January, 2018

• 31 January

  Taliban active in 70% of Afghanistan: Study

  WASHINGTON / Reuters The Taliban are openly active in 70 percent of Afghanistan’s districts, fully controlling 4 percent of the country and demonstrating an open physical presence in another 66 percent, according to a BBC study published. The BBC estimate, which it said was based on conversations with more than 1,200 individual local sources in all districts of the South ...

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• 31 January

  Mali vows to stabilise militant-hit region

  

  Bloomberg Mali will deploy additional troops to its central region in a bid to halt an escalation of extremist attacks as pressure mounts to stabilise the West African nation before elections later this year. “Our biggest concern is the security of central Mali,” Security Minister Salif Traore said in an interview in the capital, Bamako. “We are under time constraints ...

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• 31 January

  Lula’s fall prompts scramble for substitute among Brazil’s left

  Bloomberg With diminished odds that Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will run for the presidency after an appeals court upheld his corruption conviction, a host of left-wing candidates are already trying to move in on his patch. At least half a dozen leftist parties with representatives in Congress are ready to jump into the race as Lula’s candidacy looks ...

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• 31 January

  Global stock declines show signs of easing, dollar continues to fall

  

  Bloomberg The global stock declines that have shaped the week showed signs of easing in the US, with all three major equity indices trading higher. The dollar slump deepened in the wake of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address. The S&P 500 Index gained for the first time in three days as companies including Xerox Corp., Anthem Inc., ...

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• 31 January

  Cement lifts Saudi, other markets fall

  

  Reuters Cement shares lifted Saudi Arabia’s stock index on Wednesday while other big bourses in the region were weak, with real estate shares pulling down Dubai. The Saudi index rose 0.3 percent as 13 of the 14 cement stocks climbed in unusually heavy trade. Jouf Cement was up 5.4 percent and Tabuk Cement jumped its 10 percent daily limit. The ...

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• 31 January

  Samsung pips Intel as it posts record profit, splits stocks

  

  Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co. is on a roll. The maker of smartphones, screens and consumer electronics reported record quarterly profit and disclosed numbers showing that it’s chip business pulls in more revenue than Intel Corp. The Suwon, South Korea-based company took the opportunity to unveil a 50-to-1 stock split, which sent its shares surging. The earnings report for the last ...

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• 31 January

  Indonesia helps save Ukraine wheat as exports to India sink

  Bloomberg Ukraine is countering a slump in wheat sales to India by selling record amounts to Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Shipments to India, the biggest market for Ukrainian wheat in 2016-17, have sunk so far this year as a bounceback in the Asian country’s production helped it become more self-reliant again. “This is a real change,” said Sergey Feofilov, ...

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• 31 January

  Daiichi wins $550mn arbitral award case

  

  Bloomberg Malvinder Singh and Shivinder Singh must pay Daiichi Sankyo Co. $550 million awarded in an arbitration over the sale of a drugmaker controlled by the brothers, an Indian court ruled. The verdict was pronounced by a single-judge bench of Justice Jayant Nath of the Delhi High Court. He rejected all objections raised by the Singh brothers and said the ...

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• 31 January

  ‘China’s Belt and Road lending set to rise’

  

  Bloomberg China’s sweeping push to increase international trade and infrastructure investment will likely get a boost this year from government support and better financial conditions in recipient countries, according to Morgan Stanley. Investment to nations along the route of President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative will grow at an annual pace of 14 percent between 2018 and 2020, ...

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• 31 January

  UK risks losing its dominance in Airbus wing production

  

  Bloomberg Britain’s five-decade dominance of wing construction for Airbus SE jets is under threat from rival countries playing up the uncertainties surrounding Brexit to pitch for a share of the high-value, manufacturing work. Airbus has been approached by at least seven governments looking to poach future wing production after the company raised concerns about Britain quitting the European Union, stirring ...

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