It’s a quiet morning on Planet Finance, with no single story having dominated the markets pages over the weekend.

Warren Buffett is getting attention on both sides of the Atlantic and in Asia. Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting is this weekend, and it’s generating lots of headlines. Here’s the Oracle of Omaha on:

Apple: Buffett went out of his way to praise Apple — his most important holding — after Berkshire trimmed its stake. The WSJ thinks the size of the company’s stake in Apple worries some investors.

Artificial intelligence: AI-powered scamming will be a global growth industry — and likened the technology’s potential impact on the world to that of nuclear weapons (watch, runtime: 1:29).

CLOSER TO HOME-

Fakeeh Care’s IPO set to be the biggest in KSA so far this year: Saudi private healthcare provider Fakeeh Care Group is looking to raise up to SAR 2.9 bn from its IPO on Tadawul’s main market in what is on track to be the largest share sale in the Kingdom so far this year. Fund and portfolio managers fully covered the IPO in just the first hour that bankers started taking orders on Thursday, Bloomberg says. Bankers say they will price the transaction in the SAR 53.00-57.50 per-share range.

REMEMBER- The UAE’s ADIA is emerging as a key buyer in Fakeeh Care IPO: UAE’s largest sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia) is set to purchase 1.04 mn shares as a cornerstone investment in Fakeeh Care’s IPO. Alongside Olayan Saudi Investment — the other cornerstone investor — the two funds will buy 1.99 mn shares worth SAR 173 mn.

ALSO- Saudi fintech outfit Rasan plans to sell a 30% stake on Tadawul’s main market through an offering of existing and new shares, it said in a prospectus (pdf). It lined up the Capital Market Authority’s approval for the share sale in March.

What’s on offer: Rasan is looking to sell 22.7 mn shares, including 17.4 mn shares from 15 selling shareholders and 5.3 mn news shares, according to the prospectus.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

It’s a quiet start to the week in Asia, where the JPX and Korea Exchange are closed in observance of Children’s Day. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng is flat in early trading, while the Shanghai Composite is up 0.9%. US and European stock futures inched up overnight.

ADX

9,037

+0.2% (YTD: -5.6%)

DFM

4,142

+0.1% (YTD: +2.0%)

Nasdaq Dubai UAE20

3,524

+0.1% (YTD: -8.3%)

USD : AED CBUAE

Buy 3.67

Sell 3.67

EIBOR

5.1% o/n

5.4% 1 yr

TASI

12,373

+0.2% (YTD: 3.4%)

EGX30

26,113

+3.3% (YTD: +4.9%)

S&P 500

5,127

+1.3% (YTD: +7.5%)

FTSE 100

8,213

+0.5% (YTD: +6.2%)

Euro Stoxx 50

4,921

+0.6% (YTD: +8.9%)

Brent crude

USD 82.96

-0.9%

Natural gas (Nymex)

USD 2.14

+5.3%

Gold

USD 2,301

-0.04%

BTC

USD 63,699

-0.2% (YTD: +51.6%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The DFM rose 0.1% yesterday on turnover of AED 224.6 mn. The index is up 2.0% YTD.

In the green: Al Salam Bank (+3.6%), Emaar Development (+2.4%) and Emirates Reem Investments Company (+1.9%).

In the red: Takaful Emarat (-2.9%), Amlak Finance (-2.0%) and Ithmaar Holding (-1.6%).

Over on the ADX, the index closed up 0.2% on turnover of AED 961.4 mn. Meanwhile Nasdaq Dubai rose 0.1%.

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