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Bloomberg Fast-fashion giant Zara denied speculation on Chinese social media that the retailer’s employees were supporting anti-Beijing protests that disrupted some of its store operations. “Zara has never made any comments or undertaken any actions related to a strike in Hong Kong,” the company said in a post on its Weibo account. “Zara does not back a strike and supports …

Bloomberg / WAM Emirates NBD Bank (Emirates NBD), on Monday announced its intention to increase Foreign Ownership Limit (FOL), to 40 percent in the future, and will seek necessary approvals from its shareholders and the relevant regulatory authorities, in due course. Emirates NBD also announced the implementation of an immediate increase in its FOL from 5 percent to 20 percent after …

Bloomberg Opec’s crude production rose last month, the first increase since the group and its allies started a new round of output cutbacks at the start of the year to shore up a weak global market. Nigeria and Saudi Arabia led the boost by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), which collectively increased by 200,000 barrels a day to …

Bloomberg Manufacturing across vast parts of Europe and Asia remain deeply mired in a crisis that took another turn for the worse over the weekend. One day after the US and China enacted new tariffs on each other’s imports, factories from Germany and Italy to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan sent a gloomy reminder that they are suffering badly from …

Bloomberg Nigeria will continue swapping crude for fuel for at least three more years because its refineries are still not fully operational. Africa’s biggest oil producer, which previously had a goal of revamping the plants by this year, will persist with an annual swap program until the refineries are fixed by 2023, Mele Kyari, the state oil company’s new managing …

Bloomberg The world’s first project to turn biogas from sewage into hydrogen and graphite has received backing from the Australian government as part of the nation’s efforts to develop hydrogen as a clean alternative fuel source. The Australian Renewable Energy Agency granted conditional approval for up to $6.3mn in funding for the 100 ton per annum project, which uses technology …

Bloomberg European stocks climbed, US futures pared earlier declines and Asian shares were mixed after the latest China-tariff hikes kicked in. The dollar rose alongside gold. The Stoxx Europe 600 advanced for a third straight session, led by telecom and utilities shares. Equities in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia declined in thin volumes a day after President Donald Trump’s duties …

Bloomberg In a classic illustration of the seemingly perverse relationship between UK news and its stock market, several British large-caps notched record highs on Monday as the equity benchmark outshone all of Europe. The FTSE 100 jumped as much as 1.4 percent, the most since July and more than double the gain of the Stoxx Europe 600, with companies including …

Bloomberg A regional Chinese lender under the spotlight for liquidity strains plans to suspend dividend payments on its offshore preference shares, sending indicated prices on those securities tumbling. Bank of Jinzhou Co, which was the subject of a government-orchestrated rescue in July, said that it’s seeking shareholder approval to halt dividends for the year through October 26. That’s after its …

Bloomberg Swiss National Bank sight deposits fell for the first time in seven weeks, suggesting the central bank has scaled back interventions to weaken the franc. Sight deposits, considered an early indicator of SNB market activity, declined 154 million francs ($155 billion). They had risen by 2.5 billion francs the previous week, and 3.8 billion francs the period before that. …