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Oil prices fell yesterday on fresh worries about the Eurozone debt crisis after leadership changes in France and particularly Greece underscored uncertainty about austerity and growth, analysts said.

Expectations of an increase in US crude stockpiles, which would indicate weaker energy demand, also contributed to bearish market sentiment. New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude for delivery in June fell 93 cents to $97.01 a barrel after striking a four-month low of $95.34 a barrel on Monday.

Brent North Sea crude for June slid $1.18 to $111.98 a barrel in London afternoon trading, and a day after hitting… Read More

Kuwait Stock Exchange is to launch next week a new trading system and a new index for the most capitalised firms, KSE director general Faleh Al Raqaba said yesterday. The new X-stream system, installed by Nasdaq OMX, involved the supply of new technology and will help improve transparency, market data and surveillance, Al Raqaba said. The system will be launched on Sunday along with a new index for the largest 15 firms in terms of market value and the value of circulated liquidity. The Kuwait-15 Index will start from 1,000 points, he said. Eight of Kuwait's nine commercial banks are among the 15 companies comprising the new index which is… Read More

Airlines have cancelled a total of 32 orders for planes so far this year, according to data from the world's two major plane makers.

US giant Boeing said it had 25 orders of its flagship plane, the 787 Dreamliner, cancelled by airlines without naming who they were.

European rival Airbus has had seven A350 orders cancelled by Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based airline.

The cancellations reflect the difficult travel market and weak global economy.

The numbers emerged in both firms' end-of-month order figures.

For Boeing, the 25 Dreamliner cancellations compare with 19 orders… Read More

An ad hoc committee of the Federal National Council has demanded petrol prices be brought in line with other Gulf countries — a move that could make prices cheaper by up to 60 percent.

The six-member committee was formed to study the viability of subsidising petrol after FNC members complained higher prices of petrol had a negative impact on the prices of other products and services and economic development as a whole. The committee, however, did not agree on selling petrol at a blanket price for citizens and foreigners.

The panel, chaired by Mohammad Butti Al Qubaisi, a representative from Abu Dhabi, stressed petrol… Read More

If the old trader's bon mot "As January goes, so goes the year" holds then investors should invest in everything but stocks. Nevertheless a number of recent moves by established and new market participants demonstrate that the international community has gained new trust in the UAE as a banking hub.

The exodus of financial firms from the UAE appears to be over. Take the Swiss private banks Clariden-Leu and Sarasin. Both banks almost simultaneously opened representative offices in Abu Dhabi last year in November, and both have been running branches in the Dubai International Financial… Read More