Business

BHP polishes up nickel unit for demerger 14 Apr 2014 - 12:55 am

A man walks past the head office of BHP Billiton in central Melbourne. Breakthroughs in the way BHP Billiton processes nickel ores could...

IMF no longer forces structural adjustment 14 Apr 2014 - 12:54 am

WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund has changed and no longer imposes tough “structural adjustment” programmes as it did in poor countries two decades...

Markets slip, Qatar index down 1.39pc 14 Apr 2014 - 12:53 am

Doha: Qatar Exchange ended in the red area when trading closed yesterday at 12,225.19 points, down 172.02 points, or 1.39 percent, from the...

Saudi bourse changes closing price calculation 14 Apr 2014 - 12:53 am

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange introduced yesterday a new method for calculating the closing prices of traded shares, to limit excessive speculation and...

Real estate transactions hit QR4.2bn in March 14 Apr 2014 - 12:53 am

Doha: Real estate transactions in Qatar reached QR4.2bn in March with Doha municipality registered the highest transaction value by recording QR1.5bn covering an...

QDB, Qatar Shell to empower SMEs 14 Apr 2014 - 12:52 am

DOHA: Qatar Shell through its partnership with Qatar Petroleum in Pearl GTL, and in collaboration with Qatar Development Bank (QDB), will reveal seven...

QNB offers flat rate of 1.8pc on Toyota, Lexus 14 Apr 2014 - 12:52 am

DOHA: QNB is currently running an exclusive offer with 1.8 percent flat rate on Toyota and Lexus models distributed by Abdullah Abdulghani, Al-Tadamon...

CBQ foreign ownership limit upped to 25pc 14 Apr 2014 - 12:52 am

DOHA: The ownership of foreign investors in Commercial Bank of Qatar (CBQ) has been limited to 25 percent of the total shares of...

Europe banks cut 80,000 jobs in 2013 14 Apr 2014 - 12:52 am

LONDON: Europe’s largest banks cut their staff by another 3.5 percent last year and the prospect of a return to pre-crisis employment levels...

Nigeria eyes funds to spark agriculture boom 14 Apr 2014 - 12:51 am

LAGOS: Can investors get rich by backing Nigerian agriculture? An increasingly loud chorus of voices say that answering this question may be the...

Greece to issue more bonds after sale success 14 Apr 2014 - 12:51 am

ATHENS: Greece will issue more bonds after last week’s successful five-year debt sale that ended a four-year drought, the head of the debt...

Investors hail Sun Pharma’s Ranbaxy buy 14 Apr 2014 - 12:51 am

NEW DELHI: On the surface, Sun Pharma’s $3.2bn purchase of Indian generics rival Ranbaxy, which is in deep trouble with US regulators over...

Al Rajhi Bank Q1 earnings slip 14 Apr 2014 - 12:50 am

DUBAI: Al Rajhi Bank reported a slump in net profit for the first three months of 2014 yesterday, marking the second quarter in...

NBK Q1 net up 3.2pc on core banking revenues 14 Apr 2014 - 12:36 am

DUBAI: National Bank of Kuwait, the Gulf Arab state’s largest commercial lender, reported a 3.2 percent rise in first-quarter net profit yesterday, edging...

New UAE law to award 10pc of government work to SMEs 14 Apr 2014 - 12:36 am

ABU DHABI: Planned United Arab Emirates legislation aiming to boost the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises will require 10 percent of future...

Weekly Commodity Update: Commodities power ahead as stock markets weaken 14 Apr 2014 - 12:33 am

By Ole Hansen (Head of Commodity Strategy, Saxo Bank) Commodities rose for a third successive week, thereby going against the stock market downtrend....

Demonstration against austerity 13 Apr 2014 - 12:35 am

A protester dressed as a prisoner marches through the streets of Paris during a demonstration against austerity plans yesterday.

Currency controls hit Venezuela 13 Apr 2014 - 12:35 am

A worker of El Nacional, one of Venezuela’s main national newspapers, transports paper rolls at its building in Caracas yesterday. Venezuelan newspapers have...