Istanbul is a city with increasingly big ambitions. Not only is it bidding for the 2020 Olympic Games, but it is actively seeking to become a major east-west air hub, as evidenced by its plans to build a third international airport. The proposed facility is designed to eventually handle 150mn passengers per year, and its… [Read more]
The key factors that we look for in a market – technicals, fundamentals and sentiment – continue to bolster our view for equity upside over the medium term. The German DAX and US Dow Jones are leading the way and still look great, technically. While both look slightly overstretched here at all-time highs, they have… [Read more]
Below is a summary of Business Monitor International (BMI)’s current views on the global shipping sector: Transpacific shipping rates are still doing relatively better than Asia-Europe rates, but are down in year-on-year (y-o-y) terms. Asia-Europe freight rates are down on lack of demand (due to continued economic woes in the eurozone) and over-supply of vessels… [Read more]
In the past six months, Greece’s Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) index has set a blistering pace, notching up gains of 39.4% and ranking second in global equity market performance – an achievement more commonly associated with fast growing emerging markets. Indeed, notwithstanding the rally in Dubai financials and the policy-induced surge in Japanese stocks, the… [Read more]
Since the start of the Arab Spring, Russia and to a lesser degree, China, has come under heavy criticism for its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Libya’s former leader Muammar Qadhafi. In previous international conflicts, Russia generally supported anti-Western leaders such as former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic and former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein…. [Read more]
The 6,000 MW Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile River will be the biggest hydropower project in Africa when completed in 2018. It is part of an ambitious 25-year plan to ramp up hydroelectric capacity to 37,000 MW by 2037. Ethiopia is keen to establish itself as the ‘water tower of Africa’. Ethiopia’s Rationale For… [Read more]
This week, Risk Watchdog discusses beneficiation in the mining sector with Ed Coughlan, the head of BMI’s mining analysis research team. Concerned that local populations are not benefiting from a mining boom, a number of governments in the developing world are seeking to boost employment by demanding that miners build value-added refineries and processing facilities… [Read more]
