BUSINESSBUSINESSWednesday 1 November 2017

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H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani (right), Minster of Economy and Commerce; and Rishad Bathiudeen, Sri Lankan Minister of Industry and Commerce on the sidelines of Qatari-Sri Lankan Joint Committee for Economic, Commercial and Technical Cooperation meeting in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday.

Qatar-Sri Lanka joint meet

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BoE sees 75,000 finance job losses

after Brexit

Vodafone displays IoT’s sustainability impact

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Plans to introduce direct shipping lines to N AfricaMohammad Shoeb The Peninsula

Qatar is considering to start direct shipping lines from the newly-opened Hamad Port to North Africa

region, connecting several coun-tries, including Tunisia, Morocco and other Arab states in the region to boost bilateral trade.

The idea of introducing direct marine link with the region will not only be limited to expanding trade volume but also to use the region as a gate-way to Europe and other countries to exporting and re-exporting goods from the multi-billion dollar Hamad Port and the upcoming food process-ing complex being developed adjacent to the iconic port, according to some prominent Qatari businessmen.

“New shipping lines are expected to be started from the Hamad Port to North Africa region, including Tunisia. As Qatar is working to achieve food security by developing a hub at Hamad Port, we are working to establish strategic partnership with many North African and European countries to meet their demands for food grains and other goods,” the Vice-Chairman of Qatar Chamber, Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari told The Peninsula.

Al Kuwari, also a leading businessman, added: “Tunisia is a gateway to Europe and Africa. It’s an Arab country which has great potential to expand eco-nomic cooperation with Qatar… We are discussing with Russia, India, Pakistan, Australia and many other countries to source wheat, rice and other food grains to achieve food security as well as re-exporting the same to other countries in the region and beyond. And Tunisia can be one of the key partners in this regard.”

He said that the world-class Hamad Port has opened at the right time, which is destined to change the landscape of regional

sea transport sector. Analysts say that Qatar and

Tunisia are geographically sit-uated at strategic locations between Europe and Asia. And both the countries can comple-ment each other in terms of the exchange of goods and services, including agricultural products, labour force and management.

Yet another leading Qatari businessman, Ali Hasan Al Kha-laf, echoing similar views, said: “Tunisia is an Arab country with huge potential to add value to our economy, but we still do not have direct connection through sea route to expand the trade of goods between Qatar and Tuni-sia. The absence of direct shipping line is a major obsta-cle to enhancing bilateral trade.”

Al Khalaf, the Chairman of

Qatar Consumer Complexes (QCC), a leading company with a wide range of business inter-ests, including a chain of retail outlets, added: “We have very strong and well established shipping lines with many Asian countries where we export our oil, gas, chemicals, and petro-chemical products. On similarly lines, we need to develop and upgrade shipping lines for tra-ditionally traded items, especially with India, Pakistan, Iran and many other countries in the North African and other parts of the world.”

He noted that since Qatar was traditionally importing most of the goods through neighbour-ing countries, “we did not pay much heed” to developed or upgrade a well established logis-tics industry and independent sea transport links for commercial trade, but with the opening of the huge Hamad Port things are changing fast. Asked about the reported delays in custom clear-ance at local ports, especially for non-food items, he added that these are temporary problems due to unprecedented rise in the volume of goods coming from the sea routes, which is expected to be solved very soon.

“Since most of the goods are coming via sea routes (as the only land route is blocked by Saudi Arabia), the work load has increased by manifold. The authorities concern are trying their level best to improve the situation.”

Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari (left), Vice-Chairman of Qatar Chamber; and Ali Hasan Al Khalaf, Chairman of Qatar Consumer Complexes.

Hamad Port

Since most of the goods are coming via sea routes (as the only land route is blocked), the work load at Hamad Port has increased manifold.

World-class Hamad Port has opened at the right time, which is destined to change the landscape of regional sea transport sector.

ExxonMobil to pay $300m to resolve chemical pollution casesWashington

Bloomberg

ExxonMobil Corp. agreed to pay more than $300 mil-lion to resolve air pollution

violations tied to eight chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana, one of a pair of environmental

settlements with oil companies announced by the Trump administration yesterday.

Separately, Denver-based PDC Energy Inc. agreed to pay $22.2m after storage tanks were found to be leaking smog-form-ing compounds.

The cases are among the

most notable environmental enforcement actions by the Trump administration, with at least one target that hits close to home. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was chief executive officer at Exxon until late last year.

Environmental Protection

Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has vowed to get tough on corporate polluters.

The Exxon case involved thousands of tons of toxic air pollutants such as benzene that streamed from 26 industrial flares at five Texas facilities and three in Louisiana, according to

a Justice Department statement released yesterday. Under the settlement,

Exxon will spend $300m in new anti-pollution and moni-toring gear, pay a $2.5m fine and spend $1m to plant trees around its Baytown, Texas, plant. In June, the Trump administration

filed a civil lawsuit alleging that PDC repeatedly violated the Clean Air Act and Colorado air pollution rules by allowing vol-atile organic compounds to escape from more than 80 groupings, or batteries, of con-densate storage tanks near Denver.

Oil heads for second monthly gain as Opec strategy pays offNew York Bloomberg

Oil is set for its first back-to-back monthly gain since last year amid signs

that a global glut is shrinking and a coalition of some of the world’s largest producers will continue coordinating supply limits.

Futures were little changed in New York yesterday, capping a 4.9 percent jump this month that would be the best October for crude since 2011. Saudi Ara-bia and Russia signaled support for extending production caps well into 2018. Meanwhile, US crude stockpiles probably dropped for the fifth time in six weeks, according to a Bloomb-erg survey before a government tally scheduled for release today.

The global benchmark Brent crude this month topped $60 a barrel for the first time since July 2015 while the dominant US grade, West Texas Intermediate, touched an eight-month high.

The market was also buoyed by conflict between the Iraqi cen-tral government and semi-autonomous Kurds that threatened crude supplies from northern fields. The wild card remains North American shale’s potential to upend any coordi-nated moves to keep a lid on global production.

West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery added 7 cents to $54.22 a barrel at 12:21 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Total vol-ume traded was about 40 percent below the 100-day aver-age. The more-active January contract rose 12 cents to $60.71. The global benchmark crude traded at a premium of $6.87 to WTI.

The Energy Information Administration is expected to report today that US crude inventories fell by 1.3 million barrels last week, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey.

BoJ cuts annual inflation forecastTokyo

AFP

Japan’s central bank cut its annual inflation forecast yesterday but kept its ultra-

loose monetary policy unchanged, as its overseas counterparts start turning off the stimulus taps.

The BoJ slashed its infla-tion forecast to 0.8 percent for the fiscal year through March 2018 from an earlier 1.1 per-cent estimate and also slightly trimmed its projection for the following year to 1.4 percent. Japan’s inflation rate came in at 0.7 percent in September.

“The consumer price index has continued to show relatively weak develop-ments, mainly against the background that firms’ wage- and price-setting stance has remained cautious,” the cen-tral bank said in a statement after its latest meeting.

The bank’s widely expected decision came days after the European Central Bank took the first step towards ending years of mas-sive support to the eurozone economy.

22 WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017BUSINESS

Rodrigo Malmierca (right), Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment; and Georgy Kalamanov, Russian Deputy Industry and Trade Minister visit the Russian stand at the 35th International Havana Fair (FIHAV). The event which takes place annually in Havana, since 1983, offers exhibitors and visitors the opportunity to make new business contacts, to close business connections and to exchange experiences. The fair is also used to get up-to-date information regarding the latest technologies and trends.

Havana fair

Sasol renews Al Attiyah Foundation membershipThe Peninsula

In line with its international efforts in support of sustain-able development, Sasol, the

international integrated chem-icals and energy company, today announced the renewal of its membership of the Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah International Foundation for Energy and Sus-tainable Development.

This is a recognition of the long-standing relationship and partnership between the two

organisations as they look towards a sustainable future.

Abdullah bin Hamad Al Atti-yah commented: “We are grateful to Sasol for their con-tinued support and involvement in the Qatari and global com-munity. As a global leader in energy, Sasol brings an impor-tant perspective and resources to addressing the global chal-lenge of energy sustainability. We hope that our partnership will continue to grow and bear fruit this year and into the

future.”Phinda Vilakazi, President

of GTL Ventures at Sasol said: “Sasol is proud to partner with The Al Attiyah Foundation and carry on the more than 40-year legacy of Al Attiyah in global energy and sustainable devel-opment. We are delighted that our membership will continue to support global conversations while making a difference right here in Doha.”

Al Attiyah Foundation uses membership funding to support

ongoing research and publish-ing efforts that contribute to a greater understanding of energy sustainability and energy markets.

The Foundation is also the platform for the annual Abdul-lah Bin Hamad Al Attiyah International Energy Awards, a high-profile prize that cele-brates the legacy of Al Attiyah by rewarding individuals for their Lifetime Achievement in advancing fields of work and policy.

Listed companies’ net profit at QR29.3bnThe Peninsula

The combined net profit of listed companies, excluding Vodafone

Qatar, stood at QR29.3bn in the third quarter of 2017, down 6 percent from a year ago.

Banking sector outper-formed other sector indices during the period by record-ing a net profit of QR16.43bn, up 3 percent compared to the same period in 2016, accord-ing to Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE) data.

Among the banks, QIB’s net profit grew by 10.58 per-cent and QNB’s profit rose by 6.20 percent. QIIB’s profit jumped 5.06 percent, while Doha Bank’s profit increased was up by 2.91 percent.

Commercial Bank ‘goes green’ for Qatar Sustainability WeekThe Peninsula

Commercial Bank’s social media channels are ‘going green’ in support

of Qatar Sustainability Week 2017 (QSW).

