DELHI / WAM India and Bahrain are celebrating this year the golden jubilee of their diplomatic relations, India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a press release. Coinciding with this important occasion, V Muraleedharan, India’s Minister of State for External Affairs, began a three-day visit to Bahrain. On the first day of his visit, Muraleedharan met with Abdullatif bin Rashid …

Bloomberg European airlines hoping to extend the holiday season are running up against the start of the school year that’s denting family bookings, while the spread of the delta variant of Covid-19 prompts new travel curbs. Carriers including Ryanair Holdings Plc are keeping prices low to prolong leisure demand through October. The airline is also beefing up winter timetables in …

Bloomberg Southwest Airlines Co increased the number of workers it wants to hire by 16% to 5,200, part of an effort to ease flight disruptions and reduce overtime, even as the carrier pares service. The airline wants to add the new employees by the end of November to reduce delays and cancellations, Chief Executive Officer Gary Kelly said. It has …

Bloomberg Japanese department store operator H2O Retailing Corp said on Tuesday it will increase its stake in grocery store owner Kansai Super Market Ltd and make it a subsidiary. H2O said in a statement that it will buy newly-issued and existing shares from Kansai Super Market until it owns a 58% stake in the company, which will remain listed. H2O …

Bloomberg Digital-first jewellery company Brilliant Earth Group Inc filed for an initial public offering, leading a flurry of planned listings. The San Francisco-based company in its filing listed the size of the offering as $100 million, a placeholder that will change when terms of the share sale are set. Amplitude Inc, saying it’s pioneering a new category it calls digital …

Bloomberg Hong Kong’s retailers saw consumption growth slow more than expected in July as social distancing measures to control the virus continued to constrain spending and local shoppers awaited the arrival of electronic vouchers the following month. Retail sales value was HK$27.2 billion ($3.5 billion), up 2.9% from a year ago, according to a government report. That’s well short of …

Bloomberg Warren Buffett shocked Tokyo markets last August with a $6 billion bet on the country’s five largest trading houses. One year on, his investments are paying off. Amid the surge in commodity prices, the collective value of Berkshire Hathaway Inc’s stakes in the five “sogo shosha” has risen by about $2 billion. That gain of more than 30% has …

Bloomberg Stocks climbed, led by some of the world’s largest technology companies. Traders also assessed the impacts from Tropical Storm Ida, which sank insurers and energy firms, while pushing gasoline higher. The S&P 500 notched its 12th all-time high in August, and the Nasdaq 100 rallied as Apple Inc’s market value topped $2.5 trillion. Robinhood Markets and Charles Schwab Corp. …

NEW DELHI / WAM India’s discussions for concluding a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the GCC are “progressing fast”, the Minister for Commerce, Industry and Consumer Affairs, Piyush Goyal, said. Addressing a large cross-section of India’s business through the platform of the Jain International Trade Organisation, Goyal specifically cited the UAE as among the countries with which his Ministry is …

Bloomberg US gasoline futures jumped after Hurricane Ida barreled ashore in Louisiana, disrupting processing facilities. Oil reversed early gains as local rigs may have escaped significant damage and the Opec+ producers’ cartel is expected on Wednesday to endorse a supply increase. Gasoline for October spiked more than 4% in New York before paring its advance, while West Texas Intermediate crude …