Author: Steven Sahiounie

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index declined 0.3 percent to close at 11,005.94 on Monday recording a total trading turnover of SR5.2 billion ($1.4 billion). The Tadawul All Share Index ended lower with 60 stocks making gains and 158 reporting losses. The MSCI Index also dipped 1.75 points to close at 1,413,37. Nomu, the parallel market, ended the day on a positive note rising 0.41 percent and recording a trading volume of SR50.1 million. Arabian Pipes Co. emerged as TASI’s best performer, as its share price surged 6.07 percent to close at SR90.90. National Medical Care Co. and Leejam Sports Co.…

RIYADH: Abu Dhabi’s non-oil economy grew by 12.3 percent in the second quarter of 2023, accompanied by a 3.5 percent increase in its overall gross domestic product, reported the Statistics Centre — Abu Dhabi. The emirate’s real non-oil GDP soared to 154 billion dirhams ($42 billion), marking its highest since 2014. This increase represents a record for the first quarter of the current year, surpassing 146 billion dirhams. SCAD’s statistical estimates revealed growth in the construction sector, with a year-on-year increase of 19.1 percent, reaching 25.3 billion dirhams. The financial sector also grew 29.7 percent in the second quarter compared…

RIYADH: Public Investment Fund-owned Cruise Saudi has announced its investment into various tech organizations for its AROYA Cruises. In a press release, the company announced that the project has entered its inaugural phase of technology stack development, solidifying partnerships with globally renowned tech companies. These strategic collaborations, featuring Monitor Deloitte, Alibaba Cloud SA and theICEway as well as SourceToad, Otalio and Versonix Seaware, underscore Cruise Saudi’s commitment to providing passengers with a seamless journey from booking to boarding and beyond. Cruise Saudi’s IT and digitization team is leading the technology stack development, signaling their dedication to delivering a cutting-edge passenger…

RIYADH: As part of its commitment to minimize financing gaps for startups, Saudi Venture Capital Co. has invested SR112.5 million ($29.9 million) in IMPACT46 Fund III. According to a press release, the move is designed to empower late-stage companies in the region by investing in growth and pre-initial public offering phases. A late-stage company is a business that has been in operation for a few years and has demonstrated viability. The release added that the trust will aim to allocate a specific amount for early-stage startups, focusing primarily on seed rounds in the broader Middle East. “The investment in IMPACT46’s…

ABU DHABI: The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is optimistic on demand and sees under-investment as a risk to energy security, Secretary-General Haitham Al-Ghais said on Monday at an energy industry event in Abu Dhabi. He stressed the importance of continued investment in the oil and gas industry and said he sees calls to stop investing in oil as counterproductive. “We still see oil demand as quite resilient this year, as it was last year,” Al-Ghais said, noting the group’s forecast was for year-on-year demand growth of more than 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd). He added that investment…

Ban on fuel exports and a drop in lending have been weighing on output, media report Industrial production in Russia declined in August for the fourth month in a row, despite the strong performance of the country’s defense-related enterprises, the daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta reported on Sunday, citing official statistics from Rosstat, and economists. According to the report, production had started to slow even before the sharp depreciation of the ruble in July and the ensuing key-interest-rate hike by the central bank. In August, the country’s output level decreased by 0.9% in monthly terms, according to an estimate by the Center…

“Every meter” Kiev’s forces seize from Russian troops is “paving” Ukraine’s way into the bloc, Germany’s foreign minister has said Ukraine’s future “lies in” the European Union, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Monday, adding that the bloc would soon incorporate regions that had joined Russia in 2022 but are still claimed by Kiev. “[The EU] will soon stretch from Lisbon to Lugansk,” Baerbock told journalists on the sidelines of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in the Ukrainian capital. Lugansk is the capital of the Lugansk People’s Republic – one of the two former eastern Ukrainian regions that declared independence from Kiev…

French DIY giant Leroy Merlin is top of the updated list, compiled by Forbes French home-improvement and gardening retailer Leroy Merlin has the most lucrative operation of any Western corporation still operating in Russia, according to the latest ranking issued by Forbes. The French company’s revenues in Russia amounted to 529.7 billion rubles ($5.4 billion) in 2022, according to Infoline Consultancy, as cited by the magazine. Earlier this year, ADEO group, the parent company of Leroy Merlin, announced plans to transfer its Russian business to local management. The Forbes rating includes 50 corporations, more than half of which are owned…

The State Department noted that they will take sanctions into account when sending out invitations to the summit The US presumes that Russian President Vladimir Putin is not going to attend the upcoming summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in San Francisco, California this November, State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said at a regular briefing. “He is not going to be in San Francisco in November. I think we can all be pretty clear about that,” the diplomat said speaking about the Russian leader. “We said we recognize our obligations as the host of APEC. But we are going…

The move signals divergence within the Group of Seven nations Berlin has announced plans to keep supporting the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), a Chinese state-backed financial development lender. This comes in contrast to G7 partner Canada’s move to freeze ties with the institution over concerns about Beijing’s influence within it. The announcement was made shortly after a Sunday meeting between German Finance Minister Christian Lindner and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng in Frankfurt. In June, Lindner’s Canadian counterpart, Chrystia Freeland, said that Ottawa had decided to freeze all ties with the financial institution until further government review. The move…