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Reuters Gulf stock markets were mixed on Wednesday with Masraf Al Rayan, Qatar’s second-largest bank by market value, pulling the Qatari stock index 0.2 percent lower. Shares in Masraf Al Rayan sank 2.7 percent after the bank reported a 9.6 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit to 466 million riyals, below an average 562.5 million riyal forecast by Reuters analysts. …

Bloomberg China’s insatiable appetite for solar power led to a surprise increase in global clean-energy investment last year even as US President Donald Trump pushed to undermine pollution rules and curbs on coal. About $333.5 billion poured into renewable energy and cutting-edge power technologies, up 3 percent from 2016 and 7 percent short of the record set in 2015, according …

Bloomberg The pace at which China exports the fuel it doesn’t want is set to jump by more than four times in 2018, according to the nation’s biggest energy producer. That’s a harbinger of bad news for processors in the rest of Asia — from South Korea to Japan and India — who now have to contend with higher crude …

Bloomberg The world’s hottest offshore prospect for oil companies is off the coast of Guyana, where a string of major discoveries has drawn hundreds of millions of dollars in a quest for crude. The Trump administration is hoping to lure some of that investment to the US with a proposal to sell leases in almost every inch of the nation’s …

TIGUENTOURIN / Reuters Algeria’s state oil firm Sonatrach will exchange crude for refined products with the world’s largest oil trader Vitol, a Sonatrach official said of the rare move that aims to reduce a record fuel import bill. Vitol would receive up to 2 million barrels a month of the OPEC member’s light, sweet crude and would deliver gasoline and …

Bloomberg Morocco attracted bids from France’s Engie SA and EDF Energies Nouvelles to build 800 megawatts of solar power as the North African country seeks to curb energy imports. The French utilities, as well as Riyadh-based ACWA Power International, led groups bidding last month for engineering, procurement and construction contracts, Obaid Amrane, a member of the Moroccan Agency for Sustainable …

Bloomberg A minor tweak in the Bank of Japan’s bond purchases has emboldened investors to bet the central bank is about to wind back monetary stimulus. Going long on the yen is the biggest currency wager for AMP Capital Investors Ltd.’s Nader Naeimi. Singapore-based hedge fund Kit Trading Fund Ltd. started a bet on the yen last week, predicting the …

Bloomberg Citigroup Inc. envisions years of tax-reform benefits ahead, even as competitors warned that their rewards may soon start fading away. Last month’s Republican-led legislation cut Citigroup’s effective threshold to about 25 percent in 2018 and company executives said it will go even lower from there, leading the bank to boost its forecast for profitability. That contrasts with JPMorgan Chase …

Bloomberg Philippine central bank Governor Nestor Espenilla said it’s getting harder to cut the reserve requirement ratio for lenders as he’d pledged to do when he took office six months ago, with inflation set to pick up. “We have to be careful that we don’t send the signal that we are lowering the guard in terms of fighting inflation and …

RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabia’s King Salman ordered a deposit of $2 billion to be paid into Yemen’s central bank on Wednesday to shore up the weak Yemeni currency, the Saudi government said. The move was made a day after the Yemeni prime minister issued a public plea for funds to prop up the rial and help stave off hunger …