows how food-

service companies are under

pressure to consolidate as costs

climb. Truckers’ demands for

higher wages, for example, have

squeezed already low profit

margins. By combining with

Reinhart, Performance aims to

save $50mn in costs annually

within three years.

Performance estimates it will get

a tax benefit of $265mn. Includ-

ing that, the price is a multiple of

10.6 times Reinhart’s estimated

adjusted earnings when exclud-

ing interest, taxes, depreciation

and amortisation.

Closely held Reinhart, based in

Rosemont, Illinois, will give Per-

formance a broader geographic

reach, Performance said.

“This transaction provides us

with greater overall scale, a

diverse customer base, includ-

ing a solid base of independent

customers, and builds upon our

strong distribution platform,”

Performance Chief Executive

Off icer George Holm said.

Richmond, Virginia-based Per-

formance Food also increased

the bottom range its 2019

outlook for adjusted Ebitda to

a range of 9% to 10%, up from a

previous lower level of 8%.

Credit Suisse AG acted as

Performance’s financial adviser

in the deal, which is expected to

close by the end of 2019.

The transaction will be financed

with the company’s asset-based

revolving credit facility and

$300mn to $400mn of new sen-

ior unsecured notes. Financing

was provided by Credit Suisse

and Wells Fargo & Co.

ECB could get first female leader on French suggestion to EU

BloombergParis

The European Central Bank could be headed for its first-ever female president as European Union leaders haggle over top policy positions.France considers the ECB presidency as a viable target and would prefer that a woman gets the role, according to a person familiar with the matter, who said there are several French women suitably qualified including International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde.Other names floated in past include Bank of France Deputy Governor Sylvie Goulard, and OECD Chief Economist Laurence Boone. Another option might be Odile Renaud Basso, head of the French treasury.France isn’t actively promoting its ECB candidates at this point. That piece of the jigsaw will depend on the prospects for another Frenchman, Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, to become head of the commission. It also has to get through the European Parliament.EU leaders met through the night to negotiate a suite of top posts, but failed to reach agreement on a package that would see Dutch Socialist Frans Timmermans lead the commission. Leaders will resume

their eff orts today morning in Brussels, extending the marathon into a third day.The candidates under discussion for the other main political posts, including the head of the council of leaders and the foreign policy chief, likely wouldn’t include any French people, leaving French President Emmanuel Macron in pole position to claim the ECB job.Heading into the summit on Sunday, Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettelsaid leaders should commit to a female central bank chief. Italy is also said to favour putting a French woman in charge of eurozone monetary policy, according to another off icial familiar with the matter.Despite being a lawyer, rather than an economist, Lagarde “would be a very good fit for the position, were she to be interested,” said Peter Dixon, an economist at Commerzbank in London. “She’d be very competent.”The French proposal could mute resistance to the nation gaining the ECB leadership for the second time. Jean-Claude Trichet was ECB chief from 2003-2011. So far all the contenders seen as having the best chance of being nominated were men, including Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann and Bank of France Governor Francois Villeroy de Galhau.

Nordea seeks new CEO to put revenue drive into a higher gearBloombergHelsinki

Beset by years of a lacklustre results, Nordea Bank Abp is switching out its chief executive

offi cer to fi nd new momentum in its search of top-line growth.

The biggest Nordic bank an-nounced on Sunday that Casper von Koskull, 58, will retire by the end of next year, and could step aside even sooner as the search for a successor has started. The stock rose as much as 2.1% in the fi rst hours of trading in Stockholm.

The person ultimately responsible for that search, chairman Torbjorn Magnusson, said that the new CEO will need refocus the bank on custom-ers to generate the expected revenue growth.

The Nordea that delivers is “a more off ensive bank, it’s a bank that takes market share and increases profi tabil-ity,” said Magnusson, who took over in March, picked from the ranks of Nor-dea’s main owner, Sampo Oyj.

Even so, he downplayed those ex-pectations. “I don’t expect dramatic, quick growth,” he said in an interview

on Sunday. “I expect us to change to some growth.”

Nordea investors have been putting pressure on management to deliver more than just cost cuts. Under von Koskull’s 3 1/2-year watch, Nordea shed riskier businesses and responded to mounting regulation by simplifying its organisation and moving its head-quarters inside the European banking union. It also invested in money laun-dering controls.

