Video: Yemen protests heat up
The FT’s Abigail Fielding-Smith reports from Yemen, where Facebook activists called for rallies after Friday prayer and thousands took to the streets of the capital amidst signs the student-led movement to topple President Ali Abdullah Saleh is getting more confident and more organised.
Americas markets wrap: Easing oil prices boost risk appetite
Most Latin American markets followed other risk assets higher on Friday as easing oil prices gave traders some relief at the end of a turbulent week. But Brazil’s Bovespa slipped after struggling for direction much of the day, while Chile’s peso fell against the dollar as the central bank extended intervention aimed at curbing the currency’s sharp appreciation.
Mexico’s IPC advanced 1.2 per cent but fell 1.7 per cent for the week. Rising copper prices helped miner Grupo Mexico tack on 2.5 per cent, while chemicals maker Mexichem surged 4.2 per cent and homebuilder Urbi rose 3.3 per cent. Continue reading »
Argentine exports: more of the same?
Argentina has scrapped the government agency responsible for granting export permits to farmers.
Cause for rejoicing among farmers who have long been demanding just that? No. Farmers say the move to replace the ONCAA agency with the snappily titled “Internal Consumer Subsidies Coordination and Evaluation Unit”, under the auspices of the economy ministry, will change nothing. Continue reading »
CEE markets wrap: equities bounce back
Central and eastern European stocks rose on Friday, as strong corporate earnings and easing fears about unrest in Libya lifted investor sentiment.
CEE currencies mostly rose against the dollar, with the Russian rouble and Turkish lira leading the rally. Continue reading »
Colombia raises rates
Colombia’s central bank has just raised its benchmark interest rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 per cent, taking the market by surprise.
The majority of analysts polled by Reuters and Bloomberg had forecast that the central bank would hold its benchmark interest rate at 3 per cent at its monthly policy meeting. The central bank said inflation expectations were rising. Continue reading »
Brazil’s Libyan bank takes a dive
Banco ABC Brasil is like many middle-market banks in Brazil. It lends to large and medium-sized businesses and gets its funding from institutional investors and other local and international banks.
But ABC stands for Arab Banking Corporation, in which the Central Bank of Libya has a 59.37 per cent stake. With the future of Libya’s state assets currently anyone’s guess, shares in ABC Brasil have taken a nosedive. Continue reading »
Oil spike: EM to suffer most
The economic impact of an oil price surge could be greatest in emerging markets, according to reports from ING and HSBC on Friday.
They note that oil consumption as a share of gross domestic product is much higher in the emerging world than the developed world. The proportionally higher consumption of oil in emerging markets is largely the result of their lower efficiency of oil use in production and greater reliance on energy-intensive industries. Continue reading »
Indian Railways: behind the times
By Akanksha Awal and Girija Shivakumar
Indian Railways, once considered India’s most precious inheritance from British colonial rule, is said to have lost its proverbial steam. Critics allege that its rail network has been poorly managed under Mamata Banerjee, the railways minister for the past two years.
On Friday she announced a “socially conscious” budget that confirmed what critics had feared: frozen fares and new projects in her home state of West Bengal. Continue reading »
Oil spike: curse & boon for Indonesia
When oil hit $119 this week, alarm bells sounded at Indonesia’s national oil company, Pertamina. Although the country has considerable oil reserves, it spends more importing oil products than it makes on crude sales.
“We will have more losses, definitely”, Ferederick Siahaan, manager at Pertamina, told beyondbrics. “It’s bad for this country. We are vulnerable … The government will have to review the budget. ” Continue reading »
Oil spike: Turkey shares down
Turkey is taking pride in its government’s efforts to rescue thousands of citizens caught in the escalating violence in Libya, comparing orderly evacuations by Istanbul ferries under military escort with the chaos complained of by stranded British expats.
But that has not stopped investors taking fright at the possible impact on Turkey’s economy. Shares on Istanbul’s stock exchange, although recovering on Friday, had lost nearly 8 per cent by Thursday since the start of the week, hitting a five-month low. Continue reading »
Asia markets wrap: stocks edge up
Asian stocks staged a tentative recovery on Friday, as oil prices fell amid easing concerns about supply disruptions in the Middle East and South Africa.
India’s annual Economic Survey prepared by the Finance Ministry said that the country needs to close its fiscal deficit – which ballooned to 6.3 per cent in 2009/10 – and raise interest rates to curb an inflation rate that has become “uncomfortably high”. Continue reading »
Oil spike: a word from Saudi Arabia
The fact that active negotiations are taking place between Saudi Arabia and European refiners to establish how the kingdom might replace Libyan supplies has calmed the market after Thursday’s panic-buying sent a barrel of Brent crude above $119.
But the most crucial question of all remains unanswered: has Saudi Arabia actually begun to produce more oil? Continue reading »
New York headlines
* West eyes sanctions against Gaddafi
* China evacuates 12,000 from Libya
* Investors fleeing India complicate Singh’s push for asset sales
* Dell to open 1,000 stores in China
* Infosys wants US acquisitions
* Pfizer teams with Indian brewmaster in return to $14bn insulin market
China’s overseas workers in peril
Like many other nations, China has been scrambling to put together evacuation plans for its citizens stuck in crisis-torn Libya. The real surprise has been just how many Chinese are living there. The foreign ministry does not know for sure but puts the figure at 30-40,000.
The huge contingent in Libya, who work for at least 27 Chinese companies, has brought to light one of the new dilemmas facing China as its economic interests expand. Continue reading »
Oil spike: fuelling India’s inflation
Like Brazil, India subsidises fuel prices so any sustained rise in international oil prices would deliver a fiscal blow to the government.
But the biggest worry in New Delhi is over what expensive oil would do to inflation, already a cause of street protests. Continue reading »
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