Bloomberg Brenntag AG’s first-quarter profit missed analyst estimates after the world’s largest distributor of chemicals was hit by a currency devaluation in Venezuela and slump in demand for additives used by the oil and gas industry. Earnings were “surprisingly low” due to weakness in the Venezuelan currency, oil and gas and the North American industrial environment. Brenntag stuck to …

  On April 25 2016, the very day that Australia commemorated its war dead who fell in Europe a century earlier, Australia sent a private note to France, its former ally, that it had won the bidding process to be preferred designer of 12 new submarines. In announcing the decision, the Australian government made some understandable historical allusions to past …

  Marvin Ott / Mick Zloof SPECIAL TO EMIRATES BUSINESS The Indonesian military (TNI) and the strategic perspectives of the Indonesian political leadership have been shaped by a tumultuous history of domestic security challenges. Indonesia is a sprawling archipelago of thousands of islands and hundreds of more or less distinct ethnic communities. That geography and ethnography virtually guarantee that national …

  BLOOMBERG Stocks rallied, with European equities rising from a one-month low as they shook off a drag from Chinese trade data that weighed on industrial metals. Of the 19 industry groups on the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, 17 advanced, while mining companies had the biggest losses. Energy producers also declined as crude oil erased gains. Copper fell to its …

  ABU DHABI / EMIRATES BUSINESS The Emirates Securities Market Index has increased by 0.32% to close at 4497.71 points. Accordingly the Market Capitalization has gained AED 4.58 billion attaining AED 731.81 billion. A total of 442.19 Million Shares were traded with a total value of AED 0.52 billion during the trading session of 09-05-2016 through 5948 transactions. The number of companies …

  Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Asset Management is seeking to profit from the relative value of the world’s major currencies after trimming bets the dollar would climb versus the euro and yen. While the Federal Reserve will probably increase interest rates by another 25 basis points later in the year, any disappointment around US employment data could delay the next move …

  Bloomberg Questions have been raised over new Bank of Japan Board member Makoto Sakurai’s credentials this week by a weekly magazine Shukan Post, saying that there was no record of him submitting a thesis or graduating with a PhD. The central bank’s website describes Sakurai, 69, as having “completed a PhD programme in Economics.” While some readers could take …

  BLOOMBERG Saudi Arabia named HSBC Holdings Plc Middle East and North Africa Chief Executive Officer Mohammad Al Tuwaijri deputy minister of economy and planning as part of a government shakeup that also ushered in a new central banker and oil minister. Al Tuwaijri, regional CEO of the London-based bank since October 2013, takes on the role immediately and reports …

  Washington / AFP Seven big banks, including Bank of America, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of market manipulation of interest rates. The settlement last week followed a federal judge’s ruling in March admitting the class action lawsuit brought by investors and pension …

  Bloomberg Commonwealth Bank of Australia posted a 4.5 percent increase in quarterly profit and joined its main competitors in reporting higher charges for bad and doubtful debts. Unaudited cash profit, which excludes one-time items, for the three months ended on March 31 was A$2.3 billion ($1.7 billion) from A$2.2 billion reported a year earlier, the Sydney-based lender said in …