February, 2017

• 27 February

  Investors see oil break out of narrow range with record bets

  

    Bloomberg Oil has been bound to the tightest price range in more than a decade, and yet hedge funds have never been so confident it will eventually rally. Money managers boosted their bets on rising West Texas Intermediate prices to a record on speculation that the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners will manage to ease a ...

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• 27 February

  Qatar Petroleum to merge chemical units in cost-cutting drive

  

    Bloomberg Qatar Petroleum plans to merge two petrochemical units in its latest consolidation of businesses, as the world’s fourth-biggest oil and natural gas producer seeks to trim costs in its domestic operations and expand internationally. The state-run company will fold the operations of Qatar Vinyl Co., part of Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding Co., into Qatar Petrochemical Co., a unit of ...

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• 27 February

  India to transfer $4.4bn HPCL stake to ONGC

  

    Bloomberg India’s central government will transfer its stake in state-run refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp. to the country’s biggest oil explorer as part of its plans to create an integrated oil company, The Economic Times newspaper reported, citing people it didn’t identify. The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi will issue a proposal for approval by the country’s cabinet to ...

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• 27 February

  Lukoil’s Mideast head sees oil at $55-$65 a barrel

  

    Bloomberg Oil will stabilize around $55 to $65 a barrel as OPEC fulfills its agreement to cut output, with stockpiles and shale production keeping prices from rising much more, the Middle East head of Lukoil PJSC said. Russia’s second-largest oil producer hasn’t had to reduce production in Iraq as a result of the curbs pledged by OPEC, Gati Al-Jebouri ...

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• 27 February

  Saudi seeks ways to boost 4% foreign stock ownership

  

    Bloomberg Saudi Arabia is seeking ways to boost foreign investment in its bourse, almost two years after easing access to the one of the world’s most restricted exchanges. The Tadawul, as the market is known, will hold talks with companies already trading on other Gulf Cooperation Council exchanges for a cross-listing in the kingdom by 2018, Chief Executive Officer ...

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• 27 February

  India identities at risk as Modi widens digital reach

  

    Bloomberg Shivam Shankar Singh woke last month to an e-mail from an Indian government department. It had a name, address, mobile phone number and bank account with a code for money transfers and investments made in a dairy farm. None of the details were his. The e-mail contained details submitted to a program that collects personal and biometric data, ...

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• 27 February

  Asia economies hold trade pact talks after Trump dumps TPP

  

    Bloomberg Negotiators from 16 Asian countries are meeting in the Japanese port city of Kobe this week for talks on a regional trade pact seen as a rival to the Trans-Pacific Partnership rejected by US President Donald Trump. China is not part of the TPP but is playing a leading role in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, ...

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• 27 February

  SoftBank’s Son lays out vision for future of technology

  

    Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp.’s Masayoshi Son, sporting a black turtleneck similar in style to the late Steve Jobs, laid out his vision for the future of technology and called for partners to help make it happen at the smartphone industry’s biggest annual gathering. Son reiterated his belief that computers will exceed humans in intelligence in three decades, and that ...

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• 27 February

  Panasonic eyes storage boost as Japan solar incentives wane

  

    Bloomberg Japan’s scaling back of a program encouraging residential solar has Panasonic Corp. hopeful the market for home energy storage systems is about to receive a boost. In 2019, a program designed to buy back solar power flowing from rooftop panels at above-market rates will start becoming less enticing, potentially leaving homeowners who signed up with excess power on ...

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• 27 February

  China shares’ power surge leaves global investors skeptical

  

    Bloomberg The biggest equity rally in Asia this year has yet to captivate global investors. The MSCI China Index, which is dominated by Hong Kong-traded Chinese shares, has surged 11 percent since December 31, its best start to any year since 2012. That’s been fueled by $9 billion of inflows through cross-border trading links as mainland investors seek to ...

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