Analysts also agree. The bank needs to regain market share in key areas such as retail and corporate bank-ing, said Antti Saari, an analyst at OP Group in Helsinki.

“The main thing to resolve is how to fi nd growth momentum,” Saari said on Sunday by phone. “Income has been falling for several years and that has to be stopped.”

“Cutting promised payouts un-til revenue and profi t visibility im-

prove will top the agenda of Nor-dea’s next CEO, in our view,” said Philip Richards, senior analyst; and Georgi Gunchev, industry analyst, at Bloomberg.

Bringing in a new CEO “is one way to get the focus back on customer work and away from internal reorganiza-tion,” Saari said. “This year, we’ve al-ready seen some early positive signs, for example in retail banking, that the market share begins to stabilise.”

Nordea is likely to settle on an out-side candidate since there’s “no one obvious within the bank,” Saari said.

There’s no shortlist yet, and the bank is looking both externally and internally to fi nd a customer-focused person able to lead large organisations and communicate eff ectively, Mag-nusson said.

“Modern technology is such a big part of a bank that he or she will have some sort of experience of how to use modern technology in banking distri-bution,” Magnusson said.

Von Koskull, who turns 60 in Sep-tember 2020, had originally intended to retire at that age, and made the de-cision on Sunday morning after con-sulting with the board, Magnusson said. Nordea cited speculation in the

market as a reason for announcing his retirement.

“There’s been speculation in the market for so long that they prob-ably wanted to clear up the situa-tion,” Saari said. “I don’t think this will drag on anywhere near the end of next year. They’re likely to do the handover as soon as the successor is able to start.”

Last week, Nordea was eclipsed as the biggest Nordic bank by Norway’s DNB ASA in market value, after its shares lost more than 40% since a 2017 high. Nordea remains the biggest bank in the region by revenue.

DNB Eclipses Nordea as the Most Valued Bank of the Nordic Region

Von Koskull’s departure will add to the wave of top-level switches at banks in the region. Danske Bank A/S, DNB and Svenska Handelsbanken AB all named new CEOs this year, while Swedbank AB is searching for a new top boss.

“Nordea needs to become the mod-ern Nordic bank for all Nordic citizens and companies, and be that in the minds of all these citizens and compa-nies, and I don’t think that we’re quite there yet,” Magnusson said. “That’s the challenge for the new CEO.”

“There’s no shortlist yet, and the bank is looking both externally and internally to fi nd a customer-focused person able to lead large organisations and communicate eff ectively”

BUSINESS15Gulf Times

Tuesday, July 2, 2019

UK economy feels strain ofglobal slowdown and BrexitUK factories have weakest month in six years: PMI; global slowdown compounds stockbuilding pay-back, say economists; consumer lending grows at slowest pace since 2014: BoE; UK economy probably shrank 0.2% q-o-q in Q2: EY Item club

ReutersLondon

Britain’s economy has lost momentum and might have shrunk in the second quarter of 2019, according to data that showed

the double impact of Brexit and the slowdown in the global economy.

Manufacturers had their worst month in more than six years and consumers increased their borrowing at the slowest pace since 2014.

The value of sterling fell against the dollar and the euro after the data was published.

Howard Archer, an economist with EY Item Club, a forecasting group, estimated that Brit-ain’s economy contracted by 0.2% in the April-June period.

The Bank of England last month cut its fore-cast for economic growth in the second quarter to zero.

That largely refl ected an unwinding of the rush by many factories to get ready for the original Brexit deadline which has now been delayed until October 31.

But economists said yesterday’s manufac-turing purchasing managers’ index showed how hard Britain’s factories were also being hit by the slowdown in the world economy caused by the trade skirmishes between the United States and China.

The overall PMI slumped to 48.0 in June from

May’s 49.4, well below the average forecast in a Reuters poll of economists and its lowest read-ing since February 2013.

Export demand fell for a third month as man-ufacturers around the world lost confi dence.

Allan Monks, an economist at JP Morgan, said the weak PMI survey challenged his view that manufacturing growth would rebound at the start of the third quarter.

Separate data from the Bank of England published yesterday showed lending to British consumers — whose spending has helped the economy cope with the Brexit crisis — rose by its weakest annual pace in more than fi ve years in May.

The BoE data also showed the weakest in-crease since April 2017 in net mortgage lend-ing.

