Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s main equity index advanced the most in more than a year after the pricing of Saudi Aramco’s initial public offering and amid hopes of higher oil prices. The Tadawul All Share Index rose 2.4%, the most for a session since October 2018. The kingdom raised $25.6 billion from the world’s biggest IPO after selling shares at 32 …

SHARJAH / WAM Air Arabia won another recognition, winning ‘Best Low-Cost Airline’ in Middle East and Africa at AirlineRatings.com Airline Excellence Awards. Judged by seven editors with vast industry experience and evaluate against 12 criterial including fleet age, passenger reviews, profitability, investment rating, product offerings and staff relations, the honour further underlines Air Arabia’s credentials as the first choice for …

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has begun to reshape top management, laying the groundwork for a new direction under its next boss. The bank is expected to announce the retirement within days of Marc Moses, chief risk officer and board member, said people familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named as the details aren’t public. The qualified accountant …

Bloomberg Ukraine sealed a preliminary $5.5 billion loan programme with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), giving President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a boost before peace talks with Russia. The staff-level agreement includes policies to be carried out by Ukraine’s government to underpin the three-year programme, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement after a phone call with Zelenskiy. “The president …

Bloomberg First there was the financial crisis of 2008. Then years of negative interest rates. Now, banks face what one financial regulator calls the “real game changer.” Jesper Berg, the head of the Financial Supervisory Authority in Denmark, says the next big threat for banks is the rapid spread of big tech into financial services. The competitive tool is personal …

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc said investors should diversify their long-term bond holdings with gold, citing “fear-driven demand” for the precious metal. “Gold cannot fully replace government bonds in a portfolio, but the case to reallocate a portion of normal bond exposure to gold is as strong as ever,” Goldman analysts including Sabine Schels said. “We still see upside in …

Bloomberg It’s starting to look like India’s sovereign bond market is on the brink of a prolonged rout. Traders have shied away from the long-end of the curve since July on concern the government will expand record bond sales. Sentiment towards the short-end, which closely tracks policy rates, turned negative after the central bank surprised by holding off on easing. …

Bloomberg Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd expanded a schedule of rolling blackouts across South Africa after more of the state-owned utility’s generating units failed, spotlighting the fragility of the power supply system. The struggling state-owned company is cutting 4,000 megawatts from the grid, spokeswoman Dikatso Mothae said by phone. So-called stage-4 loadshedding, the highest degree that has been implemented thus far …

Bloomberg Minority investors in Poland’s state-run companies fled on concerns that a surprise $753 million bid by the country’s top oil refiner to buy a power producer may herald more government efforts to build “cross-industry” national champions. The risk is that some of the biggest companies listed in Warsaw — the worst-performing primary equity index in the world — are …

Bloomberg Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc is pitching nuclear reactors as the most effective way of powering the production of carbon-neutral synthetic aviation fuel without draining electricity grids. Drawing on technology developed for nuclear-powered submarines, the small modular reactors or SMRs could be located at individual plants.