QSW is a week-long event held under the patronage of Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, taking place from October 28 to November 4. QSW is designed to actively engage Qatar’s public and private sec-tor organisations in a wide range of sustainability-oriented activities, foster a culture of sustainability among residents and visitors, as well as promote engagement from members of the community.

To support QSW and raise awareness of this Qatar Green Building Council-led initiative among the Qatari community, Commercial Bank’s four social media channels will ‘go green’ for the duration of the week. Each channel’s profile is chang-ing colour to green and will use a new hashtag #GoGreeenforQ-ATAR as part of a social media campaign containing great tips on what citizens can do in their everyday lives to reduce their carbon footprint, live more sus-tainably and contribute to a greener society. Commercial Bank’s Instagram Stories will also feature a daily poll designed to engage followers about what steps they are tak-

ing to live more sustainably.Commercial Bank EGM,

Chief Marketing Officer, Hus-sein M Ali Al Abdulla said: ““Commercial Bank is commit-ted to sustainable development under the Qatar National Vision 2030 and we are proud to sup-port Qatar Sustainability Week 2017 as the leading community-based initiative driving sustainability forward in Qatar. By raising awareness through the Bank’s social media chan-nels, our aim is to promote a more sustainable, healthy soci-ety and encourage members of the Qatari community to con-duct their own green initiatives as part of Qatar Sustainability Week 2017.”

The bank offers a full range of corporate, retail and invest-ment banking services as well as owning and operating exclu-sive Diners Club franchise in Qatar. The bank’s countrywide network includes 29 full serv-ice branches and 177 ATMs

Vodafone displays IoT’s sustainability impactThe Peninsula

Vodafone Qatar, the Communications Partner of the Qatar Sustainability Week 2017, showcased at

the event how the Internet of Things (IoT) is having a profound impact on the world of sustainability.

Vodafone’s fifth annual IoT Barometer Report – the leading global survey of business senti-ment regarding investment and innovation in the Internet of Things, was provided to the event attendees and Vodafone’s team were on hand to discuss how the desire to drive down costs by driving up efficiency using IoT technologies is having a huge effect on the sustainability prac-tices across major industries with adopters reporting 38 percent increased sustainability.

The Barometer reveals that the number of large scale (IoT) projects doubled in the last year

with more than 50,000 con-nected devices active. Energy and utility companies are at the fore-front of the largest IoT projects worldwide with over a third (35 percent) of organisations already using IoT. The use of applications such as smart meters and pipe-line monitoring are helping to optimise power generation and consumption, while ensuring environmental sustainability including reducing greenhouse emissions (GHG).

Ian Gray (pictured), CEO,

Vodafone Qatar said: “Vodafone is a world leader in IoT. Over time, IoT technologies will trans-form every industry, most public services and many aspects of consumers’ daily lives. By bring-ing intelligent interconnection and network control to previ-ously ‘dumb’ disconnected devices and services, numerous products and processes in the workplace and in the home will become significantly more effi-cient and reliable, with a positive impact on energy and fuel

consumption and therefore GHG emissions.”

Vodafone’s research found that 84 percent of IoT adopters say their use of IoT has grown in the last year and 66 percent of businesses surveyed agree that digital transformation is impos-sible without IoT. Key examples of IoT applications include:

• smart metering, using IoT technology to collect and ana-lyse data on energy use in real time. Smart meters help energy providers, businesses and munic-ipal authorities to optimise power generation and consump-tion; they also help households reduce their energy needs (and their energy bills).

• smart cities, bringing net-worked intelligence to the civil infrastructure relied upon by the world’s growing urban popula-tions through applications such as road traffic management and advanced street lighting; and

• smart logistics, embedding IoT technologies within delivery

vehicles to optimise route man-agement, vehicle maintenance and driver behaviour – applica-tions that can reduce fuel consumption by up to 30 percent.

Vodafone estimates that more than 40 percentof the more than 50 million IoT connections operated by Vodafone directly enable their customers to reduce their emissions. Vodafone expects the total number of Vodafone IoT connections to increase over time; Vodafone also expect further increases in the number of those connections that have a direct and positive GHG emissions impact.

Vodafone also estimates that the total GHG emissions avoided as a consequence of their IoT technologies and services was 4.9 million tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) in 2017.

The main areas in which the greatest CO2e savings are ena-bled were in smart meters and logistics and fleet management

Sony forecasts record annual profitsTokyo

AFP

Sony said yesterday it expects to book record annual profits as the

once-ailing electronics giant pushes on with a turnaround driven by its PlayStation games division and a boom-ing smartphone parts business.

The PlayStation console maker is eying a net profit of 380 billion yen ($3.4bn) for the fiscal year to March 2018, eclipsing the previous 369.4 billion yen record hit a decade ago, while operating profit is forecast to be a highest-ever 630 billion yen, beating a record set two decades ago.

Net profit for the latest quarter to September was more than 27 times bigger than the year-before level as sales expanded 22 percent.

Operating profit jumped more than four-fold, partly due to a rebound after deadly quakes in southern Japan hit production last year. The Tokyo-based company cited improved results in its semi-conductors business, which includes image sensors found in smartphone cameras.

The results marked a comeback for the electronics and entertainment giant which has struggled in recent years with huge losses. To try to stop the bleeding, the company has cut thousands of jobs and sold assets, including its Vaio lap-top unit and a US headquarters in Manhattan. Sony took a nearly $1bn writedown at its movie unit last year following several box office disappoint-ments, including the reboot of the Eighties classic “Ghost-busters” with an all-female cast and “Inferno”, a sequel to the “Da Vinci Code”.

Barclays names Klemme as Mideast head in Private BankThe Peninsula

Barclays has announced that Steve Klemme (pictured) will be joining as Head of

Middle East in Private Bank & Overseas Services.

With over 30 years’ experi-ence leading Middle East regional teams for global financial insti-tutions, Klemme brings a unique depth and range of specialist expertise that will support the delivery of a high-growth strat-egy for Private Bank & Overseas Services across the region. He and his teams based in Dubai, Swit-zerland and London will develop and strengthen relationships with Middle Eastern high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients through the delivery of bespoke advice and solutions and access to Corporate and Investment

banking products and services. Karen Frank, CEO, Private

Bank & Overseas Services, Bar-clays, said: “This year we have completed a series of strategic appointments to deliver increased

growth and returns for Private Bank & Overseas Services. I’m excited to see our all new col-leagues take up their seats because it shows the ambition of what we want to achieve for our clients. Steve’s appointment sig-nificantly advances our plans to strengthen our capabilities in the Middle East.”

Francesco Grosoli, Head of Private Bank for Europe, the Mid-dle East and Africa, said: “Steve Klemme’s track record in the Middle East together with his technical expertise will enable Barclays to originate and deliver a full range of banking, invest-ment and credit capabilities tailored to the specific needs of our clients in the region. In his role as Head of Middle East, Steve will focus on growing our Middle East market, by expanding and

deepening our client relationships and delivering solutions from across Barclays International”

Barclays is a major global financial services provider with more than 325 years of banking expertise and operations in over 40 countries.

BNP Paribas Q3 profits riseFRENCH bank BNP Paribas yesterday posted solid profit growth in the third quarter, buoyed by the positive eco-nomic environment in Europe, despite challenges in the retail banking market.

Net profit rose by 8.3 per-cent to ¤2.04bn ($2.38bn) for the period from July to Sep-tember, BNP Paribas said in a statement. The figure was slightly better than forecasts by analysts surveyed by FactSet.

Among the factors con-tributing to the rise was “the ¤326m capital gain resulting from the initial public offer-ing of SBI Life”, the bank’s life insurance company in India, BNP Paribas explained.

Barometer Report

Vodafone’s fifth annual IoT Barometer Report reveals that the number of large scale Internet of Things (IoT) projects doubled in the last year with more than 50,000 connected devices active.

The team will develop and strengthen relationships with Middle Eastern high net worth and ultra-high net worth clients through the delivery of bespoke advice and solutions and access to Corporate and Investment banking products and services.

23WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017 BUSINESS

BoE sees 75,000 finance job losses after BrexitLondon

Reuters

The Bank of England expects Britain to lose up to 75,000 financial services jobs in the years after its depar-

ture from the European Union in 2019, the BBC reported yesterday.

London dominates global currency trading and is Europe’s main finance hub. Overall, the sector employs more than a mil-lion people across Britain and official data yesterday showed it generated a record £61bn ($81 billion) of exports last year.

But once Britain leaves the EU, it is likely to be harder to sell services across Europe and some

banks have already started to move staff from Britain or expand operations elsewhere.

The BBC said the BoE - which is reviewing banks’ contingency plans - thought as many as 75,000 jobs would be affected.

“I understand that senior fig-ures at the Bank are using the number as a ‘reasonable sce-nario’, particularly if there is no specific UK-EU financial serv-ices deal,” the BBC’s Economics Editor Kamal Ahmed wrote.

BoE Deputy Governor Sam Woods (pictured) told Reuters

at the start of the month that a figure of 10,000 job losses in a Reuters survey of banks’ plans was a reasonable estimate of the initial impact of leaving the EU.

The longer-term impact of Brexit on jobs in financial serv-ices was much less certain and depended on what deal Britain was able to reach with the EU, Woods said.

But he added that he expected London would continue to be one of the world’s largest financial centres in the coming decades, after some politicians and economists predicted the City would lose its pre-eminent status as a global hub for finance.

The 75,000 figure in the BBC report is in line with a forecast from management consultants

Oliver Wyman of what might happen if Britain and the EU fail to reach a deal on financial services.

“It is vital that the EU and the UK avoid such a ‘no deal sce-nario’. This outcome will see few winners, with UK and EU cus-tomers likely to bear the brunt in the form of reduced choice and cost increases,” said Miles Celic, chief executive of TheCit-yUK, the industry group that commissioned Oliver Wyman.

