The Gulf Time Newspaper One of the finest business newspapers in the UAE brought to you by our professional writers and editors.

  Sharjah / Emirates Business The fourth edition of the Sharjah World Music Festival (SWMF) concluded successfully after engaging and entertaining hundreds of thousands of music fans and cultural enthusiasts over 20 live music concerts. This prestigious nine-day event brought together 24 artists and musical bands from 14 countries, featuring popular Arabic voices as well as international artists representing myriad ...

  Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Malabar Gold & Diamonds, one of the world’s largest gold and diamond jewellery retailer, announces a major investment amounting AED335 million (US$91.28 million) in expansion plans of its retail network. The plan will see an addition of 24 stores in three months, from January to March period, taking the number of total outlets to ...

  Wells Fargo is planning to launch new compensation packages for its employees that aim to reward customer satisfaction. And 25,000 entry-level workers, including tellers and customer-service reps, received raises that bring minimum pay from $12 to $13.50 per hour. These are positive steps towards digging out from a badly mismanaged scandal. In September, the bank was fined $185 million ...

  Don’t leap to conclusions about JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s decision to upgrade its assessment of Indonesia’s stock market. The New York-based bank has elevated internal compliance to nuisance levels in Asia since a scandal over its hiring practices in China broke three years ago, people who work at JPMorgan tell me. In such an environment, the Indonesia rating change ...

  Last week, China announced that it had mastered the art of making ballpoint pens. Don’t laugh: It was a years-long effort that cost millions of dollars and required the leadership of a state-run corporate colossus. It was front-page news, widely discussed on talk shows and celebrated on social media. And it was no one-off stunt. China hopes such government-mandated ...

  Bloomberg European stocks pared their decline on Tuesday after UK Prime Minister Theresa May laid out her intentions on Brexit while supporting a strong European Union. The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.1 percent at 12:37 p.m. in London, recovering from a 0.7 percent slide earlier, still held lower by declines in mining and automaker stocks. May ruled out ...

  DUBAI / Reuters Qatar’s stock market rose to a multi-month high on Tuesday in the heaviest volume since late November, buoyed by the banking sector, while firmer oil prices supported the rest of the Gulf and foreign investors bought up Egyptian shares. Qatari Islamic bank Masraf Al Rayan jumped 4.0 percent to 40.45 riyals after its board recommended a ...

  Bloomberg The hunt for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was called off on Tuesday after almost three years of fruitless toil. The Boeing Co. 777 aircraft disappeared on March 8, 2014, on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur with 239 people on board. According to satellite data, the jet headed south over the Indian Ocean for about six hours ...

  Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc. will begin diversity training for all of its flight crews after at least two widely publicized incidents where passengers said they were discriminated against or treated uncivilly on its flights. Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian banned a passenger for life in November after the man was videotaped yelling in support of Donald Trump. A ...

  RIYADH / Reuters Saudi Arabian Airlines’ budget carrier Flyadeal will lease six Airbus A320s, an Airbus executive said, a sign that the European planemaker might again have pipped Boeing in the race to win a big Middle East deal. Flyadeal, which is set to start services in mid-2017, is aiming to operate a fleet of up to 50 narrow ...