Archer at EY Item Club said May’s mortgage data chimed with other fi gures which sug-

gested the relief from the delay of Brexit had been limited. “Improved consumer purchasing power and robust employment growth has also recently been helpful for the housing market, but this has recently shown some signs of level-ling off ,” he said.

Economists said they were waiting for Wednesday’s PMI of Britain’s dominant servic-es industry to gauge the extent of the slowdown in the overall economy.

Chris Hare, an economist with HSBC, said he expected only a slight pick-up which would point to anaemic underlying growth.

“So, considerations about Brexit deadlines notwithstanding, we do not think that now is the time for the Bank of England to be raising rates,” he said.

The BoE has stuck to its message that it ex-pects to raise borrowing costs, assuming Britain can avoid a no-deal Brexit.

Black female CEO battles againstventure capital funding legacy

BloombergNew York

The cultural implications of restricted access to capital was the theme of the Iconoclast Dinner Experience’s “Impolite Conversation” event held in Midtown Manhattan a few Thursdays ago.“African-American women get 2% of venture capital,” said Jean Brownhill, who’s experienced the frustration of having a tough time raising funds as the founder and chief executive off icer of Sweeten, a free service that matches general contractors with people renovating their homes or businesses.“Venture capitalists don’t put their hand up and say, ‘I’m one of the people that will actually fund an African-American woman.’ You have to go through all 100% to find that 2%,” she said.Still, Brownhill got it done. Sweeten secured $3.5mn in Series A funding led by Navitas Capital in 2015 and has raised $9.8mn to date.Filmmaker Stefon Bristol’s lean years at New York University film school culminated with Spike Lee producing his debut feature, See You Yesterday. Available on Netflix, the film is Bristol’s interpretation of a classic American trope: time travel. This time it’s two teenage African-American science prodigies who attempt to use their time travel skills to tackle police shootings.Bristol’s advice when it comes to balancing creative expression and raising capital: “Be careful who you have in your circle. The money is not really the issue, it’s the people. With the right people, the money, the resources, will come when it’s needed.”The Iconoclast Dinner Experience’s founder, Lezli Levene Harvell, a paediatric dentist, said her goal was to bring people together in conversation while showcasing “trailblazers of colour” from food, wine and spirits.In this case, there were small bites by Reem Assil and drinks by Karl Franz Williams of Solomon & Kuff for guests including fashion designer and Harlem haberdasher Dapper Dan, who was wearing Gucci money-green floral loafers. The events’ proceeds support Spelman College students from Jamaica and sub-Saharan countries.“Cultural appropriation conversations often focus on whether white people can do black and brown people things,” Harvell said. “The issue is that black and brown people don’t have the same access to capital to tell their own stories.”Brownhill found sustenance in the event. “Being able to come out and feel a community of support, it’s everything,” Brownhill said. “It lights the fire when you feel tired. You remember that there are other people out there, fighting the good fight.”

Expansion-killing Fed now looked to as saviour of record upswingBloombergWashington

The frequent killer of past US economic

expansions is being counted on to extend

the life of the now record-long current

one.

The hoped-for safeguard is the Federal

Reserve — which even former chair Janet

Yellen admits has a history of snuff ing

out upswings by raising interest rates to

contain inflation.

But now, with inflation too low for the

Fed’s taste, chairman Jerome Powell and

his colleagues know they’re on the spot to

prolong the expansion, which on Monday

becomes the longest in records back to

1854 — at 10 years and one month.

Economists generally believe the Fed will

succeed in preventing a recession, despite

some downside risks.

“My colleagues and I have one overarch-

ing goal,” Powell told reporters on June

19. “Sustain the economic expansion, with

a strong job market and stable prices, for

the benefit of the American people.”

That would also incidentally benefit

President Donald Trump, who’s up for

re-election next year and has repeatedly

urged the central bank to ease policy to

boost growth.

The Federal Open Market Committee

is expected to lower interest rates at its

July 30-31 meeting, perhaps by as much

as a half percentage point, as it battles

heightened trade tensions and slowing

global growth.

And it may not stop there. Jason Cum-

mins, chief US economist at hedge fund

Brevan Howard Asset Management, said

at a June conference that the Fed could

end up reducing rates by 1.25 percentage

points to bolster the economy and boost

inflation.

The expansion is entering record territory

under some threat.

“There are some dark clouds on the hori-

zon,” said Robert Dye, chief economist at

Comerica Inc in Dallas.

