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SocGen to expand corporate banking after trading losses

Bloomberg Societe Generale SA plans to focus its investment bank more on corporate banking as Chief Executive Officer Frederic Oudea attempts to turn the unit around following steep trading losses on complex derivatives last year. The Paris-based lender on Monday said the business, which is heavily geared toward markets activities, will pursue a “client-centric” strategy and allocate more capital to ...

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Nasdaq futures decline as commodities stoke CPI fear

Bloomberg Nasdaq futures fall as surging commodity prices stoked concern about whether inflation will derail a growth rebound in the world’s largest economy and spoil a record stock rally. The tech-heavy index has been whipsawed by the prospect of inflation which can threaten longer-horizon revenues typical of the industry. Contracts on the S&P 500 Index were steady. Treasury yields edged ...

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Australia’s stock benchmark surges to a record high

Bloomberg Australia’s stock market is on a tear, with surging commodity prices and a v-shaped economic rebound from the pandemic pushing the nation’s benchmark index to a record high. Mining giants BHP Group and Rio Tinto Ltd traded at all-time highs on Monday as global demand fuels surging metals prices while the country’s biggest banks advanced amid rising earnings. With ...

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Dana Gas profit up 41% to AED88 million in Q1 2021

SHARJAH / WAM Dana Gas on Sunday announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31. Net profit was up by 41 percent in Q1 2021 reaching AED88 million as compared to AED62 million in Q1 2020. The increase in net profit was the result of improved revenues from higher production in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), ...

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Toronto home prices see sharpest drop

Bloomberg Toronto’s housing market last month posted the sharpest drop since the early weeks of the Covid-19 crisis, as buyers and sellers took a breather from a frenetic pace amid surging infections and renewed lockdown measures. The number of properties changing hands in Canada’s largest city declined 20% in April on an annualized basis from the month before, while the ...

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Singapore’s stellar stock run stalls as global virus cases rise

Bloomberg A rally in one of Asia’s best-performing stock markets is stalling amid rising virus cases at home and a rethink of the global reflation trade. Second only to Taiwan among Asia’s major benchmarks this year, Singapore’s Straits Times Index has slipped about 1% so far in May, paring 2021’s gains to around 13%. The reintroduction of social distancing rules ...

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Betting on high-yield stocks is emerging as winning strategy in Asia

Bloomberg Asia’s high-dividend-yield stocks have emerged as winners among regional equities this year as expectations grew for the economy to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. While stocks that pay relatively large dividends are rising globally, for the most part the gains are happening in-line with the wider market. Not so in Asia though, where MSCI Inc.’s key gauge for this ...

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EU, India eye trade reboot to confront threats from China

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) and India are set to resume long-stalled talks on a free trade deal in an effort to strengthen their economic cooperation in the face of an increasingly assertive China. EU leaders will hold a virtual summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch a fresh round of negotiations that aim to reboot relations and ...

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Saudi Arabia, Pakistan to bolster economic, trade ties

JEDDAH / WAM Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have underscored the importance of expanding and intensifying aspects of bilateral cooperation and coordination and enhancing them in various fields. This came during a meeting between His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, and Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, ...

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