Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), the United Arab Emirates’ largest sharia-compliant lender, posted a 59.6 per cent jump in second-quarter net profit on Thursday, aided by higher fee and investment income. Beating analysts’ forecasts, the bank made Dhs667.5 million ($181.8 million) in the three months to June 30, it said in a bourse filing, up from Dhs418.2 million in the corresponding period of 2013.
Updated 6 Years ago

Iran plans to unveil its new upstream oil contract model in early November but is keeping a close eye on the ongoing nuclear negotiations with six world powers that could have an impact on the event, a senior Iranian official said. Mehdi Hosseini, in charge of designing the new contracts, told Platts that Iran would launch the new contract at a London roadshow on November 3-4, but hinted that the date could change if the negotiations were ongoing.
Updated 6 Years ago

Haikou, capital of South China's Hainan province, has become the 27th city to lift restrictions on property acquisitions. The city said on Wednesday that there will be no limits on how many houses people can buy, according to Shanghai Securities News.
Updated 6 Years ago

Many domestic flights in China have been canceled or delayed because of summer storms as of Tuesday evening, according to a smartphone application and information from airline companies. Twenty-four flights were canceled at Beijing Capital Internet Airport, and another 160 were affected by 6 pm on Tuesday, according to VeryZhun, a real-time flight tracking application. World Civil Aviation Resource Net reported that about 600 flights were affected in Beijing on Tuesday, and that delays and cancellations were also seen at other major airports across the country in recent days.
Updated 6 Years ago

After a slight dip in the Luxury Consumer Price Index last year, it rose by 4 percent in 2014, according to a Hurun Research Institute report released on Tuesday. The LCPI was also 1.7 percent higher than China's overall CPI released by the National Bureau of Statistics in June. Over the past eight years, the LCPI has risen 70 percent, while the national consumer price index is up only 29.2 percent.
Updated 6 Years ago

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. will extend ¥20 billion in loans to Brazilian agribusiness company Amaggi to improve its distribution network and boost exports of corn and soybeans to Japan, according to sources close to the matter. The Japanese government will take on some of the risk of the six-year loans through a trade insurance program designed to secure sufficient food supplies for Japan, the sources said Wednesday.
Updated 6 Years ago

US stocks ended mostly higher today, with the S&P 500 closing at a record on Apple's bullish results, though Boeing weighed on the Dow and conflicts in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip kept the broader market's gains in check. Biotech stocks ranked among the day's biggest gainers, boosted by some strong results and drug trial data. The Nasdaq Biotech index jumped 2.2 percent in its fourth straight day of gains.
Updated 6 Years ago

Colombian electricity firm Celsia is eyeing a potential purchase of power generating assets outside its home market, management said Wednesday during Celsia's 2Q14 conference call. Specifically, Celsia is looking at conventional and unconventional generating assets in Chile, Panama, Guatemala and Mexico. The firm expects to make an announcement regarding a potential acquisition by the end of this year, the firm's management added.
Updated 6 Years ago

BHP Billiton reported a 1.8% increase in copper output in its fourth fiscal quarter to 470,000t from 461,700t a year ago. For BHP's 2014 fiscal year ended June 30, copper output was up 2.2%, to 1.73Mt, the company said in itsproduction report.
Updated 6 Years ago

South Korea's economy grew 0.6 percent in April-June over the previous quarter, the central bank estimated on Thursday, the slowest in more than a year due to sluggish consumption while falling slightly below market expectations. The data follows 0.9 percent growth for the first quarter on a sequential basis and marks the weakest since a 0.6 percent gain in the first quarter of 2013. The median forecast from a Reuters survey of 27 analysts was 0.7 percent, on a seasonally adjusted basis.
Updated 6 Years ago