Bloomberg Canadian banks started their 2017 funding programs by selling a record amount of bonds backed by residential mortgages abroad, taking advantage of lower borrowing costs amid demand for their top-rated debt. The country’s biggest financial institutions have sold about $6 billion in covered bonds denominated in euros, US dollars and pounds this year, the most on record for …

  Reuters Qatar’s Masraf Al Rayan, an Islamic lender, has mandated banks for a sukuk of around $500 million, banking sources said on Wednesday. This would be one of a likely series of debt issues in the first quarter by Gulf banks seeking US dollar funding to improve their liquidity, which has been hurt by low oil prices. Abu Dhabi …

  Bloomberg The Turkish central bank’s thinly veiled pledge to take action to stem the lira’s bought only a short reprieve before the slump continued. By just after 3 p.m. on Tuesday in Istanbul, the lira was trading down 1.7 percent against the dollar — weaker than its level prior to the central bank’s statement about an hour earlier and …

  Dresden / DPA When his royal palace in Dresden was badly damaged by fire in 1701, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland seized his chance: Out with the original romanesque architecture and in with a glamourous new-fangled style: baroque. Over the next three decades, August II (1670-1733) oversaw a major refurbishing of the Dresden Royal Palace, creating …

  Tokyo / DPA Otochika Ichikawa is a friendly, elderly man, who smiles and is good at making eye-contact as he speaks. The 70-year-old Japanese enjoys conversation. He knows, from bitter experience, how important social contact is. “When my daughter was 14 she refused to go to school,” Ichikawa says. His daughter spent hours leafing through the pages of all …

  Bloomberg The oil industry will shake off the effects of the biggest downturn in a generation this year as they more than double project approvals and increase exploration spending for the first time in three years, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. Companies will green-light more than 20 oil and gas fields for development compared with nine in 2016, the …

  Bloomberg Oil advanced from the lowest level in a month as investors weighed production cuts from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members against a projected gain in U.S. crude output. Futures gained as much as 1 percent in New York after dropping 5.9 percent the previous two sessions. Saudi Arabia was said to reduce February crude sales to China …

  Bloomberg Debt-laden energy companies that still don’t have a financial escape plan in place are running out of time and willing lenders even after oil doubled from its February lows. Crude prices topping $50 a barrel helped to ease pressure on distressed energy companies, allowing at least 27 issuers to sell $16 billion of junk-rated bonds in last year’s …

  Reuters Resources for the state fund intended to cover Algeria’s budget deficits had declined by 59.5 percent at the end of 2016 from the previous year because of falling oil prices, Finance Minister Hadji Baba Ammi said. State finances were already under pressure in Algeria, where the government had forecast foreign exchange reserves would reach $114 billion by the …

  Reuters India’s gasoline consumption continues to grow rapidly as an increasing number of individuals purchase their first motorised vehicle, helping drive the fastest growth in fuel demand in the world. India’s gasoline consumption rose more than 12 percent in 2016 compared with 2015, according to preliminary fuel sales figures compiled by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Motor …