Russia sell-off spurs hunt for bargains
Rising tension between Russia and the West has rattled the country's stock and bond markets, but some big money managers see the turbulence as an opportunity. Russia's equity market has…
Dirt-cheap Russian shares still no bargain
Around $70 billion has come off the value of the Moscow stock exchange this month in response to the Kremlin's military incursion into Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea, but…
US retirees return to reverse mortgages, big banks stay away
US baby boomers desperate for retirement income are increasingly turning back to a financial product that, after the housing bust, had been left for dead: the reverse mortgage. Many retirees…
The indebtedness
Irrespective of the PML-N pledges contained in its election manifesto still displayed on its website and subsequent claims of adherence to the manifesto by Ishaq Dar after he took over…
Bourses a barometer?
On Thursday this week past Reuters published a story which reported an ongoing investigation after whistleblowers accused senior stock market staff of benefiting for years if not decades through unauthorised…
Positive signs, are they?
Recent developments suggest that global political leadership has finally accepted the economic disparities that now engulf this planet. Frustrated by legislators' inaction throughout 2013 over the rising income disparity all…
Investors distinguish EM credit from FX risks
The emerging markets currencies sell-off has intensified this week but not every asset class is in a doom-and-gloom scenario. In the emerging bond markets at least, investors are taking a…
Begging bowl, inflation and Ishaq Dar! – II
The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) first quarter review of the 6.4 billion dollar Extended Fund Facility (EFF) on its website maintains that "risks to the outlook are tilted to the…
SMEs a neglected lot.
National financial integration can best be evaluated through the progress of two principal processes: the share of the SME sector (the dominant national business employer) in national credit, and the…
US Treasuries seen weakening in 2014 but rout unlikely
Investors who bet heavily on Treasuries took a beating in 2013, and as the Fed winds down its bond buying, they face the risk of a second straight losing year,…
