Author: Finance for Sight

Dubai-based Parkin, which operates public parking spaces in the emirate and which went public last year, posted a Q4 2024 net profit of AED 120 million ($32.7 million), up 13% year-on-year. “In our first year as a publicly listed company, Parkin has made remarkable progress to meet its financial, strategic and social ambitions,” said Ahmed Bahrozyan, Chairman of Parkin’s Board of Directors. “With our city’s accelerating economic growth, population expansion and record tourism in 2024, I am confident in Parkin’s future outlook and our ability to deliver another strong performance in 2025,” he added. With Dubai Taxi Company and Parkin,…

GAZA CITY: Hamas reiterated on Saturday its readiness to go ahead with the “remaining stages” of a ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as the first phase drew to a close with uncertainty over the next steps. “We affirm our keenness to complete the remaining stages of the ceasefire agreement, leading to a comprehensive and permanent ceasefire, full withdrawal of the occupation forces from the Gaza Strip, reconstruction and lifting the siege,” the Palestinian group said, referring to terms of the deal previously outlined by mediators. Hamas made their comment in a letter to an Arab League summit on Gaza due to…

KYIV: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that his country still needed Donald Trump’s support, despite the US president berating him in a stunning televised confrontation the day before. Trump accused Zelensky of not being “thankful” for US military aid, later writing that the Ukrainian president had “disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office.” “It’s crucial for us to have President Trump’s support. He wants to end the war, but no one wants peace more than we do,” Zelensky said in a post on social media platform X. Zelensky had planned to sign a long-awaited…

Gold prices fell in Pakistan in line with their decline in the international rates. In the local market, gold price per tola reached Rs300,000 after it shed Rs500 on Saturday. Likewise, 10-gram gold was sold at Rs257,201 after it registered a decrease of Rs438, as per the rates shared by the All Pakistan Gems and Jewellers Sarafa Association (APGJSA). On Friday, gold price per tola decreased by Rs2,500. The international rate of gold also decreased on Saturday. As per APGJSA, the rate was at $2,857 per ounce (with a premium of $20), a decrease of $6 during the day. Meanwhile,…

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Friday for Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky to apologize for an earlier clash with President Donald Trump. Zelensky should “apologize for wasting our time for a meeting that was going to end the way it did,” Rubio said on CNN after Oval Office talks devolved into argument and raised voices. Stunned by angry Trump exchange, Ukrainians rally around Zelenskiy Rubio also questioned whether Zelensky – the president of a country that has endured more than three years of war following Russia’s February 2022 invasion – wanted it to end. “You start to perceive…

The Pakistan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (PPMA) has refuted recent reports which claimed that medicine prices in Pakistan had increased by 15 times in just five years. “This is absolutely an incorrect news,” PPMA chairman Tauqeer Ul Haq said while speaking to Business Recorder. “The government increased essential medicine prices only one time in the past three years,” he maintained. The development comes after the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) launched a report titled ‘Health of the Nation 2024’, which led to reports that drug prices had been increased 15 times by successive goverments in just five years. Pakistan’s pharma sector warns…

GAZA CITY: The first phase of the Israel-Hamas truce is due to expire on Saturday, but negotiations on the next stage, which should secure a permanent ceasefire, have so far been inconclusive. The ceasefire took effect on January 19 after more than 15 months of war sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the deadliest in the country’s history. Over several weeks, Hamas freed 25 living hostages and returned the bodies of eight others to Israel, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails. The second phase of the fragile truce, which was brokered by…

KYIV: Ukrainians on the streets of Kyiv rallied around President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday after his angry exchange with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House. Zelenskiy openly challenged Trump over his approach toward Russian President Vladimir Putin at the meeting, urging him to “make no compromises with a killer.” Trump accused Zelenskiy of risking World War Three and of being ungrateful to Washington for the military aid provided to Ukraine. “Trump finally understood that Zelenskiy is a president that will not just give up,” said Mila, an HR manager who did not give a second name, speaking on…

Wall Street’s main indexes were mixed in choppy trading on Friday as investors avoided large bets after data showed consumer spending fell in January, exacerbating worries that the world’s largest economy might be stalling. A Commerce Department report showed that inflation rose in line with expectations in the previous month. However, consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the economy, dropped 0.2% after an upwardly revised 0.8% increase in December. “Spending came in lower than we were looking for… most of it I would attribute to a cooling economy, which presents a dilemma for the Fed in the…

WASHINGTON: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is “not ready for Peace if America is involved,” US President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Friday, following a contentious meeting between the leaders in the Oval Office. “I have determined that President Zelenskyy is not ready for Peace if America is involved, because he feels our involvement gives him a big advantage in negotiations. I don’t want advantage, I want PEACE. He disrespected the United States of America in its cherished Oval Office. He can come back when he is ready for Peace,” Trump said.