Japan's Nikkei hit a 27-year high on Friday, taking heart from a boost for the dollar after the Federal Reserve chairman said he did not expect a near-term recession, and strong gains on Wall Street overnight.
Japan's Nikkei stock index rose as high as 24,286.10 points, reaching its highest levels since November 1991, on renewed optimism about the global economy and hopes of a boost to exporters' earnings from a weaker yen. It was last up 1.5 per cent.
Shares elsewhere in Asia also rose, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan adding 0.1 per cent.
Shares in China were higher ahead of a week-long national holiday. Blue chips gained 1.1 per cent and the country's main Shanghai Composite index was 0.9 per cent higher.
"Even though we're at historic highs across a group of global indices, the interesting thing today and yesterday is that it's translating through to dollar strength," said Nick Twidale, chief operating officer at Rakuten Securities Australia.
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"Whereas over the last couple of months, dollar strength and equities haven't gone hand in hand, but I think because of the Fed move we've seen that change in dynamic," he said.
Australian shares rose 0.4 per cent, while Seoul's Kospi gave up ground, falling 0.3 per cent after hitting three-month highs on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.21 per cent to 26,439.93 on Thursday, the S&P 500 gained 0.28 per cent to 2,914 and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.65 per cent to 8,041.97.
S&P E-mini futures rose 0.1 per cent on Friday to 2,923.5.
After the Fed raised rates on Wednesday, the third time this year, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said on Thursday that the US does not face a large chance of a recession in the next two years and the Federal Reserve plans to keep gradually raising interest rates.
But Citi analysts cautioned in a note that not all data was reassuring.
"The Citi US Economic Surprise Index has been pushed into negative territory by disappointing housing data in the United States," they wrote.
"The latest data confirms that the housing market continues to be less than ideal. Pending home sales, a leading indicator, declined to the lowest level in seven months."
Pending home sales fell 1.8 per cent month-on-month versus consensus expectations for a 0.5 drop, they said.
The bullish outlook for the US economy continued to lift the dollar, which was up 0.2 per cent against the yen at 113.54 , and earlier touched a new 2018 high of 113.63.
"There's a couple of reasons that the dollar's going to remain popular," said Mr Twidale. "One's interest rate differentials, and the other is safe haven status while we've got these global trade concerns. It's nothing new, but I think we could see an acceleration."
The euro rose less than 0.1 per cent to 1.1647 after dropping more than 0.8 per cent on Thursday on uncertainty over the Italian government's budget deficit to gross domestic product target.
Italy ultimately defied EU requirements that it cut its deficit, targeting a budget deficit at 2.4 per cent of gross domestic product for the next three years.
Markets had expected Italy's economy minister, Giovanni Tria, to resist a spending push by Italy's coalition government, which took power in June.
The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six major rivals, was up 0.07 per cent at 94.959.
US Treasury yields ticked lower. The yield on benchmark 10-year treasury notes was at 3.0518 per cent on Friday, compared with its U.S. close of 3.055 per cent on Thursday.
The two-year yield, closely tied to expectations of higher Fed fund rates, touched 2.8269 per cent compared with a US close of 2.835 per cent.
US crude was 0.2 per cent higher at $72.28 (Dh265.15) a barrel. Brent crude was mostly flat at $81.73 per barrel.
Gold was slightly higher after tumbling 1 per cent on Thursday on strength in the US dollar, which made bullion more expensive for buyers using other currencies.
Spot gold was up 0.16 per cent at $1,184.28 per ounce.
Attacks on Egypt’s long rooted Copts
Egypt’s Copts belong to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities, with Mark the Evangelist credited with founding their church around 300 AD. Orthodox Christians account for the overwhelming majority of Christians in Egypt, with the rest mainly made up of Greek Orthodox, Catholics and Anglicans.
The community accounts for some 10 per cent of Egypt’s 100 million people, with the largest concentrations of Christians found in Cairo, Alexandria and the provinces of Minya and Assiut south of Cairo.
Egypt’s Christians have had a somewhat turbulent history in the Muslim majority Arab nation, with the community occasionally suffering outright persecution but generally living in peace with their Muslim compatriots. But radical Muslims who have first emerged in the 1970s have whipped up anti-Christian sentiments, something that has, in turn, led to an upsurge in attacks against their places of worship, church-linked facilities as well as their businesses and homes.
More recently, ISIS has vowed to go after the Christians, claiming responsibility for a series of attacks against churches packed with worshippers starting December 2016.
The discrimination many Christians complain about and the shift towards religious conservatism by many Egyptian Muslims over the last 50 years have forced hundreds of thousands of Christians to migrate, starting new lives in growing communities in places as far afield as Australia, Canada and the United States.
Here is a look at major attacks against Egypt's Coptic Christians in recent years:
November 2: Masked gunmen riding pickup trucks opened fire on three buses carrying pilgrims to the remote desert monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor south of Cairo, killing 7 and wounding about 20. IS claimed responsibility for the attack.
May 26, 2017: Masked militants riding in three all-terrain cars open fire on a bus carrying pilgrims on their way to the Monastery of St. Samuel the Confessor, killing 29 and wounding 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack.
April 2017: Twin attacks by suicide bombers hit churches in the coastal city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta city of Tanta. At least 43 people are killed and scores of worshippers injured in the Palm Sunday attack, which narrowly missed a ceremony presided over by Pope Tawadros II, spiritual leader of Egypt Orthodox Copts, in Alexandria's St. Mark's Cathedral. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks.
February 2017: Hundreds of Egyptian Christians flee their homes in the northern part of the Sinai Peninsula, fearing attacks by ISIS. The group's North Sinai affiliate had killed at least seven Coptic Christians in the restive peninsula in less than a month.
December 2016: A bombing at a chapel adjacent to Egypt's main Coptic Christian cathedral in Cairo kills 30 people and wounds dozens during Sunday Mass in one of the deadliest attacks carried out against the religious minority in recent memory. ISIS claimed responsibility.
July 2016: Pope Tawadros II says that since 2013 there were 37 sectarian attacks on Christians in Egypt, nearly one incident a month. A Muslim mob stabs to death a 27-year-old Coptic Christian man, Fam Khalaf, in the central city of Minya over a personal feud.
May 2016: A Muslim mob ransacks and torches seven Christian homes in Minya after rumours spread that a Christian man had an affair with a Muslim woman. The elderly mother of the Christian man was stripped naked and dragged through a street by the mob.
New Year's Eve 2011: A bomb explodes in a Coptic Christian church in Alexandria as worshippers leave after a midnight mass, killing more than 20 people.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
As it stands in Pool A
1. Japan - Played 3, Won 3, Points 14
2. Ireland - Played 3, Won 2, Lost 1, Points 11
3. Scotland - Played 2, Won 1, Lost 1, Points 5
Remaining fixtures
Scotland v Russia – Wednesday, 11.15am
Ireland v Samoa – Saturday, 2.45pm
Japan v Scotland – Sunday, 2.45pm
If you go
The flights
Emirates and Etihad fly direct to Nairobi, with fares starting from Dh1,695. The resort can be reached from Nairobi via a 35-minute flight from Wilson Airport or Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, or by road, which takes at least three hours.
The rooms
Rooms at Fairmont Mount Kenya range from Dh1,870 per night for a deluxe room to Dh11,000 per night for the William Holden Cottage.
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
Power: 480kW
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh359,900 ($98,000)
On sale: Now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