Economists surveyed by Bloomberg in

June saw a 30% chance of a recession in

the next year, according to the median

estimate. That compares with 15% in late

2018.

Growth was already on course to slow

this year as the stimulative eff ects of last

year’s tax cuts waned.

Then the US was hit by what Cummins

dubbed a “deglobalisation shock” as

Trump’s trade battles with China and other

nations sapped business confidence and

hurt the world economy.

Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping

decided on Saturday to resume trade ne-

gotiations after a six-week stalemate, with

the US agreeing to a temporary freeze on

further tariff s on Chinese goods.

The hit to manufacturing from the trade

tensions has led to a pile-up of unwanted

inventories that companies will need to

work off , curbing production and growth

in the process.

And it’s resulted in an economy that’s

overly reliant on one engine to sustain the

expansion — consumers — as businesses

have curbed investment and residential

construction has lagged.

“The economy has become less well

balanced and a little more fragile,” said

Andrew Hollenhorst, chief US economist

for Citigroup Inc.

That puts a premium on a continued

strong job market to provide the fuel for

consumer purchases.

After a surprise slowdown in payrolls

growth to 75,000 in May, net hiring prob-

ably picked up to 160,000 in June, accord-

ing to the median forecast of economists

surveyed by Bloomberg. The data are due

July 5.

In the face of the trade-driven headwinds,

some economists question how potent

the expected Fed rate reductions will be,

arguing that lower borrowing costs won’t

induce businesses spooked by tariff s into

stepping up their spending.

“The biggest drag on investment is

uncertainty stemming from the US’s

erratic trade policy — something the Fed

is powerless to address,” Megan Greene,

incoming senior fellow at the Harvard

Kennedy School, said in an e-mail.

San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly

pushed back against that line of reasoning

in a Bloomberg Television interview last

week.

“Businesses do respond to the sense that

the economy is going to be on a sustain-

able pace or it’s going to falter,” she

said. “That mood shift can be very much

supported by the actions of monetary

policy.”

A big advantage of the widely expected

rate reductions may actually be defensive.

Without them, financial markets could

crater, dragging down economic growth.

“The main benefits of the Fed cutting right

now is to prevent another stock market

correction like we had in the fourth

quarter,” said Ethan Harris, head of global

economics research at Bank of America

Corp

In a sense, it’s a perverse version of the so-

called Greenspan put — the belief among

investors that former Fed Chairman Alan

Greenspan would ride to the rescue when-

ever markets dropped precipitously. In

this case, investors are betting on Powell

to prevent a plunge from even happening.

The expansion does have some things

going for it. Partly because it’s been so

lacklustre, it has not built up some of the

excesses that typically precede down-

turns — a bubble in house prices and

home construction in 2007 and a run-up

in stock prices and business investment

in 2001. And inflation has remained

muted.

It was in 1997 that the late Massachusetts

Institute of Technology economist Rudi-

ger Dornbusch fingered the Fed as the

culprit for killing off growth.

“None of the US expansions of the past 40

years died in bed of old age,” he quipped.

“Everyone was murdered by the Federal

Reserve.”

But that was from a time when policy mak-

ers were prone to worrying about inflation

being too high, not too low. At 1.5% in May,

it’s well shy of the Fed’s 2% target and on

its own could be a reason for a rate cut.

With the support of the Fed, “this expan-

sion can go on for a good while longer,”

said Peter Hooper, global head of eco-

nomic research for Deutsche Bank.

An Aston Martin DB11 luxury automobile sits at the end of the final assembly line at Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd’s manufacturing and assembly plant in Gaydon, UK. Manufacturers in the UK had their worst month in more than six years and consumers increased their borrowing at the slowest pace since 2014.

Global manufacturing slump puts reality check on trade truceBloombergSingapore

Global manufacturing took another knock at the end of the second quarter, signalling a worsening economic growth outlook as US-China trade tensions continue to simmer.Across Asia and Europe, factory activity shrank in June, according to reports yesterday. China’s manufacturers saw sales, exports and production fall, while Germany suff ered from weaker foreign demand. Exports from South Korea plunged almost 14%, and Japan’s

