LONDON: Britain’s public inquiry into the Iraq war has invited international lawyers to comment on the government’s decision to join the US-led invasion in 2003, its chairman said on Tuesday. Tony Blair, prime minister at the time, sent 45,000 troops to Iraq to help topple Saddam Hussein seven years ago, a decision that deeply divided …

CAIRO: Negative global sentiment pushed Egypt’s main index down 2.2 percent, with all the market’s big caps registering losses except for developer Talaat Moustafa Group. Talaat Moustafa gained 0.5 percent, riding a late wave of buying that helped cut early losses. Traders said the stock was oversold after a court ruled last week to cancel …

  El Wadi Cement will not be reissued a cement license after the country’s Industrial Development Authority (IDA) said it wanted to open up the region’s booming construction sector to further competition.   Egypt, which reopened the cement license’s bidding process in May, has blocked El Wadi and other cement firms with existing operations from …

DUBAI: Dubai Properties, the real estate arm of conglomerate Dubai Holding, said it will counter-sue UK firm Hopkins Architects, which is claiming damages from the termination of a contract. Hopkins is suing Dubai Properties for costs and losses it claims were incurred when Dubai Properties cancelled its contract for the Central Park 08 project in …

SINGAPORE: Oil fell as much as 1.7 percent to below $77 on Tuesday as forecasts indicated tropical storm Alex would skirt the main production region in the US Gulf of Mexico, limiting disruption there to a few precautionary shutdowns. The price drop accelerated with slumping Asian stock markets and a strengthening dollar. Shanghai’s main index …

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s cabinet on Tuesday approved a deal with Royal Dutch Shell and Japan’s Mitsubishi to capture gas being flared at southern oilfields, government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said. Dabbagh said the partners in the deal planned to invest $12 billion in the project, of which the Iraqi government will hold 51 percent, and had set …

KUWAIT: Kuwait will raise production from its northern oilfields to 820,000 barrels per day (bpd) by the end of July, a senior oil official said in remarks published on Tuesday. Sami Al-Rushaid, chief executive of state-run oil and gas exploration and production arm Kuwait Oil Co, told the Al-Seyassah daily that current production from those …

Egypt’s Advanced Pharmaceutical Packaging, whose shares began trading on Sunday, said it would repay debts of LE 25 million ($4.5 million) over four years and will boost output. Advanced Pharmaceutical Packaging, established in 1995, has glass ampoule production capacity of 340 million units a year, and a glass vial production capacity of 73 million units …

  Egypt will launch within days a tender competition to choose firms to build a 1,000 mega-watt wind farm in the Gulf of Suez, its electricity minister said.   The power plant will be constructed on a build-own-operate (BOO) basis, Electricity and Energy Minister Hassan Younes said in a statement, without providing further details. Egypt’s …

CAIRO: Telecoms firms weighed on Egypt’s main index, which edged down 0.6 percent after selling pressure late in the session. Traders said volumes are higher than during Sunday’s session, but are still low for the bourse as institutional investors close their mid-year positions. "Comparing it to yesterday, volumes were higher today, only when the market …

DUBAI: Dubai construction heavyweight Arabtec is focusing on winning projects in new markets following the downturn in Dubai and does not require any additional funding, its chief executive said on Monday. The largest builder in the United Arab Emirates by market value suffered when Dubai’s real estate sector collapsed in the wake of the global …

  Egypt’s main index dipped 0.3 percent in sluggish trade as buyers and sellers waited to take cues from European, US and other markets which are shuttered on Sundays.   Two multi-million dollar deals on small caps, including Misr Qena Cement, inflated turnover somewhat. Without the swaps, traders said that under LE 650 million ($117 …

CAIRO: An Egyptian authority in charge of selling state land to developers has appealed an administrative court’s decision to scrap a contract that allotted real estate to a unit of Talaat Moustafa Group. The New Urban Communities Authority said in a statement that July 17 had been set for a hearing aimed at blocking the …

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s telecoms firm Zain is in talks with Abu Dhabi’s Etisalat to sell a majority stake in the group, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Sunday. Both firms held meetings last week to discuss the potential deal, daily Al-Seyassah said in an unsourced report and without providing details about the size of the stake or …

KUWAIT: Half of Kuwait’s oil production comes from Burgan, the second largest oilfield in the world, a senior oil official said in remarks published on Sunday. That would indicate the field was pumping just over a million barrels per day (bpd), as Kuwait pumped around 2.3 million bpd in May, according to a Reuters survey. …

  Talks to boost Telecom Egypt’s stake in Vodafone’s Egypt unit ended because the British firm insisted on selling all or none of its share, the unit’s head said in remarks published on Sunday.   Fixed-line monopoly Telecom Egypt, which is eager to increase its exposure to the competitive Egyptian mobile market that has eroded …

  CAIRO: Germany’s Metro Group said on Sunday it would open its first wholesale store in Egypt this month and might add about 20 more, a move Cairo said would encourage more efficient internal trade and cut consumer prices.   The government is seeking to encourage more internal trade with plans to set up zones …

  CAIRO: Egyptian real estate developer Amer Group is eyeing a boost in home sales to Europeans, banking on the North African country’s relatively low prices and Mediterranean climate, an executive said on Thursday.   The developer, whose financial adviser has said it may sell shares to the public this year, is also planning to …

CAIRO: Egypt’s Advanced Pharmaceutical Packaging is raising 21 million Egyptian pounds ($3.8 million) in an initial public offering of 30 percent of its shares to boost capacity in its glass ampoule and vial business. The company will offer 1.02 million existing shares at 20.88 pounds each, commercial director Tamer Shekib said on Thursday. "We are …

KHOBAR, Saudi Arabia: The Middle East naphtha market remained weak due to plentiful spot supply from the region and lower petrochemical margins in Asia. "There is a lot of spot selling… premiums are now at low single digits," a trader said. The UAE’s ADNOC has offered a rare 75,000-tonne naphtha spot cargo for Aug. 10-12 …

CAIRO: Egypt’s benchmark index erased earlier gains to end in the negative, as telecoms weighed on the market and pessimistic global sentiment added to the sell trend. Mobinil shed 2.7 percent and landline monopoly Telecom Egypt fell 2.2 percent. Index heavyweight Orascom Telecom lost 0.6 percent. "It was a slow day today with almost no …

CAIRO: Egypt’s Alexandria Cement said on Tuesday it had almost covered a LE 2.45 billion ($442.2 million) rights issue and expects to sell the remaining shares once the regulator gives the go-ahead. The rights issue is designed to pave the way for the company’s main shareholder, Greek cement maker Titan, to sell a 16 percent …