Reuters Most Middle Eastern stock markets were soft on Wednesday with Qatar pulling back after two days of strong gains, but a few individual stocks in Saudi Arabia rose sharply in response to positive news. Islamic insurer Al Khaleej Takaful tumbled 9.1 percent after saying on Tuesday that it would distribute no dividend for 2017, after the central bank asked …

Bloomberg The biggest Indonesian platform to buy and sell digital currency may soon have more members than the nation’s century-old stock exchange. Indonesia Digital Asset Exchange, formerly known as Bitcoin.co.id, will have 1.5 million members buying and selling digital currencies such as bitcoin, ethereum and ripple by the end of the year, according to Chief Executive Officer Oscar Darmawan. The …

Seoul / Reuters South Korea’s move to shut coal-fired generators to control air pollution at the same time as nuclear reactors are going into scheduled maintenance is resulting in surging fuel oil imports, as utilities burn the dirty feedstock to meet power demand. South Korea’s trade ministry said in February it would suspend five coal-fired power plants, with a combined …