Latest Market News

Financial Services

• Middle East retailer said to eye $500m from stake sale

  Sources say Lebanon-based Azadea Group is planning to sell a minority stake

• 'Funds I am accused of embezzling I was owed anyway,' jailed Dubai exec will claim

  Dubai lawyers representing David Haigh will mount a defence that the former Leeds Utd chief was owed millions in unpaid dues by his former employer GFH Capital

• Deloitte confirms Saudi Arabia audit business ban

  Market regulator suspends local unit of accountancy firm from working for listed firms in Gulf kingdom

Middle East & North Africa Gulf

• Saudi woman ‘arrested’ at UAE border for driving

  Lujain argues that she is a Saudi citizen and has a UAE license that is valid in GCC countries

• ‘Terrorists’ behead off-duty Tunisia policeman

  They abductors initially tried to rob him until they found out that he was a policeman

• $100,000 cash found in backpack in California restaurant

  Stacks of cash held together by rubber bands filled the backpack

Personal Finance

• Asia, Europe factory activity slackens despite price cuts

  Monday’s gloomy news began in Asia with China’s HSBC/Markit PMI touching a six-month trough of 50.0

• Oil hits five-year low, hammering rouble

  Oil-linked Russian and Malaysian currencies plumb record lows

• Saudi says satisfied with Opec output decision

  Analysts had said Riyadh was content to see American shale oil producers — and even some members of the cartel — suffer from low prices