Bloomberg Europe’s appetite for natural gas is leading to a growth “renaissance” as its stores of the fuel languish at the lowest levels since 2013, according to Gazprom PJSC. Europe’s appetite for natural gas will probably meet or even exceed last year’s growth as the region needs to replenish its lowest gas storage levels since 2013, according to Gazprom ...

  Bloomberg Oil rose from a three-week low amid reports that the Benghazi Defense Brigades forces captured Libya’s biggest oil port. Futures advanced 1.4 percent in New York after three days of declines. Benghazi Defense Brigades forces captured Es Sider as fighting escalated, according to two people with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified because they ...

  Bloomberg Vitol Group BV is offering to sell Nigerian crude oil from a storage terminal in South Africa, five traders familiar with the matter said, in what may be a signal that the global supply glut is beginning to ease. The world’s biggest oil merchant has been offering 4 million barrels of Nigeria’s Qua Iboe for delivery to Europe ...

  JOHANNESBURG / AP Nigeria wants Royal Dutch Shell to reopen one of its main pipelines but the oil multinational is resisting, analysts say, for fear it could once again be bombed by militants. The Trans Forcados Pipeline, the main feed to the 400,000-barrel-a-day Forcados export terminal, has been shut for all but three weeks of the past year, Lagos-based ...

  BEIJING / AP China will raise its defense budget by about 7 percent this year, a government spokeswoman said Saturday, continuing a trend of lowered growth amid a slowing economy despite regional tensions over the South China Sea and other issues. Total defense spending would account for about 1.3 percent of projected gross domestic project in 2017, said Fu ...

  Bloomberg The world’s biggest pension fund posted the biggest quarterly gain in its history as Japanese stocks surged and a plunge in the yen boosted overseas investments after Donald Trump’s election victory. The Government Pension Investment Fund returned 8 percent, or 10.5 trillion yen ($92 billion), in the three months ended December 31, increasing assets to 144.8 trillion yen, ...

  Bloomberg PropertyGuru Pte, the top Southeast Asian real estate website backed by TPG Capital, expects to become profitable this year as it digests a clutch of acquisitions and rides growth in markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam. “We have hyper-growth, our revenues are growing over 30 percent,” Chief Executive Officer Hari Krishnan, 39, said in an interview in Singapore. ...

  Bloomberg A private survey signaled the first expansion in four months for India’s key service sector, adding to signs the economy is bouncing back from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s shock clampdown on cash late last year. The Nikkei India Services Purchasing Managers’ Index inched up to 50.3 in February, a report showed Friday, from 48.7 in January and November’s ...

  Bloomberg Nintendo Co. shares rose to their highest in a month after a smooth debut of Switch, a hybrid console that aims to bring together the worlds of mobile and home gaming. Retailers in Tokyo and Sydney began selling a limited number of units early, while fans in New York and Toronto waited in the cold to buy the ...

  Bloomberg Hutchison China MediTech Ltd., the biotechnology company backed by billionaire Li Ka-shing, reported positive late-stage results for its drug to treat colorectal cancer, taking the company one step closer to having a home-grown therapy on the market. The Hong Kong-based company, known as Chi-Med, said in a statement that it is currently preparing to submit a new drug ...