Tankan confidence index dropped to a three-year low.Global stocks rallied as investors took their cue from a trade cease-fire announced by President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 meetings in Japan.But broader gloom won’t be easy to dispel if the economic numbers continue to weaken. Morgan Stanley captured that view by downgrading its forecast for world growth, saying the truce wasn’t enough to remove the uncertainty around trade, which will weigh on the outlook.For many, the situation is already poor enough — or soon will be — to

force the world’s major central banks into action. Investors are pricing in a Federal Reserve interest-rate cut this month — figures yesterday are forecast to show US manufacturing barely expanding — and Goldman Sachs says the European Central Bank will lower its deposit rate by 20 basis points and restart asset purchases in September.“Focusing on trade, perhaps there’s been some easing in the tensions. But if we step back and look at the economic data, what do we see? Bad news from China, nasty news from the Tankan, and in South Korea another poor export number,” said Jane Foley, head

of currency strategy at Rabobank. “All this is really quite worrying, it reasserts that picture of a slowdown in global growth.”The weakness in the factory numbers from IHS Markit was widespread. Switzerland saw manufacturing shrink the most in seven years, and Spain, long the euro area’s outperformer, registered its worst reading since 2013. Overall eurozone manufacturing shrank for a fifth month, with the “challenging economic environment” leading to another drop in orders.In the UK, the reading dropped to a six-year low. That’s partly an unwinding of Brexit stockpiling earlier in the year,

but the report also showed a decline in business optimism.“The euro-area economy has held up well recently, but the European Central Bank is clearly worried about the darkening prospects for demand. And the fragile truce reached by China and the US at the G-20 meeting this past weekend is unlikely to provide much of a let up for manufacturers and exporters,” said David Powell, senior euro-area economist at Bloomberg.Sector-specific issues are also taking a toll. Germany is feeling the pain of turmoil in the auto industry, while waning demand in the electronics is

hitting an industry that’s vital to many Asian economies. That’s on top of the trade friction between the world’s two biggest economies that’s far from being resolved despite the weekend agreement to resume negotiations.“We could have just changed the date and republished our old report on the last G-20 summit in December 2018,” Raymond Yeung, chief economist for greater China at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd, said in a note. “The US has again held off new tariffs in exchange for China’s purchases of agricultural products. However, the US did not promise that it won’t escalate its trade measures.”

BUSINESSTuesday, July 2, 2019

GULF TIMES

Oil continues rally on Opec+ deal, US sanctions, Mideast tensionswww.abhafoundation.org

OilBenchmark crude oil futures continued their rally last week increasing by around 2%, ending the month of June with gains of 3% and 9% for Brent and WTI respectively. Crude oil prices also ended the first half of the year with gains ranging between 20% to 30%, supported mainly by the Opec+ supply cut deal, ongoing US sanctions on Iran and Venezuela, and geopolitical tension in the Middle East. Prices were pressured by the record US crude supply and the US trade wars slowing economic and demand growths. US oil stocks fell across the board in the week to June 21, with a total drawdown of more than 16mn barrels due to record exports and strong demand. US crude production reached a new monthly record in April of 12.2mn bpd, according to US government data. Meanwhile, market participants were anticipating an Opec+ output cut deal extension on Monday, while being cautious on the outcomes of the G20 summit and the US-China trade meeting throughout the weekend. The G20 meeting ended over the weekend with no breakthrough decisions, insisting on keeping markets open but without condemning protectionism. The US and China agreed to restart trade talks with some concessions from each side. Whereas, the Russian President and the Saudi Crown prince met on the side-lines of the G20 summit in Osaka, with both countries apparently agreeing on extending

the supply cut agreement for six or nine months with the same volumes, according to official statements from both parties. GasAsian spot LNG prices for August delivery increased by more than 4% last week, due to additional demand -especially from Japan and China. However, traders considered the growth in summer demand as still relatively low, while the level of cooling demand in coming weeks will be essential in driving prices. Additionally, Indian buyers were also active in the marketplace for both summer and fall demand. On

the supply side, spot cargoes were available from Angola and Malaysia, with the trend of using electronic platforms like Platts or GLX on the rise. Moreover, due to high stocks in Europe and higher spreads between the Atlantic and Pacific basins, re-exports are expected this summer from Europe to Asia.In the US, Henry Hub natural gas futures increased by almost 6% last week, due to forecasts of less hot weather in coming weeks. The June price fell by about 6%, with Henry Hub falling for seven straight months while losing around 50% of its value since November. In the UK, NBP gas futures plummeted by almost 13%,

on high storage, ample supply, low demand and strong renewable output. European gas storage sites are filled at 71% according to Gas Infrastructure

Europe, and stocks in Germany, Netherlands, France and Belgium are 42% higher than the four-year average, Refinitiv data shows.