Other forecasts for job losses have ranged from about 30,000 jobs estimated by the Brussels-based Bruegel research group in February to as many as 232,000 by London Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet in January.

Woods and his fellow BoE deputy governor, Jon Cunliffe, are due to speak to a British par-liament committee on Wednesday about the effect of Brexit on financial services.

Some firms have started to move staff out of London, while others are waiting until early 2018 to see if Britain and the EU agree transitional arrangements to smooth Brexit.

Andrew Bailey, chief execu-tive of Britain’s Financial

Conduct Authority, told law-makers on Tuesday that firms would take “irreversible” deci-sions if there were no deal soon.

“The end of this year, begin-ning of next year is the point at which these things start happen-ing,” he said.

Financial hub

London dominates global currency trading & is Europe’s main finance hub.

Overall, the sector employs more than a million people across Britain & it generated a record £61bn of exports last year.

Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles (left) poses with Joao Doria, Sao Paulo’s Mayor and President of LIDE during a lunch debate of LIDE (Businessmen Leaders Group), in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

LIDE debateUS & UK seen as top places for business despite protectionismWashington

Bloomberg

The shift by the US and Brit-ain toward more protectionist trade and

immigration policies isn’t hurt-ing their reputation as places to do business, according to a new ranking from the World Bank.

The US moved up two posi-tions to sixth in the development lender’s rankings of 190 coun-tries based on ease of doing business, while the UK retained its spot in seventh place, the World Bank said in its “Doing Business 2018” report released yesterday. New Zealand took the top place for the second straight year, followed by Singapore,

Denmark, South Korea and Hong Kong. Macedonia dropped out of the top 10, while Georgia jumped into ninth spot. Among the top 20 ranked economies, the former Soviet republic has enacted the most business-friendly reforms since the World Bank started tracking them in 2003, according to the report.

The report ranks countries based on 11 indicators such as the ability to start a business, deal-ing with construction permits, accessing electricity, obtaining credit, trading across borders and paying taxes. Economic growth in the US and UK has exceeded expectations of late despite con-cerns expressed by some business leaders and economists

about trade policies proposed by President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May. Trump withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and has threatened to do the same with the North American Free Trade Agreement, while May’s govern-ment is negotiating its exit from the European Union. To be sure, the impact on business of a more protectionist America and Brit-ain may take years to unfold as the two countries reshape their trade arrangements around the world. Trump and fellow Repub-lican leaders in Congress are also proposing deep tax cuts for cor-porations, which may offset some of the negative impact of his proposals on trade.

Bitcoin jumps as CME unveils plan for futures contractNew York AFP

Bitcoin prices rose yes-terday after exchange giant CME Group

announced it planned to launch a futures marketplace for the cryptocurrency in the fourth quarter. The move is a vote of confidence in the con-troversial virtual currency, which has not been listed on a major exchange previously. The CME operates a range of prominent exchanges around the world and handles three billion contracts a year. The start of the exchange is con-tingent on regulatory approvals, CME said. The con-tract will be for bitcoin futures, a derivative product that sets pricing for a com-modity or financial instrument at a future date. Some types of futures con-tracts rarely result in delivery of the underlying asset.

Since November 2016, CME has published each day at 1600 GMT a bitcoin refer-ence rate (BTT) based on the trade flow of major spot exchanges. The announce-ment sets up a race between CME and its Chicago-based rival CBOE Holdings, which in August announced plans to launch a cash-settled bitcoin futures contract in the fourth quarter of 2017 or early 2018 with the Gemini Trust Com-pany. The CBOE said the launch depended on a review by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The cryptocurrency mar-ket has growth to $172bn, with bitcoin accounting for 54 percent, CME said.

Analysts fleeing MiFID gloom find jobs in booming ChinaShanghai

Bloomberg

As global investment banks cut thousands of analyst jobs over the past years,

Chinese firms went the other way and bulked up their research departments.

The divide is being exacer-bated by the adoption in January of the European Union’s revised Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, which will upend the way banks long charged clients for research. Chinese investment banks, by and large, are insulated from the new rules, known com-monly as MiFID II.

The shift is leading hordes of overseas-educated Chinese like Tan to abandon plans for finan-cial careers abroad and return

home. Headhunting firm Michael Page has seen overseas appli-cants for financial-job openings in Shanghai—including analyst positions—reach 500 over the past year, as job seekers decide that China is where the oppor-tunities are.

That’s about 50 percent more than the previous year, said Kristina Liang, a Michael Page consultant in Shanghai.

The new European rules, due to be introduced in January, are reshaping the global securities industry by requiring an end to cross-subsidies for market research.

As they negotiate prices for research, many companies have frozen hiring or started to lay off analysts. Chinese firms, in con-trast, with their focus on the vast

domestic retail market, are largely shielded from MiFID II, which only applies to banks and brokerages that interact with European asset managers.

McKinsey & Co. estimates that MiFID II will prompt the 10 biggest European sell-side banks to reduce global spending on

research by $1.2bn annually over the next three years. That prob-ably means more job losses among analysts, even after almost 4,000 positions disap-peared between 2011 and the end of last year, according to McKinsey.

The UK’s decision to divorce from the European Union also weakened London’s appeal as a financial job destination, said Liang at Michael Page.

In mainland China, the number of analysts jumped roughly 20 percent during the same period, according to Secu-rities Association of China, as an expanding economy, deepening links with the global financial system and the swelling ranks of publicly traded companies stim-ulated demand for research. The

net assets of Chinese brokerages stood at 1.75trillion yuan ($264bn) in June, almost double the amount at the end of 2014.

The impact on Chinese secu-rities firms’ appetite for analysts is also being felt in Hong Kong, the enclave which serves as Chi-na’s financial gateway to the world.

For most Chinese broker-ages, especially the smaller ones without international ambitions, the MiFID II rules are “kind of irrelevant,” said Keith Pogson (pictured), a managing partner at Ernst & Young in Hong Kong.

“They don’t have European customers, they are not doing European products and they are definitely not doing anything on the European exchange directly themselves.”

Tunisia’s central bank restricts imports to tackle trade deficitTunis

Reuters

Tunisia’s central bank has ordered local lenders to stop financing the impor-

tation of hundreds of products—from fish to per-fume—as the country tries to curb a record trade deficit. A document seen by Reuters showed that banks had been told not to provide loans to finance imports of some 220 consumer products unless the importer deposits enough funds to cover the cost of the import.

The products listed include tropical fruits, alcoholic bever-ages, cosmetics products and air conditioners. A senior govern-ment official told Reuters that Tunisia hoped the import restric-tions would help maintain its

foreign reserves and halt a slide in the dinar against the dollar.

The local currency traded at 2.92 against the euro and 2.49 against the dollar on Monday. Tunisia’s trade deficit reached a record 11.480bn dinars ($4.61bn) last month after widening 23 percent year on year in the first nine months of 2017. Praised for its successful democratic tran-sition after a 2011 uprising, Tunisia has struggled with tough economic reforms to reduce public spending agreed with its international lenders. Earlier this month, the prime minister’s eco-nomic adviser Ridha Saidi told Reuters the government would raise taxes on some goods imported from abroad, such as cosmetics and some agricultural products, to help narrow the trade deficit.

Burberry’s CEO quits so brand can revitaliseLondon

Reuters

Christopher Bailey (pic-tured), who fashioned British trench coat maker

Burberry into a global label, will step down next March as a new chief executive tries to revital-ise the brand.

Bailey joined Burberry in 2001, and working with former CEO Angela Ahrendts made its camel, red and black check designs must-have items for fashion buyers from Hong Kong to London.

The 46-year-old designer added the chief executive’s role to his remit when Ahrendts left for Apple in 2014, but growth has faltered as demand for lux-ury goods in Asia slowed.

Bailey’s exit will enable new chief executive, Marco Gobbetti, to revamp Burberry’s creative direction as well as its

operations, analysts said follow-ing yesterday’s news.

“Burberry has more than anything a top-line growth issue, as it has become some-what predictable and deja vu,” Exane BNP Paribas said.

The company, which still manufactures its high-end coats in Yorkshire, northern England, poached Gobbetti from Celine to overhaul the business earlier this year, leaving Bailey with creative control. Burberry said Bailey had decided it was now time to pursue new projects after he helped turn the com-pany into a global brand worth more than £8bn.

Shares in Burberry were trading down 0.7 percent at 19.10 pounds at 1000 GMT.

Burberry said Bailey would step down from his board posi-tions of president and chief creative officer at the end of March, but would support Gob-betti until 31 December 2018.

He will receive his salary, pension and contractual cash allowance and non-cash bene-fits until the end of 2018, the company said, but no bonus for the period after March.

24 WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017BUSINESS

Europe’s recovery hastens despite BrexitBrussels

AFP

Europe’s economic recovery is gathering pace despite the Cata-lan crisis and uncertainty around

Brexit, with figures released yes-terday showing eurozone growth beating forecasts and unemploy-ment falling to its lowest level since January 2009.

A day after economic senti-ment in the eurozone hit its highest level in nearly 17 years, the EU’s official statistics agency announced that the jobless rate in the single currency area fell to 8.9 percent in September, bet-tering analyst predictions.

The positive data came after the European Central Bank (ECB) announced last week it was starting to wind down the mas-sive support it has given the 19-member currency zone to help it through the crises of recent years, in view of the “increasingly robust and broad-based economic expansion”.

The EU’s economics affairs commissioner, Pierre Moscovici

(pictured), hailed the data as evi-dence of the “marked acceleration” of the recovery since the spring.

“It’s good news because more growth means more investment and more jobs for European citizens,” he told AFP.

