RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s stock exchange expects an influx of foreign funds to smooth the listing of national oil firm Saudi Aramco, despite concern among some analysts about whether the market can absorb the huge offer, the exchange’s chief executive said. “Foreign investors are putting in more money — every day we have improved liquidity capacity,” Khalid al-Hussan said …

MANILA / Reuters The Philippines is looking to seal a pact with China within a few months to jointly explore for oil and gas in a part of the busy South China Sea waterway claimed by both countries, a Philippine official said on Monday. In February, the two countries agreed to set up a special panel to work out how …

LONDON / Reuters Oil rose on Monday, recovering some of the decline on the potential impact on global growth from a trade dispute between China and the United States as well as rising US output. Markets were also eyeing the situation in Syria after reports – denied by the Pentagon – that US forces had struck a major air base …

LAGOS / Reuters Nigerian energy company Neconde has launched an arbitration case against Royal Dutch Shell, the West African firm’s chief executive said, alleging the oil major continued to lift crude and failed to remit funds after a lease had been sold. The oilfield in question, Oil Mining Lease (OML) 42, is also at the centre of corruption allegations. Shell …

FRANKFURT / Reuters Christian Sewing must quickly come up with a coherent strategy for Deutsche Bank after the retail banking veteran was promoted to chief executive of Germany’s largest lender. Sewing, 47, was appointed after a crisis meeting to discuss how to end three years of losses. He replaces Briton John Cryan who failed to meet cost targets, and his …

Bloomberg The Bank of England may have a quiet dissenter among its ranks when it comes to the need for higher interest rates this year. In speeches, interviews and Parliament testimony, eight of the nine Monetary Policy Committee members, including Governor Mark Carney, have backed the view that tightening is warranted — and at a faster pace than previously thought. …

Bloomberg The board of India’s ICICI Bank Ltd., which less than two weeks earlier expressed full faith in Chief Executive Officer Chanda Kochhar, is divided over whether to ask her to step down as federal authorities investigate allegations of impropriety over loans made to Videocon group, people with knowledge of the matter said. At least some outside directors are opposed …

NEW DELHI / Reuters A special court of India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) issued non-bailable warrants against two Indian jewellers who are central figures in an alleged $2 billion scam at state-run Punjab National Bank (PNB), according to a source within the investigative agency. The CBI, a federal police body, is now also questioning some officials at overseas branches …

Reuters HSBC will seek to cut internal bureaucracy and expand investment in China’s southern region to the rest of the country, executives at the bank said on Monday, in the first hints of the strategy to be pursued by its new leadership duo. Mark Tucker, the bank’s first externally appointed chairman, told analysts and investors at a meeting in Hong …

Bloomberg Uganda’s central bank maintained the benchmark interest rate at a record low as risks to the east African nation’s inflation outlook remain balanced. The key rate was kept at 9 percent, Governor Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile told reporters on Monday in the capital, Kampala. Inflation slowed to 2 percent in March, the weakest level since 2014, and the risks to the …