Bloomberg Sinopec said its first-quarter profit declined 20 percent amid lower crude prices and shrinking refining earnings. Net income dropped to 15.47 billion yuan ($2.3 billion) from 19.31 billion a year ago, the company said in a statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange, using international accounting standards. A drop in oil prices typically drags down the value of the …

Bloomberg Singapore’s office market is running hot — so much so that debt-laden Oxley Holdings Ltd just sold a building for S$365 million ($268 million) more than it paid less than 18 months ago. Oxley agreed to sell Chevron House, a 32-story tower in the central business district, to Golden Compass (BVI) Ltd for S$1.025 billion in cash and assumed …

Bloomberg European Central Bank policy makers who sounded the alarm about the region’s slowdown last month can now relax a bit as the stimulus they prepped becomes less urgent. It was during the first quarter that officials, led by President Mario Draghi, reactivated plans to aid growth in a moment of embarrassment so soon after concluding bond purchases last year. …

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is planning to open a stock-trading brokerage in Mexico as it boosts its presence in Latin America’s second-largest economy. The move will allow the firm to buy and sell stocks locally on behalf of clients, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The new business line, still months away from being up and running, …

Bloomberg Singapore’s economy will slow in 2019, reflecting a weakening in key trading partners and a further cooling of the electronics sector, the central bank said. The city state is set to expand slightly below the midpoint of a 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent forecast range for this year after growing 3.2 percent in 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore …

Bloomberg The US Treasury Department indicated that the government will need to borrow less than previously estimated as the Federal Reserve slows the reduction of its asset portfolio on its balance sheet. The department expects to issue $30 billion in privately held net marketable debt between April and June, assuming a cash balance of $270 billion at the end of …

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc spent 150 years building a financial fortress around Hong Kong that touches nearly every aspect of life in the former British colony. One of the bank’s biggest threats? A pack of upstart virtual lenders, which barely existed two months ago, backed by the likes of Standard Chartered Plc and Chinese internet insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance …

Bloomberg J Sainsbury Plc got some breathing space from better-than-expected profit after the collapse of a 7.3 billion-pound ($9.5 billion) deal to acquire Walmart Inc’s Asda. The grocer’s shares rose as much as 6.4 percent as the company laid out its Plan B for fighting the UK’s supermarket wars alone. Sainsbury said it will invest in improving its stores, where …

Bloomberg Saudi Arabian budget airline Flynas LCC plans to open a hub in West Africa or the Balkans within five years to expand beyond its oversupplied domestic market, according to the airline’s chief executive officer. “Since we are a short-haul carrier, we seek to link those hubs with the current hubs in Saudi Arabia,” CEO Bander Al-Mohanna said in an …

Dubai / Emirates Business Italy’s leading apparel fashion brand is set to release its Spring/Summer 2019 collection for men, women as well as kids across its stores in the UAE. For women, making a big comeback this summer from OVS are suits with oversized jackets, the new trench in both traditional beige gabardine and in bright check prints. When it …