Seasonally-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6 percent in both the eurozone and the EU as a whole during the third quarter of 2017, compared with the previous three months, and was up 2.5 percent on the same period last year.

Eurozone GDP has expanded by 1.9 percent since the start of

the year—surpassing in just three quarters the European Commis-sion’s May prediction of 1.7 percent growth for the whole of 2017.

This comes despite serious concerns over Britain’s depar-ture from the EU, with exit negotiations almost deadlocked and fears growing that the UK could crash out with no deal in place, causing chaos for busi-nesses on both sides of the Channel.

“Looking ahead, there are good reasons to expect the euro-zone’s upturn to continue and perhaps accelerate,” Jennifer McKeown of Capital Economics said in a note, pointing to the uptick in business confidence and improvement in the Euro-pean labour market.

Unemployment in the euro-zone was down from 9.0 percent in August, while the figure for the EU as a whole was 7.5 percent—the lowest since November 2008, Eurostat said.

But in a worrying sign for policy-makers, eurozone infla-tion remains stubbornly low, slowing to 1.4 in October—well

off the ECB’s target of 2.0 per-cent—according to figures from Eurostat.

And underlying inflation, which excludes energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, is proving even more of a headache, drop-ping to 0.9 percent, its lowest level in five months.

“The tick down in headline inflation was widely expected as energy base effects are push-ing the inflation rate down for the moment. The drop in core inflation is more notable,” Bert Colijn, economist at ING bank,

said in a note.“Even though pipeline infla-

tion pressures are slowly mounting, the two-percent tar-get is getting further away for now.”

The ECB has taken extraor-dinary measures to push up growth and inflation in the euro-zone in recent years, setting interest rates at historic lows, offering cheap loans for banks and hoovering billions of euros of government and corporate bonds each month.

But as the eurozone econ-omy has picked up, calls have grown for the ECB to begin unwinding its ultra-loose mon-etary policies, as the Federal Reserve is doing in the United States.

The Frankfurt-based bank edged in that direction on Thurs-day, announcing it would halve its monthly asset purchases to ¤30bn from January.

But with the stubbornly low inflation figure in mind, ECB chief Mario Draghi last week also sought to reassure investors the era of cheap money was not over just yet.

Dollar edges up; heads for best month of this yearNew York Reuters

The dollar edged higher yesterday, underpinned by solid US data, and

headed toward its strongest monthly performance since November 2016.

The greenback jumped against the Canadian dollar after the concurrent release of US and Canadian data showing solid labor costs for the United States and disap-pointing growth and inflation readings for its northern neighbor.

Canada’s GDP fell unex-pectedly in August, the first decline in almost a year, led by a 1 percent drop in manu-facturing. US employment costs showed the largest year-on-year increase in 2-1/2 years.

That pushed the dollar index, which tracks the greenback against the Cana-dian dollar and five other major currencies, to 94.703, its highest level of the day. The index was on track for its best month since November with a 1.65 percent climb.

US consumer confidence rose to a nearly 17-year high, housing price data was solid and the Chicago purchasing managers index exceeded expectations, showing the economy continued to expand.

Additionally, analysts said, investors were unenthu-siastic about making big bets ahead of upcoming central bank meetings by the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve, as well as economic data due to be released later this week featuring the US nonfarm payrolls report.

The Bank of Japan kept its monetary policy steady yes-terday, as widely expected, while slightly lowering its inflation forecast for the cur-rent fiscal year.

US President Donald Trump with Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin. speaks at a meeting with business leaders on tax reform at the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Tax reform meetingBoost for Macron as French economy posts strong growthParis

AFP

The French economy chalked up a fourth con-secutive quarter of strong

growth between July and Sep-tember, official data showed yesterday, suggesting recovery in the eurozone’s second-big-gest economy remains on track.

The national statistics insti-tute INSEE said gross domestic product (GDP) expanded by 0.5 percent in the period, led by a pick-up in household consump-tion and investment.

The French economy had already grown by 0.6 percent in the second quarter and 0.5 percent in the previous two quarters, making this the long-est expansion since 2011.

The figures suggest Presi-dent Emmanuel Macron’s government is on course to achieve its target of 1.8 percent growth over the year as a whole.

Maintaining buoyant growth is also central to his aim of bringing France’s deficit within an EU limit of 3.0 per-cent of GDP this year—for the first time in a decade.

“It’s very good news,” said Christian Eckert, former junior budget minister in the former Socialist government that Macron quit to run for president.

He predicted the spurt in

activity would generate “sev-eral billion euros” in extra revenue—a much-needed windfall for the government which has been hit with a ¤10bn ($12bn) bill for overtax-ing dividends that could blow its deficit targets off course.

Analysts say France’s turn-around is partly the result of the pro-business policies put in place by Macron’s unpopular predecessor Francois Hollande that are only now beginning to yield fruit.

Macron, elected in May, has taken the policies further with landmark reforms to employ-ment laws governing hiring and firing. Strong growth in Europe as a whole has also given France a shot in the arm. Third-quarter growth in the eurozone was stronger than in France, reaching 0.6 percent.

“President Macron is incredibly lucky, he’s arriving at a time of growth,” Eric Woerth, a leading member of the centre-right Republicans, said. “This growth is not of his doing, it’s European growth,” he added.

The real test for Macron’s presidency will be his ability to bring down stubbornly high unemployment, which is run-ning at close to 10 percent.

Hollande bowed out after a single five-year term marked by his failure to make an impact on the jobs front.

China factory growth slows more than expectedBeijing

Reuters

Growth in China’s manu-facturing sector cooled more than expected in

October in the face of tighter pollution rules that are forcing many steel mills, smelters and factories to curtail production over the winter.

While still easily in expan-sionary territory, China’s monthly official factory survey also showed unexpected weak-ness in new export orders, which had been expected to pick up heading into the peak year-end

shopping season.The data gives global inves-

tors their first look at business conditions in China at the start of the fourth quarter, with the government’s punishing war on smog adding to uncertainty amid early signs of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. The official Purchasing Manag-ers’ Index (PMI) released yesterday fell to 51.6 in October, from 52.4 in September, which was the strongest in over five years. It was the weakest read-ing in three months, but remained above the 50-point mark that separates growth from

contraction on a monthly basis. A separate PMI for the steel industry showed raw material purchase prices fell sharply in October after strong gains in recent months.

The PMI decline was “likely due to disruptions to industrial activity in north-eastern China as a result of the ongoing envi-ronmental crackdown, as well as softer investment spending in response to slower credit growth and the unwinding of pre-Party Congress fiscal support,” said Capital Economics China econ-omist Julian Evans-Pritchard (pictured).

London

Reuters

With US stock markets climbing to new highs in October, global investors raised US equity hold-

ings to 7-month highs, a Reuters poll showed yesterday, encouraged by strong corporate earnings and the revival of US tax-cut plans. The monthly asset allocation survey of 51 wealth managers and chief investment officers in Europe, the United States, Britain and Japan was conducted between October 16 to 27.

During this period, US tax-cut plans passed a key legislative hurdle, reviving hopes that corporate America would reap the benefits.

That helped US stocks scale new highs

in October, boosted also by better-than-expected company earnings and upbeat third-quarter US growth numbers.

The Nasdaq tech index looks set to end the month over 3 percent higher, and the Dow Jones is up 4.5 percent.

Not surprisingly, global investors’ expo-sure to US stocks rose 2.1 percentage points in October to 40.8 percent of their global equity portfolios, the highest level since March.

While overall equity exposure dipped a touch to 47.5 percent of global balanced portfolios, investors remained upbeat. Only 38 percent of poll participants who answered a question on the US Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England thought all three would tighten monetary policy by the end of the year.

Although the Fed was widely expected to raise rates again in December, respond-ents disagreed about the path the ECB and BoE would take. In late October - after most participants had filled in the poll - the ECB said it would cut its bond purchases in half from January. But it did extend the scheme until the end of next September.

As for the BoE, Sandra Crowl, a member of the investment committee at Carmignac, noted the bank had a juggling act to perform - inflation is rising while weaker investment and consumer spending are cutting into growth. But others, such as Martin Wolburg, senior economist at Generali Investments, noted several hurdles ahead, including the exit bill, the Northern Ireland border issue and European Union citizens’ rights in the post-Brexit Britain.

Pfizer doubles Q3 profits & raises full-year forecastNew York AFP

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer reported yester-day that Q3 profits more

than doubled as strength in newer drugs to treat cancer and other illnesses offset the hit from patent expirations.

Net income came in at $2.8bn, compared with just under $1.4bn in the year-ago period, a quarter that was hit with one-time expenses con-nected to Pfizer acquisitions.

Revenues edged up 0.9 per-cent to $13.2bn.

Pfizer’s earnings jumped in the “innovative health” division, which commercializes newer products. Those gains were off-set by a similarly-sized decline in Pfizer’s legacy brand business, called “essential health.” Pfizer cited declines in some drugs, such as the antidepressant Pris-tiq in the US and said product shortages of injectable drugs under the Hospira brand had also hit sales. Pfizer lifted its full-year forecast to $2.58 to $2.62 per share from the previous range of $2.54 to $2.60 per share. Shares rose 1.1 percent in pre-market trading to $35.52.

Economic growth

Seasonally-adjusted GDP grew by 0.6% in both the eurozone and the EU as a whole during Q3 of 2017, compared with the previous 3 months, and was up 2.5% on the same period last year.

US equities raised to 40.8%; highest since March

25WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017 BUSINESS

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin gets photographed by the news media as he sits in a Toyota I-Road after the unveiling of a new Toyota engineering headquarters yesterday in Georgetown, Kentucky. The 235,000 square foot state-of-the-art Product Engineering and Manufacturing Center (PEMC) is the final building constructed under the “One Toyota” project.

