http://tradeflow21.com Fri, 23 Jul 2010 16:49:33 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 http://tradeflow21.com/2010/05/26/qatars-swf-eyeing-citi-ft/ http://tradeflow21.com/2010/05/26/qatars-swf-eyeing-citi-ft/#comments Wed, 26 May 2010 13:38:32 +0000 admin http://tradeflow21.com/?p=232 Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF), the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), is reported by the Financial Times to be interested in buying some of the U.S. Treasury’s 27% stake in Citigroup. Interestingly, while most other SWFs have shied away from bank investments after previously ill-timed ones in 2008, Qatar has fared well, notably from its investments in Credit Suisse and Barclays, according to the FT. QIA has $65 billion in assets, per a ranking of SWF assets on Wikipedia. There appears to be no mention of asset size on QIA’s website. In any event, the principals of TradeFlow21 view QIA’s potential investment as beneficial for all parties, including the capital markets at large.

]]> http://tradeflow21.com/2010/05/26/qatars-swf-eyeing-citi-ft/feed/ 0 http://tradeflow21.com/2008/09/18/gulf-equities-down-but-not-out-idiosyncrasies-aside/ http://tradeflow21.com/2008/09/18/gulf-equities-down-but-not-out-idiosyncrasies-aside/#comments Thu, 18 Sep 2008 12:44:26 +0000 admin http://tradeflow21.com/2008/09/18/gulf-equities-down-but-not-out-idiosyncrasies-aside/ In consecutive days the FT has reported on the situation for equities in the Gulf region (see clipped excerpts below). In spite of the U.S. induced credit withdrawal felt around the world, the fact remains that the Gulf is liquid in every sense and can intervene via SWFs, if truly need be, without longer term repercussions, unlike the funny money show on front stage elsewhere around the world.

clipped from www.ft.com Mideast states urged to prop up stocks Middle East governments and their sovereign wealth funds were yesterday urged to intervene in their domestic stock markets by a leading Gulf banker following sharp declines in the region’s equity markets. There are fears that, despite the unprecedented oil boom, the Gulf could be heading towards a dramatic correction, similar to 2006 when hundreds of billions of dollars were wiped off the region’s equity markets. On Tuesday the Kuwait Investment Authority, Kuwait’s $200bn sovereign wealth fund, started buying into the country’s stock exchange, which was up about 20 per cent in the first half of the year, but has since fallen 21 per cent. clipped from www.ft.com Flight of foreign capital adds to woes So much for decoupling. The MSCI Gulf index is down nearly a third this year, and paradoxically, the foreign capital that was supposed to decrease the volatility of regional equity markets has been blamed for much of the slump.

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