This article was supplied by the Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah International Foundation for Energy and Sustainable Development.

Increased buying interests from foreign institutions extend bull run on QSEBy Santhosh V PerumalBusiness Reporter

Increased buying interests from foreign institutions yesterday extended the bull-ish run on the Qatar Stock Exchange for

the third consecutive day and its key index gained a huge 104 points to inch near 10,600 levels.

Insurance, real estate and consumer goods witnessed higher than average de-mand as the 20-stock Qatar Index settled 1% higher at 10,560.13 points.

The bullish outlook of domestic institu-tions also helped the market, whose key benchmark closed 2.54% higher year-to-date.

Market capitalisation gained about QR4bn or 0.64% to QR581.26bn mainly ow-ing to mid and small cap segments.

Islamic equities were seen gaining slower than the main index on the market, where non-Qatari and Gulf retail investors turned net profi t takers.

Trade turnover and volumes were mar-ginally on the rise on the bourse, where the industrials and banking sectors together ac-counted for more than 71% of the total vol-ume.

The Total Return Index grew 1% to 19,431.53 points, Al Rayan Islamic Index (Price) by 0.82% to 2,406.32 points and All Share Index by 0.73% to 3,120.64 points.

The insurance index vaulted 2.37%, realty (1.47%), consumer goods (1.17%), indus-trials (0.75%), banks and fi nancial services (0.56%) and telecom (0.17%); while trans-port declined 0.26%.

Major movers included Qatar Insur-ance, Barwa, Industries Qatar, Commercial Bank, Qatar Islamic Bank, Woqod, Medi-care Group, Qatari German Company for Medical Devices, Widam Food and Alijarah Holding ; even as Doha Bank, Gulf Ware-housing, Qatar General and Reinsurance, Qatari Investors Group, Gulf International Services and Qatar Oman Investment were among the losers.

Non-Qatari institutions’ net buying in-creased considerably to QR32.7mn com-pared to QR10.77mn the previous day.

Domestic institutions turned net buyers to the tune of QR2.54mn against net sellers of QR1.23mn on June 30

Local retail investors’ net profi t booking declined noticeably to QR17.92mn com-pared to QR21.66mn on Sunday.

However, non-Qataris were net sell-ers to the extent of QR7.02mn against net buyers of QR6.53mn the previous day.

The Gulf institutions also turned net sellers to tune of QR5.96mn compared with net buyers of QR3.53mn on June 30.

The Gulf individuals were net profi t tak-ers to the extent of QR4.33mn against net buyers of QR2.06mn on Sunday.

Total trade volume rose 7% to 54.77mn

shares, value by 1% to QR189.78mn and transactions by 29% to 6,897.

The insurance sector’s trade volume more than tripled to 3.38mn equities, while value declined 74% to QR7.2mn despite 17% high-er deals at 207.

The consumer goods sector’s trade volume soared 68% to 9.82mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR34.87mn on more than doubled transactions to 1,024.

The market witnessed 45% surge in the real estate sector’s trade volume to 1.52mn shares and 57% in value to QR19.83mn on more than doubled deals to 758.

However, the transport sector’s trade volume plummeted 57% to 0.21mn equi-ties, value by 75% to QR7.16mn and 26% in transactions to 141.

There was 45% plunge in the telecom sec-tor’s trade volume to 0.9mn stocks but on 25% growth in value to QR17.9mn and more than doubled deals to 554.

The industrials sector’s trade volume tanked 7% to 22.06mn shares, value by 28% to QR41.05mn and transactions by 15% to 2,352.

The banks and financial services sec-tor saw 3% shrinkage in trade volume to 16.87mn equities but on 32% jump in value to QR61.76mn and 63% in deals to 1,861.

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

The QSE’s market capitalisation gained about QR4bn, or 0.64%, to QR581.26bn yesterday, mainly owing to mid and small cap segments.

Qatar Insurance wins ‘Best Digital Transformation in Insurance Award’Qatar Insurance has been conferred the ‘Best

Digital Transformation in Insurance Award’ at the

inaugural edition of the Enterprise Transformation

Summit recently held in Doha.

The summit recognised

enterprises that demonstrated

massive shift in operations as

a result of embracing digital

transformation.

