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PHARMA WOLF | Page 5 GROWTH BOOST | Page 14 Unwelcome China signals mirror on more stimulus drugs trade aft er top meet Tuesday, December 22, 2015 Rabia I 11, 1437 AH SPREADING WINGS: Page 16 Qatar Airways GULF TIMES Cargo announces new route to BUSINESS Dallas/Fort Worth QSE margin trade applies only to 20 stocks By Santhosh V Perumal 40% of the securities’ market value ment Group, QNB Financial Serv- Business Reporter purchased for its client pursuant to ices, Commercialbank Investment the agreement governing the rela- Services, Ahli Brokerage Company tion between them. and Al Rayan Financial Brokerage. he Qatar Stock Exchange “It will be allowed only in the The customers would have to (QSE), which recently intro- 20 stocks in main Qatar Index,” a open a new MT account with the Tduced margin trading (MT), source in the bourse said. Thus, MT brokerage fi rm, the source said. yesterday said MT will be appli- will be applicable (as of now) only to As per the Qatar Financial Mar- cable only for 20 stocks in its main Aamal Company, Barwa, Commer- ket Authority (QFMA) rules, it is index. cial Bank, Doha Bank, Ezdan, Gulf not permissible to open more than “The aim behind the launch of International Services, Industries one MT account per person at more margin trading is to contribute to Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan, Al Meera, than one fi nancial services com- the development of the stock mar- Mazaya Qatar, Ooredoo, Qatar In- pany. The account is used to deal in ket performance and stimulate surance, Qatar Electricity and Wa- securities traded in the market, and trading and liquidity. It will en- ter, Nakilat, Qatar Islamic Bank, must not be used for subscription hance market liquidity and provide QIIB, Milaha, United Development in new securities’ issuances. new fi nancing channels for inves- Company and Vodafone Qatar. Samer Abu Zaghla of QSE gave tors,” Nasser al-Abdul Ghani, QSE Since periodic revision of the in- a detailed explanation on MT pro- market operations and control di- dex takes place semi-annually, the cedures, controls and requirements rector, told an awareness session on eligible stocks under MT will ac- and explained that the brokers MT service. cordingly change, the sources said. wishing to be licensed as margin MT will allow investors to pur- Asked when MT will start in the lenders can submit their applica- chase securities that are partially market, the source said it depends tions for QFMA’s approval. fi nanced by a loan or credit facility on the readiness of the brokerage Earlier on the sidelines of Eu- made available by a margin lender, fi rms. At present, 11 brokerages are romoney Conference, QSE chief a member licensed to provide such in operations. They are Group Se- executive offi cer Rashid bin Ali services. curities, Dlala Brokerage, Dlala Is- al-Mansoori had said “MT will in- It is understood that Qatar has lamic, Qatar Securities Company, crease liquidity. It is very important Al-Abdul Ghani presents margin trading details before brokerage houses, investors and media. Margin trading will allow investors adopted a 60:40 method wherein Islamic Brokerage, International for investors as they have been ask- to purchase securities that are partially financed by a loan or credit facility made available by a margin lender, a member licensed to a fi nancial services company funds Financial Securities, Gulf Invest- ing for it for some time.” provide such services. Gulf Times 2 Tuesday, December 22, 2015 BUSINESS Turkish assets hold steady ahead of expected rate hike Reuters Ankara Turkish stocks firmed yesterday and the lira moved sideways ahead of a crucial interest rate decision that could help the central bank shake off persist- ent fears about political interfer- ence in monetary policy. The US Federal Reserve’s deci- sion last week to hike rates is widely expected to nudge Tur- key’s central bank into follow- ing suit at its meeting today. It has kept rates on hold for the past nine months despite a plunging lira, and above-target inflation. A rate rise could provide a much-needed boost to the credibility of the bank and its governor, Erdem Basci. Inves- tors worry that the central bank has failed to move due to pressure from President Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly called for rate cuts and equated high rates with “treason”. Concerns about political meddling in policy - as well as security worries - have helped push the lira to a series of Mideast air travel continues record lows. In dollar terms, the blue-chip stock BIST 30 is down by nearly a third this year, making it the third-worst performer among 30 major emerging market indices, according to Thomson to show ‘mixed’ results