Airbus warns of potential hit from fraud probes Paris

AFP

European aircraft maker Airbus warned yester-day that various investigations into alleged fraud, bribery

and corruption could impact its earnings.

Airbus also said it was still battling delivery problems of the new fuel-efficient engines made by Pratt and Whitney for its A320neo jet, even if tailwinds from exchange rate effects boosted its bottom line in the third quarter.

“The investigations initiated by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and France’s Parquet National Financier (PNF)... could have a material impact on the financial statements, business and operations of Airbus,” the group said in a statement.

“Any penalties potentially levied as a result could have neg-ative consequences for Airbus.

“However, at this stage it is too early to determine the like-lihood or extent of any such

possible consequence,” the state-ment said.

British and French authori-ties launched their probe after Airbus itself detected and alerted them to alleged irregularities concerning third-party consultants.

The planemaker is also under investigation in Austria and Ger-many for possible corruption related to the sale of Eurofighter jets to Austria.

And Airbus is also the sub-ject of a probe in the US regarding possible inaccuracies in filings made with the US Department of State.

In that case, too, Airbus said it was “unable to reasonably

estimate the time it may take to resolve the matter or the amount or range of potential loss, pen-alty or other government action, if any, that may be incurred in connection with this matter.”

Turning to its business per-formance in the third quarter, Airbus said that net profit amounted to €348m ($405m) in the three months to September, up from just €50m in the same period a year earlier.

Third-quarter revenues advanced by two percent to €14.244bn.

Taking the nine months to September, net profit edged up by just two percent to €1.851bn on a one-percent increase in rev-enues to €42.953bn.

“The strong backlog and a healthy market environment continue to support our com-mercial aircraft production ramp-up plans,” said chief exec-utive Tom Enders.

“We confirm our outlook even though this year’s delivery schedule is extremely back-loaded, largely due to the well-known engine problems

plaguing our A320neo family.”In all, 90 A320neo aircraft

were delivered to 19 customers in the nine-month period, Air-bus said.

At the beginning of 2017, around 200 A320neo deliveries had been targeted for the full year.

But “due to engine availabil-ity issues... A320neo deliveries are now expected to be slightly below that target,” Airbus said.

“The A320neo ramp-up remains challenging with the delivery profile very much loaded into the fourth quarter. Priority is being given to engine deliveries to customers to be used for spares, as agreed with the engine manufacturers,” the statement said.

The group’s finance chief Harald Wilhelm told a telephone news conference that “significant progress has been made on solu-tions to technical problems.”

The modified engines would be fitted to aircraft in the first quarter of 2018, following test-ing, Wilhelm said.

The A320neo is also offered

with another engine, the Leap-1A of CFM International, a joint venture between France’s Safran group and General Electric in the US.

The total number of aircraft to be delivered should be “slightly below 720,” CFO Wil-helm said. Airbus said its A400M

military transport aircraft, which has been hit by cost overruns and delays, as well as technical prob-lems, was also facing a number of challenges.

“Achievement of the contrac-tual technical capabilities and associated costs remain highly challenging,” it said.

The Airbus A320neo aircraft taking off for its first flight from Toulouse-Blagnac airport, southern France in this file picture.

Irregularities

British and French authorities launched their probe after Airbus itself detected and alerted them to alleged irregularities concerning third-party consultants.

Canada’s economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in AugustOttawa

Bloomberg

Canada’s economy unex-pectedly contracted in August, adding to signs of

cooling following a torrid pace of growth in the first half of this year.

Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 0.1 per-cent versus estimates for a 0.1 percent gain. It was the first monthly decline since October 2016 and follows a flat reading in July

Drop was led by across-the-board weakness in goods-producing industries, including a 1 percent fall in manufacturing and a 1.4 per-

cent decline in oil and gasStatistics Canada cites

maintenance shutdowns in manufacturing and conven-tional oil for decline.

Most analysts are anticipat-ing a slowdown in the second half of this year after growth was running at a 4 percent clip in the first six months of 2017. Yesterday’s numbers suggest the potential of a more pro-nounced drop than expected.

If the economy fails to post gains in September, third quar-ter annualized growth would be on pace for a sub-2 percent increase. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News are fore-casting growth to average 2.1 percent in the second half.

There were positives in the data, with 12 out of 20 subsec-tors post ing gains . Services-producing industries posted a 0.1 percent increase

Non-durable manufactur-ing fell 2 percent, with chemical producers posting a 7.3 percent drop, the largest in the last 20 years.

Statistics Canada cited “plant maintenance shutdowns and lower demand from export markets” for the drop.

Shutdowns in Newfound-land impacted conventional oil and gas production, which was down 5.2 percent in August.

The real estate broker industry posted its first gain in five months, up 0.3 percent.

S Africa’s main business fears political limbo Johannesburg

Bloomberg

South Africa’s main business group fears the country will be stuck in political

limbo if infighting causes the ruling party’s elective confer-ence in December not to go ahead.

The race to succeed Presi-dent Jacob Zuma as leader of the African National Congress is widely seen as a head-to-head contest between his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the leader’s ex-wife and former chairwoman of the African Union Commission. The battle has grown fractious and the ANC is working to resolve its internal differences to ensure the conference goes ahead as planned and avoid a repetition of previous splits that spawned three opposition parties, Treas-urer-General Zweli Mkhize, who is also a candidate, said on October 10.

The task of uniting the ANC after the damage to the party’s image caused by Zuma’s scan-dal-ridden presidency is daunting. A bitter split in Kwa-Zulu-Natal has effectively left the eastern province without a party leadership, and allies such as the Congress of South Afri-can Trade Unions and the

Communist Party are openly calling for the president to go. The economy staged a weak recovery from the second recession in less than a decade in the three months through June 30, and business confi-dence is near the lowest in more than 30 years.

“What begins to worry us now is the congress not hap-pening at all, because the branches are so disorganised,” Business Leadership South Africa Chief Executive Officer Bonang Mohale said in an inter-view in Johannesburg. “I can’t think of a more of a worst-case scenario.” BLSA represents about 80 of the country’s big-gest companies.

Concerns about policy and political uncertainty, along with weak domestic demand, weigh heavily on business and con-sumer confidence, deterring investment and job creation, the National Treasury said in its medium-term budget pol-icy statement on October 25. Taxpayer compliance is also deteriorating, it said, with alle-gations of corruption and mismanagement of state r e s o u r c e s a f f e c t i n g collections.

BLSA members have pledged to implement anti-cor-ruption measures such as protecting whistle blowers.

European shares hold at five-month highsLondon

Reuters

European stocks held at five-month highs yesterday, supported by a jump in the

shares of oil company BP, which announced buoyant earnings and a share buy-back programme.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.2 percent by 0949 GMT. Euro zone blue chips also gained 0.2 percent.

Spain’s IBEX built on the pre-vious session’s gain, rising 0.7 percent as political tensions eased after Spain took over direct rule of Catalonia.

Trading was generally muted with Germany’s stock market closed for a holiday and inves-tors waiting for key monetary policy decisions by the US Fed-eral Reserve and the Bank of England.

Shares in heavyweight oil major BP jumped more than 3 percent to their highest level since July 2014 after its third-quarter profit beat expectations. It also announced a share buy-back programme.

“We were expecting this to begin sometime in 2018 and today’s announcement is a very positive surprise,” analysts at UBS said in a note.

Energy shares were up 1.3 percent on the day, but the sec-tor has struggled in 2017 and is down slightly year to date. Ana-lysts at Barclays said that both

Global Active and European Active funds were still under-weight the energy sector.

“As we head into year-end and early 2018 we expect yet more evidence to emerge of the re-set that the oil industry has gone through,” analysts at Bar-clays said in a note.

“With the energy sector offering close to the highest pre-mium of dividends to the market for nearly 30 years, this should in turn lead to a re-rating,” Bar-clays analysts added.

Ryanair results were also well-received, with the budget airline’s shares up more than 5 percent after it maintained its full-year profit guidance.

Chemicals maker Croda gained 3.6 percent after a trad-ing update. Swedish forest products company Svenska Cel-lulosa jumped 4.9 percent after beating expectations .

Swiss toilet and plumbing supplies maker Geberit led declines on the STOXX, falling 5.5 percent after third-quarter sales and earnings missed expectations.

BNP Paribas lost the most among banks, falling 3.3 percent after posting its results. Traders pointed out a disappointing per-formance in its markets business. Barclays and Deutsche Bank have also struggled, with vola-tility low and interest rates at

record lows.“This is very much industry-

wide, and it is down predominantly to the low vola-tility that we’re seeing in the markets,” said Jonathan Roy, advisory investment manager at Charles Hanover Investments, said. “These trading operations are starting to feel the pinch.”

So far, more than 40 percent of MSCI Europe companies have reported results for the third quarter, of which 65 percent have either beat or met expec-tations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data. Financials and tech are sectors stand out for their large proportion of beats.

The German share price index, DAX board, is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, yesterday.

