Business

RIYADH: After a steep decline in May, Gulf Cooperation Council countries saw an optimistic bounce back in equity market index performances in June with the UAE and Saudi Arabia as top performers.  According to a Kamco Invest report, the UAE’s Dubai Financial Market was the best-performing market in the GCC in terms of index closings with a monthly increase of 6 percent, followed by Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index with a rise of 4 percent.   Kuwait’s market came in third with a 3.4 percent month-on-month increase, followed by Oman’s, with a 3.1 percent incline.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and the UAE have committed to allocate $6 billion for expanding international trade and investment in Iraq, reported Iraqi News Agency.  On Sunday, the Federation of Iraqi Chambers of Commerce announced that it also agreed to set up business councils of the Kingdom and the UAE in the country.   “The UAE and Saudi Arabia deposited $3 billion each to support their operations in Iraq, which include trade and investment activities,” said FICC President Abdel Razzak Al-Zouhairy.  

RIYADH: Shareholders of Saudi energy firm ACWA Power have approved the buyback of 2 million shares. The decision was taken during the extraordinary general meeting held on June 22. According to the company’s disclosure to the Saudi Stock Exchange, the shares will be utilized in the employee stock incentive program. In addition, the buyback is to be financed from the firm’s resources, ACWA Power revealed. The board of directors will complete the buyback within 12 months from the EGM date.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund ranked first in the Middle East region and seventh worldwide among 100 global state-owned funds for scoring high in governance, sustainability and resilience practices, according to the evaluation of the Global Sovereign Wealth Funds. Launched in 2020, the GSR scorecard is driven by an annual review of the best practices of the world’s top 100 funds, focusing on 25 elements — 10 of which are associated to governance and transparency, 10 to sustainability and responsible investing, and five to resilience and legitimacy. 

LONDON: Saudi Arabia is keen to strengthen its cooperation with Hong Kong and ultimately mainland China, the Kingdom’s minister of communications and IT said on Sunday. Speaking at the “One Gateway Shared Vision — Hong Kong x Saudi Arabia” event in the city, Abdullah Al-Swaha said closer collaboration would help boost the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 reform agenda, the South China Morning Post reported.

RIYADH: In an effort to boost Saudi-Chinese relations, the Kingdom’s minister of communications and information technology, Abdullah Al-Swaha, began an official visit to China to meet government officials and leaders, the Saudi Press Agency reported.   The minister held meetings with his Chinese counterpart as well as several other officials to enhance partnerships and attract more technological investments into the Kingdom.  

RIYADH: On its first trading day after the Eid holidays, Saudi Arabia’s stock market saw a muted performance, with its Tadawul All Share Index rising 34.93 points — or 0.3 percent — to close at 11,493.91 points.   While MSCI Tadawul Index inched up 0.4 percent to 1,516.30 points, the parallel market Nomu fell 4.22 percent to close at 25,043.16.   The total trading turnover of the benchmark index was SR4.56 billion ($1.22 billion) as 143 of the 228 listed stocks advanced, while 60 retreated.