on Reuters data. “Balance of payments problems and rising inflation mean that Turkey is also likely to hike rates ... despite pressure from the government,” William Jackson, an economist at Capital various routes, says IATA Economics in London, said in a recent note to clients. ir travel on markets connected 2015, third-quarter data from pur- Premium travel, by contrast, was travel - the more price sensitive travel Slower than expected growth in Chi- The lira was at 2.9100 to the dol- to the Middle East continues to chasing managers pointed to further supported by growth in volumes in market - has been supported by lower na and weak trade activity have trans- lar at 1100 GMT, little changed Ashow “mixed” results, IATA’s gains in business conditions across October compared to September, ris- fares over recent months. lated to declines in international air from Friday’s close. latest traffi c monitor shows. the non-oil producing private sectors ing 3.9% year-on-year. At the route-level, during more re- travel growth in the region. The BIST 100 index, the International air travel growth on of the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and this “Since there can be notable volatil- cent months, growth has been sup- “The outlook for international broadest measure of Istanbul Europe-Middle East was up 5.4% in should help sustain solid expansion in ity in the monthly passenger volumes, ported by the ‘within Europe’ market, passenger growth remains mixed stock performance, was 1.44% October, it said. air passenger demand for local carri- looking at a longer period can provide which includes segment traffi c as part because the growth over recent stronger. In contrast, Africa –Middle East ers, it said. a better indication of the trend in air of longer-haul journeys. months has been narrowly based, Fourteen of 16 analysts polled and Middle East –Far East were rela- The IATA report also showed pas- travel,” IATA said. Air travel across the North Atlantic and supported mostly by the ‘with- by Reuters last week said tively weaker, +0.8% and -1.2%, re- senger travel on international markets For 2015 so far, the trend has been has also started to accelerate, up 6.9% in Europe’ and North Atlantic mar- they expected the benchmark spectively. was up 4.5% in October year-on-year, broadly positive in both classes, and, in October, year-on-year, which is a kets. one-week repo rate to rise, with This is likely due to adverse eco- overall. in fact, growth in economy class good sign for yields and revenues. “Weakness in other regions, like most of them predicting a half- nomic and political developments in For economy class travel, passenger travel has been relatively stronger. However, weakness in air travel on Asia, remains a concern and is likely to percentage point move from Asia and Africa rather than any major numbers were up 4.6% but that was Weakness in business confi dence the Within Far East market has been keep international passenger growth today’s 7.5%. downturn in the Middle East. due to weakness in the year-ago period, has dampened demand for business- placing downward pressure on the in- from accelerating beyond current After a decline in the fi rst half of rather than growth over the last month. related air travel, while economy class dustry growth trend. trends,” IATA said. Iraq central bank devalues dinar as oil hurts its income Reuters Baghdad raq’s central bank has increased the sale price of US dollars to banks and currency exchange Icompanies by 16 dinars, or 1.37%, as the gov- ernment seeks to compensate a decline in oil rev- enue, a government offi cial and the central bank said. The sale price of the dollar “has been adjusted to 1,182 dinars,” the central bank said in a state- ment yesterday. The previous price was 1,166 dinars for a dollar, Mudher Saleh, a top economic adviser to Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and former deputy central bank governor, told Reuters. “This is a small adjustment, it’s not a devalua- tion. It will increase government revenue to meet local needs,” said Saleh. A global oversupply of crude oil has pushed prices to below $40 a barrel from more than $100 a barrel in June 2014. The government depends on oil sales for 95% of its revenue. “It may be the fi rst of many steps to reduce the budget defi cit and increase the local income,” said Abdul Rahman Najm, an economics profes- sor at several universities in Baghdad. “As no im- provement in oil prices is expected, there will be more steps to reduce the value of the dinar versus the dollar.” “Iraq needs large revenues to continue the war on Daesh,” he added, using a local derogatory name of Islamic State, the group that seized large swathes of territory in the north and the west of the country.