Author: Finance for Sight

Most stock markets in the Gulf ended higher on Tuesday ahead of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at ending Russia’s war with Ukraine, while tensions in the region dampened investor sentiment. Trump said he would speak with Putin to discuss a potential Russia-Ukraine cease-fire proposal, which could alleviate some geopolitical uncertainty. Saudi Arabia’s benchmark index dropped 0.8%, dragged down by a 1.4% fall in Saudi Aramco as the oil behemoth traded ex-dividend. Israeli air strikes on Gaza killed more than 300 people, Palestinian health authorities said, threatening a complete collapse of a two-month…

CAIRO/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza, killing 326 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, collapsing a two-month ceasefire with Hamas as Israel vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the strip. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to take “strong action” against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza in response to the group’s refusal to release hostages held there and rejection of ceasefire proposals. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” his office said in a statement. Hamas accused Israel of overturning the hard-fought ceasefire deal…

CAIRO/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli air strikes pounded Gaza, killing 254 people, Palestinian health authorities said on Tuesday, and threatening a complete collapse of a two-month ceasefire as it vowed to use force to free its remaining hostages in the strip. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said he had instructed the military to take “strong action” against the Palestinian group Hamas in Gaza in response to the group’s refusal to release hostages held there and rejection of ceasefire proposals. “Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement. After heavy strikes,…

JAKARTA: Indonesia will raise its palm oil export levy to between 4.5% and 10% of the crude palm oil reference price, up from 3% to 7.5%, to finance a mandated increase in the amount of the oil used in biodiesel, a plantation fund official said on Tuesday. Indonesia raised the mandatory amount of palm oil in its biodiesel mix to 40% this year from 35%. It is studying increasing it to 50% in 2026, as well as a 3% blend for jet fuel next year, as it seeks to curb fuel imports. Kabul Wijayanto, director at the Plantation Fund Agency,…

CAIRO/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed at least 200 people, Palestinian health authorities said, as attacks hit dozens of targets early on Tuesday, ending a weeks-long standoff over extending the ceasefire that halted fighting in January. Strikes were reported in multiple locations, including northern Gaza, Gaza City and the Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah in central and southern Gaza Strip. Palestinian health ministry officials said many of the dead were children. The Israeli military, which said it hit dozens of targets, said the strikes would continue for as long as necessary and would extend beyond air strikes,…

Pakistan’s Real Effective Exchange Rate (REER), a measure of the value of a currency against a weighted average of several foreign currencies, dropped to 102.27 in February 2025, down from 104.06 (revised) in January 2025, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday showed. A REER above 100 means the country’s exports are uncompetitive, while imports are cheaper. The situation reverses when REER is below 100 on the index. As per SBP’s latest data, the REER depreciated 1.72% month-on-month (MoM) in February 2025. When compared with February 2024, the REER value increased by 0.07%, when it stood…

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump declared Monday he was annulling pardons issued by Joe Biden to shield Trump critics from retribution, claiming that they were invalid because his Democratic predecessor had supposedly used an autopen for his signature. It was unclear what, if any, authority Trump has to void presidential pardons issued by his predecessor. It is extremely rare for pardons to be revoked in US history, and doing so in this case could see Trump again testing the limits of executive power as he takes aim at his political enemies. Trump claimed that Biden’s signature on the documents had been carried…

DAMASCUS: Israel struck the area of Syria’s southern city of Daraa, the state news agency SANA reported, with a war monitor saying the latest Israeli attack targeted a military site. “Israeli occupation jets launch air strikes targeting the surroundings of Daraa city,” said Damascus’s official news agency SANA, without immediately providing further details. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said Israel targeted a military site once belonging to ousted president Bashar al-Assad’s army but now used by the forces of Syria’s new authorities. The Britain-based Observatory reported that a fire broke out, with ambulances rushing to the scene amid…

Pakistan’s current account (C/A) posted a deficit of $12 million in February 2025, against a surplus of $71 million recorded in the same month the previous year, data released on Monday by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed. On month-on-month (MoM) basis, the C/A posted a recovery from a deficit of $399 million (revised) in January 2025. Overall, the figure takes Pakistan’s current account to a surplus of $691 million in the first eight months of the current fiscal year (8MFY25), in stark contrast to a massive deficit of $1.730 billion in the same period of the previous fiscal…

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said U.S. President Donald Trump was ‘far more prepared’ for his second term, furnished with a clear roadmap, speaking in a podcast interview weeks ahead of reciprocal tariffs planned by Washington. India is among the trading partners set to face the tariffs from April, which threaten to cause distress to its exporters in industries from automobiles to agriculture. After Modi and Trump met last month, the two nations agreed to resolve tariff rows and work on the first segment of a deal by the fall of 2025, aiming to reach two-way trade of…