QIC Group was awarded for its

advanced digital capabilities,

implementing best-in-class digital

technologies in the retail and

medical insurance space, thus

creating a highly-sophisticated

and interactive digitised platform

for its full suite of online insur-

ance products and services. Not

only did this lead to enhanced

customer engagement, but it

also facilitated increasing overall

responsiveness, eff iciency, and

speed.

QIC Insured, the personal

insurance division uses its

highly-digitised online portal

www.qic-insured.com for selling

insurance products, namely, car,

home, travel, Personal Accident

Benefit Insurance (PAB), and claims services.

The digitised platform facilitates interconnected-

ness with several homegrown tools, such as Cus-

tomer Relationship Management (CRM) software

that has completely transformed QIC Insured’s

online off ering and enriched overall customer

experience.

www.qlm-online.com, QIC’s home-

grown core medical insurance

software facilitates Group Medical

Insurance business for QIC’s Health

and Life entity, QLM Life & Medical

Insurance Co.

Hospitals and clinics that fall under

QLM Life & Medical Insurance Co

provider network submit e-claims

and prior authorisations to QLM

electronically through the online

portal. This development has indeed

improved eff iciencies and reduced

time lags significantly.

Commenting on the new accom-

plishment, senior deputy Group

president & CEO of QIC Group, Ali

S al-Fadala, said: “QIC is honoured

to receive this prestigious award,

which highlights the group’s

in-house expertise at managing

its digital platform and digitised

processes.”

Acknowledging the IT depart-

ment’s eff orts, he added: “The

award inspires us to continue to

excel in the digital space to come up with more in-

novative digitised solutions that ensure complete

customer satisfaction and sustainable returns for

our stakeholders.”

Investing in people, technology ‘best preparation’ for future: HSBC surveyAbout a third of businesses expect to change radi-

cally in the next two years, from what they sell to

where they work, as they seek growth opportunities

in a fast-changing world, according to a new HSBC

survey.

But while technologies like robotics top their spend-

ing plans, firms are now prioritising investment

in the well-being and future skills of their people,

according to a new HSBC survey.

‘Navigator: Made for the Future’, a survey of more

than 2,500 companies in some 14 countries and

territories, shows that 34% of decision-makers

think their technological focus will ‘totally’ change

over the coming 24 months, with a further 45%

expecting ‘slight’ change. As they seek to become

more customer-centric and to boost productivity,

over half (55%) plan to invest more in research and

development.

Nearly as many though (52%) will boost spending

on skills training and 43% on employee well-being;

ahead of logistics (42%), plants or equipment (34%),

and ‘bricks and mortar’ premises (29%).

HSBC Qatar chief executive off icer Abdul Hakeem

Mostafawi, said, “The investment priorities of busi-

ness leaders around the world tell us a lot about the

near future and how well leading decision-makers

are preparing for it.

“A majority of business leaders accept that and

know that in the face of radical change, the best

preparation is investing in people and technology.

In Qatar, investing in human capital is one of the

pillars of the 2030 Vision.”

By upskilling employees and adopting innovative

technologies, the end goal for businesses is to

become more eff icient, more customer-centric and

greener. Over half the companies surveyed plan to

increase their investment in customer experience

(52%) and 45% will raise spending to become more

environmentally sustainable over the next two years.

Almost a quarter (24%) want to become greener to

attract and retain talented staff , and 30% are feeling

pressure from customers to improve in this area.

A number of new technologies have already been

embraced by businesses and include artificial intel-

ligence (41%), the Internet of Things (40%), weara-

bles (37%) and facial/image recognition (38%). The

biggest benefits of employing these four technolo-

gies are improvements in productivity, customer

experience and product or service quality.

While 76% of companies think technologies will

make their staff more productive and 72% think

they will enhance well-being, 59% also said they

think they’ll need fewer workers in the future. Three

in five (60%) intend to introduce or increase flexible

working practices to enhance well-being and adapt

to a rebalancing between human and automated

output.

Interviews for the ‘Navigator: Made for the Future’

survey were conducted in Australia, Canada,

mainland China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India,

Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, the UAE,

the UK and the USA in May.

Qatar Insurance’s ‘Best Digital Transformation in Insurance Award’, which was bestowed at the inaugural edition of the Enterprise Transformation Summit held recently in Doha.

Mostafawi: Focus on people, technology.