Toyota’s new engineering headquarters

26 WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017BUSINESS

QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE Index 8,165.06 0.38 %

QE Total Return Index 13,692.32 0.38 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,211.42 0.37 %

QE All Share Index 2,286.66 0.53 %

QE All Share Banks &

Financial Services 2,561.60 0.45 %

QE All Share Industrials 2,539.84 0.46 %

QE All Share Transportation 1,669.95 0.12 %

QE All Share Real Estate 1,609.26 1.52 %

QE All Share Insurance 2,989.04 0.59 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,026.94 2.09 %

QE All Share Consumer

Goods & Services 4,764.82 1.18 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON WORLD STOCK INDICES

GOLD AND SILVER

31-10-2017Index 8,165.06

Change 31.48

% 0.38

YTD% 21.77

Volume 4,921,877

Value (QAR) 339,182,390.31

Trades 2,984

Up 18 | Down 23 | Unchanged 130-10-2017Index 8,196.54

Change 62.08

% 0.76

YTD% 21.46

Volume 6,560,270

Value (QAR) 133,204,634.16

Trades 2,400

EXCHANGE RATE

GOLD QR149.4599 per grammeSILVER QR1.9776 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year Low

All Ordinaries 5976.396 -7.325 -0.12 6003.2 5635.1

Cac 40 Index/D 5499.59 5.96 0.11 5513.53 4733.82

Dj Indu Average 23348.74 -85.45 -0.36 23485.25 17883.56

Hang Seng Inde/D 28245.54 -90.65 -0.32 28798.78 21883.82

Iseq Overall/D 6950.71 38.6 0.56 7157.43 6369.05

Kse 100 Inx/D 39605.16 -719.16 -1.78 53127.24 39478.05

S&P 500 Index/D 2572.83 -8.24 -0.319247 2582.98 2245.13

Currency Buying SellingUS$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 4.7846 QR 4.8521

Euro QR 4.209 QR 4.2678

CA$ QR 2.8091 QR 2.8645

Swiss Fr QR 3.6225 QR 3.6737

Yen QR 0.03184 QR 0.03246

Aus$ QR 2.7656 QR 2.8200

Ind Re QR 0.0558 QR 0.0568

Pak Re QR 0.0343 QR 0.0349

Peso QR 0.0699 QR 0.0713

SL Re QR 0.0235 QR 0.0240

Taka QR 0.0432 QR 0.0444

Nep Re QR 0.0348 QR 0.0354

SA Rand QR 0.2555 QR 0.2605

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - A LIST OF SHARES FROM THE WORLD

A C C-A/D 1805.6 -12.65 11214

Aarti Drugs-B/D 540 -4.05 2145

Aban Offs-A/D 201.35 -1.75 466909

Ador Welding-B/D 551.2 4.55 23495

Aegis Logis-A/D 232.85 -2.4 63375

Alembic-B/D 39.4 -0.8 99935

Alkyl Amines-B/D 616.95 20.5 7648

Alok Indus-B/D 3.48 0.31 2980668

Apollo Tyre-A/D 244.65 -2.3 192185

Asahi I Glass-/D 394.3 2.9 16616

Ashok Leyland-/D 130.9 2.35 633956

Bajaj Hold-A/D 2976 27.65 3834

Ballarpur In-B/D 14.11 -0.61 624437

Banaras Bead-B/D 62.4 0.3 1245

Bata India-A/D 810.8 -10.15 40464

Beml Ltd-A/D 1714.05 8.8 54399

Bhansali Eng-B/D 139.15 6.75 1581897

Bharat Bijle-B/D 1007.7 -23.15 1952

Bharat Ele-A/D 184.8 9.35 3425688

Bharatgears-B/D 156.3 12.9 75798

Bhartiya Int-B/D 606.6 -18.6 27083

Bhel-A/D 97.75 1.95 1440244

Bom.Burmah-A/D 1680.05 -1.85 30658

Bombay Dyeing-/D 194.3 -3.45 556699

Camph.& All-Xc/D 940 58.6 7870

Canfin Homes-A/D 480.25 -9.05 105257

Caprihans-Xc/D 121.8 2.25 60557

Castrol India-/D 400.65 -1.6 66822

Century Enka-B/D 395 16.05 29493

Century Text-A/D 1355.5 4.7 35639

Chambal Fert-B/D 150.85 2.15 71049

Chola Invest-A/D 1150.5 11 8224

Chowgule St-Xt/D 14.2 0.14 1790

Cimmco-B/D 100.7 -1.95 26938

Cipla-A/D 626.15 -0.5 72875

City Union Bk-/D 161 1.7 13116

Colgate-A/D 1063 -2.45 16171

Container Cor-/D 1381.6 11.5 18928

Dai-Xc/D 410.25 0.55 3561

Dcm Financia-B/D 3.01 0.14 6613

Dcm Shram Ind-/D 340.2 -3.8 7914

Dhampur Sugar-/D 316.05 0.6 33422

Dr. Reddy-A/D 2431.4 -1.6 226178

E I H-B/D 155 -0.95 52661

E.I.D Parry-A/D 372 0.1 25724

Eicher Motor-A/D 32287.5 -73.25 1335

Electrosteel-B/D 31.9 -0.35 75234

Emco-T/D 17.85 0.05 15351

Escorts Fin-Xt/D 4.25 -0.22 46247

Escorts-A/D 760.25 -12 487678

Eveready Indu-/D 337.5 2.55 5325

F D C-B/D 190.8 7.3 10513

Federal Bank-A/D 121.8 -0.1 374571

Ferro Alloys-X/D 23.1 -0.86 953738

Finolex-A/D 721.5 1.5 4500

Forbes-B/D 1838.5 48.35 6867

Gail-A/D 464.95 -7.95 305847

Gammon India-Z/D 7.05 0.33 170974

Garden P -B/D 34.25 0.3 16837

Godfrey Phil-A/D 997.15 -8.3 5672

Goodricke-Xc/D 292.1 1.95 14545

Goodyear I -B/D 821.1 5.25 8816

Hcl Infosys-A/D 47.7 -0.05 423063

Him.Fut.Comm-B/D 29.55 -0.05 1178701

Himat Seide-B/D 367.5 -6.6 15730

Hind Motors-B/D 7.54 0.23 70111

Hind Org Chem-/D 21.45 -0.15 54030

Hind Unilever-/D 1236.85 0.95 48860

Hind.Petrol-A/D 447.35 -8.25 242850

Hindalco-A/D 267.35 -5.55 329558

Hous Dev Fin-A/D 1707.35 1.85 57774

I F C I-A/D 24.3 -0.8 1190128

Idbi-A/D 62.7 -2.55 1091158

Ifb Agro-B/D 719 -11.6 3753

Ifb Ind.Ltd.-B/D 956 5.55 3838

India Cement-A/D 194.95 1.65 237449

India Glycol-B/D 373.6 48.85 900648

Indian Card-B/D 183.45 5.1 3138

Indian Hotel-A/D 113.1 -1.4 52504

Indo-A/D 118.75 -0.95 95674

Indusind-A/D 1625 5.4 49232

J.B.Chemical-B/D 286.25 1.5 37066

Jagson Phar-B/D 39.9 5.6 74727

Jamnaauto-B/D 65.7 -0.05 390500

Jbf Indu-B/D 220.9 -0.25 35803

Jct Ltd-Xc/D 3.5 0.02 1846994

Jenson&Nich.-T/D 7.91 0.01 9109

Jindal Drill-B/D 158 -0.5 11232

Jktyre&Ind-A/D 145.7 -1.3 91309

Jmc Projects-B/D 444.95 -6.65 2593

Kajaria Cer-A/D 681 -3.1 25571

Kakatiya Cem-B/D 392.7 -1.75 16251

Kalpat Power-B/D 373.35 -0.65 1933

Kalyani Stel-B/D 419.55 6.5 22056

Kanoria Chem-B/D 87.55 2.25 56349

Kg Denim-Xc/D 61.35 -0.2 4619

Kilburnengg-Xd/D 87.75 0.35 40071

Kinetic Eng-Xc/D 67.25 -2.1 24781

Kopran-B/D 68.6 -0.95 30885

Lakshmi Elec-X/D 749 1.55 3275

Lgb Broth-B/D 942.3 -63.2 22745

Lloyd Metal-Xd/D 19.8 0.9 240671

Lumax Ind-B/D 1680.7 -12.35 1060

Lupin-A/D 1027.45 -0.1 152090

Lyka Labs-B/D 52.85 -0.85 7300

Mafatlal Ind-X/D 291 4.15 3901

Mah.Seamless-B/D 502.05 7.7 8223

Mangalam Cem-B/D 379 1.55 1531

Maral Overs-B/D 45.5 -1.45 13751

Mastek-B/D 363.1 -4.85 105090

Max Financial-/D 584 3.05 70464

Mrpl-A/D 142.35 6.8 1095978

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 34.65 0.7 3448

Nahar Spg.-B/D 119.65 -3.25 38793

Nation Alum -A/D 95.9 4.4 1573961

Navneet Edu-B/D 166.9 1.3 1990

Neuland Lab-B/D 1109 -26.35 1600

Nrb Bearings-B/D 139.25 7.6 37704

O N G C-A/D 191.1 4.45 1068062

Ocl India-B/D 1436.05 -5.95 1482

Oil Country-B/D 54.15 -2.15 14302

Onward Tech-B/D 130 -2.85 203752

Orchid Pharm-T/D 18.4 -0.5 67881

Orient Hotel-B/D 38.5 -0.15 18196

Patspin India-/D 28.6 -0.45 42811

Punjab Chem.-B/D 391.05 -2.15 3571

Radico Khait-B/D 218.85 4.1 213228

Rallis India-A/D 245 -1.55 84167

Rallis India-A/D 245 -1.55 84167

Reliance Indus/D 526.1 0.2 96943

Ruchi Soya-B/D 24.15 0.5 255493

Saur.Cem-Xc/D 90.25 -2.6 102344

Savita Oil-B/D 1422.1 165.7 5188

Sterling Tool-/D 266 2.3 2578

Tanfac Indu-Xd/D 146.15 24.35 324196

Tanfac Indu-Xd/D 146.15 24.35 324196

Thirumalai-B/D 1877.25 25.95 31531

Til Ltd.-B/D 547.5 -4.4 20214

Tinplate-B/D 268.8 -3.6 392171

Ucal Fuel-B/D 197.55 -3.45 9128

Ucal Fuel-B/D 197.55 -3.45 9128

Ultramarine-Xc/D 273.3 2.9 8303

Unitech P -A/D 6.72 -0.03 4326144

Univcable-B/D 173.2 -1.3 74150

3I Group/D 961 7 113839

Assoc.Br.Foods/D 3355 -1 63282

Barclays/D 184.25 0.75 9015097

Bp/D 514.2 12.6 21586455

Brit Am Tobacc/D 4888.5 -28.5 337382

Bt Group/D 262.3 0.3 2242394

Centrica/D 170.2 1.2 2467720

Gkn/D 319.5 -0.6 1008254

Hsbc Holdings/D 738.2 1.2 10369861

Kingfisher/D 314.2 -2.4 825730

Land Secs./D 959 2 200073

Legal & Genera/D 267.1 -0.7 2036083

Lloyds Bnk Grp/D 68.14 0.07 16229346

Marks & Sp./D 347.9303 3.1 1131315

Next/D 4956 7 561144

Pearson/D 702.5 -13.5 1124484

Prudential/D 1847 -0.5 925377

Rank Group/D 235.3028 3 10816

Rentokil Initi/D 332.5 -1.3 621148

Rolls Royce Pl/D 963.165 -2.5 332204

Rsa Insrance G/D 630.25 4 321043

Sainsbury(J)/D 243.2 0.5 1027197

Schroders/D 3505.507 23 24392

Severn Trent/D 2118 25 122440

Smith&Nephew/D 1425 0 400316

Smiths Group/D 1567 -5 159627

Standrd Chart /D 749.16 -1.8 703231

Tate & Lyle/D 645.5 -1 283811

Tesco/D 182.95 1.05 2526507

Unilever/D 4247.5 39 682450

United Util Gr/D 834 3.5 437600

Vodafone Group/D 215.91 -0.25 11553133

Whitbread/D 3665 10 157948

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LONDON

A top US business lobby in China said yesterday it was concerned US President Donald Trump’s administration was not making sufficient prep-aration for talks on imbalances in the bilateral economic relationship ahead of his Novem-

ber visit.Little advance work has been done for the visit, said

William Zarit, chairman of the American Chamber of Com-merce in China. He was referring to meetings by working level officials to negotiate outcomes on commercial issues for Trump’s meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

“From what I understand, there really hasn’t been much of that for this visit, which makes us a bit concerned that there may not be much discussion on the structural issues,” Zarit told reporters in Beijing.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross will bring a busi-ness delegation to Beijing during Trump’s visit. Some in the US business community are worried that deals announced on the trip could distract from solutions to long-standing complaints over discriminatory Chinese policies and market access restrictions.

Zarit said he hoped proposed deals from the business-delegation “do not overshadow the real need for structural changes in the economic relationship”.

Trump, who will stop in five Asian countries on his first visit to the region as president, will arrive in Beijing on November 8.

US officials were “still waiting” for a Chinese response to issues raised during the US-China Comprehensive Eco-nomic Dialogue in July, Zarit said, though he did not give specifics. He called Chinese officials “master negotiators” and said the US government and business community had long suffered from a less strategic view of the economic relationship.

“And I think there is no exception with this administra-tion,” Zarit said. He added that it was “not unreasonable” to expect more progress 10 months into Trump’s presidency.

Ross, has said the United States will be looking for “immediate results” and “tangible agreements” during Trump’s visit, but has acknowledged that market access, intellectual property rights, and tariffs are more complex and will take a longer time to negotiate.

Washington and Beijing launched a 100-day economic plan during Trump’s first meeting with Xi in April, includ-ing some industry-specific announcements, such as the resumption of American beef sales in China. But U.S. busi-ness groups have expressed disappointment over the extent of the outcomes.

Xi vowed on Monday that China would take more meas-ures to open up the economy. He made the remarks at a meeting with members of an advisory board to Tsinghua University’s School of Economics and Management, includ-ing Apple Inc chief executive Tim Cook and Facebook Inc’s Mark Zuckerberg.

China will make joint efforts with the United States to “take each other’s interests and concerns into considera-tion, resolve disputes and contradictions, and engage in win-win cooperation”, Xi said according to the official China Daily newspaper.

But such frequently made pledges have done little to assuage foreign companies’ concerns over ownership caps in key sectors, such as autos, securities, insurance, and infor-mation technology.

US business lobbies argue that their members are restricted in those industries while Chinese companies oper-ate freely in the US market. They have also criticised Beijing’s “Made in China 2025” plan, which offers government back-ing for sectors the Chinese government deems strategic.

Bears are closing in on the pound ahead of the Bank of England’s meeting this week.

While the central bank is widely expected to raise borrow-

ing costs on Thursday, most economists say Governor Mark Carney won’t be in any hurry to raise interest rates subsequently. That means the pound is vulnerable to a drop of more than 1 percent from current levels, strategists say.

The currency could slide to $1.30, from about $1.32 on Monday, on indications of a ‘one and done’ interest-rate increase from the BOE, according to the median forecast of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey. In contrast, if the central bank indicates that a November move is the first step in a hiking cycle, either through its language or through the number voting for an increase on Thursday, the pound could rise about 1 percent to $1.33.

A shift in the BoE’s rhetoric in recent months has sent expectations surging for the first rate hike in a decade, with traders now pricing in a 90 percent chance of an increase. However, market positioning also signals a split in what that means for the currency, with asset managers short on the pound and hedge funds long, according to CFTC data as of October 24.

“We do not expect the BoE to embrace a sustained pace of tightening,” said Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s head of Group-of-10 strategy Roberto Cobo Gar-cia. “As a result, any knee-jerk strengthening in the pound could turn out to be very much short-lived as uncertain-ties still loom too large to be dismissed by the pound yet.”

If the bank doesn’t hike at all, the

market reaction would be dramatic. The pound could tumble more than 2 percent to $1.29, according to the median in the sur-vey, while the yield on 10-year UK government bonds may tumble. It would take a hawkish hike to drive up yields, Sco-tiabank’s Alan Clarke said.

Here is a summary of some of the mar-ket moves analysts are predicting in each scenario:

Hawkish HikeThis scenario is based on the nine-

member Monetary Policy Committee voting dramatically in favor of a hike, and a com-munication from Carney that this is the start of a tightening cycle:

If the bank keeps the market awaiting more hikes, “that will be a 0.75 percent move higher in sterling as many econo-mists still expect this to be a one and done,” says Nomura’s Jordan Rochester

Citigroup is bearish gilts into the meet-ing “as the MPC is likely to opt to keep up the hawkish bias,” says strategist Jamie Searle in a research note

MUFG’s Lee Hardman sees the bank giving a hawkish signal as a one and done hike would “go against all communication in recent months”

A hawkish hike will provoke a further gilt sell-off with the 10-year yield rising to 1.5 percent, according to Scotiabank’s Clarke

Dovish HikeThis would come from a far closer vote

among the MPC, and language in the min-utes and press conference that emphasizes a gradual path higher for rates. It may even push back against the market’s current pric-ing of another hike by November next year:

This is the most likely scenario, says Mizuho’s head of hedge fund sales Neil Jones. Euro-sterling should see a modest rebound and gilts should rally “provided that the market remains confident that inflation expectations remain contained,”

according to CIBC analyst Jeremy Stretch.For MUFG’s Hardman, the scope for a

dovish BoE hike is limited as the market is only pricing in one more hike by Septem-ber 2018

Scotiabank’s Clarke on the other hand sees it as unlikely “that having delivered the first rate hike for a decade that the MPC is going to apologize, or feel sheepish about hiking -- they will explain all the good rea-sons why now is the time to take the foot off the accelerator pedal”Adds that the mar-ket is “braced for some dovishness”; A dovish hike would have a lesser impact on the shorter end of the bond curve with two-year benchmark gilts likely to remain unchanged

No Hike:BOE shocks the market by keeping rates

on hold:If the BoE doesn’t move, it could push

cable and euro-sterling back toward pre-September levels, meaning $1.28 and 92 pence per euro, said BBVA’s Garcia

The BoE’s guidance that it will raise rates in the coming months is open to inter-pretation, according to CIBC’s Stretch. The pound would take a hit if Carney & co.

stayed on hold, with a rate hike already priced in by the market.

Jeanna Smialek and Greg Quinn Bloomberg

Goldman Sachs econo-mists agree with Bridgewater Associ-ates’ Ray Dalio: The US economy is running at

two speeds. Goldman researchers exam-

ine how the US’s divided labor market could influence the Fed in a new research note, weighing in with a point that recalls one Dalio made earlier this month. Their analysis kicks off this week’s

economic research roundup, which also summarizes studies on whether global factors are hold-ing down inflation and how worldwide shocks impact US employment. Check this column each Tuesday for the latest research from central banks, aca-demics and bank economists around the world.

Headline joblessness may be at a more than 16-year low, but that bullish trend obscures the fact that the labor market is split into two “quite different stories,” Gold-man Sachs economists write. A pool of would-be workers remain on the sidelines, and there are rea-sons to think they can be pulled back into the game. The share of discouraged workers has shrunk, and people are even coming back into jobs from disability. If the labor market gets as hot as it was back in 1999-2000, the econo-mists think participation could climb by a few tenths of a percent-age point.

That conclusion is important. Goldman had been skeptical that a tight labor market could push up participation, so this marks a shift in their thinking. If the Fed concurs, it leaves the central bank with a tough choice: should the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee run the economy hot to attract disenfranchised work-ers, even if that risks overshooting on inflation amid low headline unemployment? “The FOMC seems to find this trade-off unap-pealing and is likely to continue to tighten steadily as a result,’’ the economists write.

While the Goldman analysis focuses on the labor market split, Dalio pointed out that aggregate statistics mask a division in labor, retirement savings, health care and wealth building. The common theme is that uneven outcomes mean the Fed must take underly-ing details into account when assessing economic progress.

From the Goldman Sachs note

– here’s the share of people who found their way back from the labor market’s sidelines over the past year, grouped by their previ-ous labor status. Flow into work is up significantly from 2010-2011 for the long-term unemployed, discouraged workers, and those who didn’t want jobs, but remains lower than 1999-2000 levels.

Advanced economies are fac-ing slower core inflation simultaneously, but policy mak-ers can’t pin the blame purely on a common global trend, research-ers at Canada’s central bank find. Across 11 economies, only 14 per-cent of the variation in core inflation rates seems to be tied to common factors since 2011, even smaller than the 24 percent for a longer period of study back to 1997, Bank of Canada economists write in a recent paper. It’s worth noting that this is really only true for core prices. Headline inflation rates – which include fuel and food – were more susceptible to

global trends, with a common fac-tor explaining 47 percent of changes.

Given that prices still respond to domestic slack, recent weak-ness doesn’t represent a breakdown of the Phillips curve relationship between inflation and the output gap, the authors write. Data since 2016 suggest “there is a positive, albeit modest, relation-ship between economic slack and inflation.”

While global shifts may have a limited impact on inflation, they’re having a more marked effect on U.S. labor markets. Glo-bal shocks – defined as shocks to real output across 21 advanced and developing nations – account for 25 percent of variation in job gains across US states, on aver-age, based on new Dallas Fed research. The impact is a lot smaller in places that are heavily dependent on energy or govern-ment employment, like Alaska and Washington, D.C.

‘Trump unprepared for commercial talks with China’: US businessesMichael Martina Reuters

Pound bears see chances on bets for one-and-done hike

A man talks on a mobile phone as people walk past the Bank of England, in London, Britain on September 21, 2017.

Charlotte Ryan Bloomberg

The currency could slide to $1.30, from about $1.32 on Monday, on indications of a ‘one and done’ interest-rate increase from the BoE, according to the median forecast of seven analysts in a Bloomberg survey.

Advanced economies are facing slower core inflation simultaneously, but policy makers can’t pin the blame purely on a common global trend, researchers at Canada’s central bank find.

Goldman agrees with Dalio’s tale of two economies

BUSINESS VIEWS 27WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017

28 WEDNESDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2017BUSINESS

BACK TO BUSINESS

Goldman sees rate hike as India bank rescue to spur GDP

sight

Bloomberg

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. just got more bullish -- and hawkish -- on India.

While the investment bank has for months been an outlier predicting monetary tightening in Asia’s No. 3 economy, it now sees the rate increases coming ear-lier than investors expect. That’s because the govern-ment’s plan to inject a record 2.1 trillion rupees ($32bn) of fresh capital into its strug-gling lenders over the next two years will spur loans and growth in gross domestic product, boosting stocks and the rupee.

“A 1.05 trillion rupees infusion into state-run banks over the next 12 months would lower the drag on bank credit growth by up to 10 percentage points and boost GDP growth by up to 5 percent-age points,” Goldman economists led by Jonathan Sequeira wrote in a note.

“The measures are likely bearish for short-term rates, as they make the RBI more likely to hike rates sooner than market expectations.”

Goldman forecasts that the Reserve Bank of India will raise its key rate three times by the end of 2018, “an outcome that is not fully priced in by the market,” where swaps indicate little change. The RBI is due to review policy Dec. 5-6, and a split within its rate-setting panel is already widening as members disagree sharply over the trajectory for

inflation.Macquarie Group esti-

mates that state-run lenders account for more than 70 percent of India’s banking system and they hold almost 90 percent of all bad loans in the country, according to data from Credit Suisse Group AG.

Even after providing for the stressed assets, banks will have around 1 trillion rupees available for lend-ing, said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic adviser with State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender. That could unleash at least 3.3 trillion rupees which could rise to a 10 tril-lion rupee additional infusion in the economy, he said.

The recapitalization plan “addresses an impor-tant supply-side issue and improves the outlook for private capex recovery,” said Upasana Chachra, India economist at Macquarie.

She retained her 7.2 per-cent growth estimate for the year through March 2019 but said that may rise if investments -- some 30 percent of GDP -- improve quicker than expected.

Goldman expects the RBI to start tightening in the second half of 2018 as infla-tion will move into the upper part of the central bank’s 2 percent to 6 per-cent target range, Andrew Tilton, Goldman’s chief Asia-Pacific economist, said in an email.Goldman sees the rupee strengthening to 64.5 a dollar by the end of March. The currency was trading at 64.7950 as of 1145 am in Mumbai yesterday.

Capital Comment

There really hasn’t been much of that for this visit (Trump›s China visit)......there may not be much discussion on the structural issues.

William Zarit, Chairman American Chamber of Commerce in China.

NAME IN THE MARKET: EURO-AREA ECONOMY’S HEALTH RISKS

FROM LEFT: Warren Buffett, Melinda Gates and Bill Gates discuss philanthropy in this file picture.

Gates, world’s most generous personBloomberg

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos may have surpassed Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates to

be the richest person in the world, but there’s one title he isn’t likely to claim: world’s most generous.

Even with more than $90bn to his name, Bezos has yet to make a major philanthropic mark, but with the new mantle of the world’s richest, the pres-sure on Bezos to give will only grow. Nonprofits and other foundations are desperate to see what he’ll do, says giving con-sultant and researcher Amy Schiller. “Bezos has probably had philanthropy in his mental cart for a while,” she says, “and kept clicking `save for later.’”

As Gates built Microsoft, he also faced increasing pressure from the public -- and even his own parents -- to give more. When his mother prodded him one night, Gates snapped back, “I’m just trying to run my com-pany!” the Wall Street Journal reported in 2009. Gates didn’t fully throw himself into philan-thropy until he stepped down as chief executive officer of

Microsoft in 2000, but since then he’s helped build the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation into the largest foundation in the country. A representative said Gates was unavailable to comment.

“Jeff is probably not quite ready to step down yet, but this is a guy who, like Bill, is fixated on changing the world in really important ways,” says Ed Lazowska, Bill & Melinda Gates Chair in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, who has solicited donations from Bezos. “It’s a full-time job. You have to imag-ine he will be every bit as philanthropic as Gates. Nobody has any right to make demands, and they have to give the guy time.” Amazon declined to comment.

Some tech founders have made large charitable commit-ments while still running large businesses. Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan; Netflix Inc. CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin; and Salesforce.com Inc. CEO Marc Benioff and his wife, Lynne, have all signed on to the Giving Pledge, vowing to give away the majority of their wealth. The group was

started by Gates and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buf-fett. Making a major commitment takes humility and years of research to go down the right path, so for someone as work-obsessed as Bezos, “you’d really want to have a trusted partner or set of partners around you,” says Jeff Raikes, a former Microsoft executive who ran the Gates Foundation for almost six years.

He says Melinda Gates and ex-Microsoft executive Patty Stonesifer ran the Gates Foun-dation while Bill was still devoted to Microsoft, and Raikes says his wife, Tricia, took the lead when he was still working full-time and they decided to put $100m into their own founda-tion, which they now run together.

Much of the known personal giving associated with Bezos so far has been driven by his par-ents, Mike and Jackie Bezos. He sits on the board of the child-hood-education focused Bezos Family Foundation, which his parents run. As of 2015, his par-ents had donated more than $68m of Amazon stock to the foundation, tax filings show. Bezos had given about $6 mil-lion in stock to the foundation.

Separately, the Bezos family has given $65m over a decade to Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Can-cer Research Center, which does cutting-edge work on cancer cures. “My parents rock,” Bezos tweeted when the latest gift was announced.

If Bezos makes a major per-sonal philanthropic push, it’s unclear what causes would cap-ture his interest. “His giving so far is not meaningful in terms of a direction,” says R. Joe Ottinger, CEO of iInnovate Leadership Network in Seattle, who has written about giving from tech executives.

Bezos’s personal donations have included $1m to Code.org, which aims to have all schools teach computer science; support of Worldreader, a nonprofit founded by a former Amazon executive to use e-readers to promote literacy in the devel-oping word; and $10m to Seattle’s Museum of History & Industry.

Bezos and his wife, MacKen-zie, donated $15m to their alma mater, Princeton University, for neuroscience research, and they also gave $2.5m to a political action committee in support of legalizing gay marriage in Washington in 2012.

US funds favour bonds as economic cycle agesBengaluru

Reuters

US fund managers increased recom-mendations for bond holdings in their model global

portfolio to a five-month high in October on expectations the current economic cycle is near-ing its end, a Reuters poll showed.

The monthly survey of 13 US-based asset managers taken October 16-30 showed global bond allocations accounted for an average 35.1 percent, up from 34.8 percent the previous month, and the highest since May.

Stock allocations were held steady at 56.7 percent, with the remainder spread among cash, property and alternative investments.

World stocks have hit a series of record highs this year with the global economy on its best roll in years, pushing major central banks to shift their bias

away from policy easing.While the current equity

bull market is in its ninth year, recommended allocations to stocks have held below 60 per-cent and bonds above 30 percent in the Reuters US Asset Allocation Poll for over four years - a reversal of the previ-ously more common split in model global portfolios.

Several US-based global fund managers said that recent composition has performed almost as well as an all-stock-portfolio, with less risk.

Worries that several devel-oped economies are at a late stage in the current economic cycle and expectations that inflation is not set to accelerate have boosted their preference for bonds.

“Once you start to look through the smooth macro sur-face at the underlying risks and uncertainties, there are a few problems that might upset the eerie calm in financial mar-kets,” said a fund managerat a large U.S. investment firm.