Will the region change tactics as the war drags on?

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Dubai, Oman team up to bypass logistics bottlenecks + IHC signs off on buyback program up to AED 5 bn

Good morning, friends, and happy early Eid Al Fitr. We’re still waiting for confirmation tonight that Ramadan ends today, but the country is setting off for the Eid break anyway as of tomorrow for a long weekend.

**PROGRAMMING NOTE- EnterpriseAM UAE will also be off for Eid Al Fitr starting tomorrow, and will be back in your inboxes at the usual time on Monday, 23 March.

Eid celebrations will likely not have the same flavor as every year. Several public attractions are still closed down, and you likely won’t be seeing prayer mats filling up the streets outside of mosques for Salat El Eid, with instructions given to ensure prayers happen only inside mosques for safety reasons.

The country is continuing to face attacks, with loud interceptions heard in Dubai late last night and a public safety alert sent to our phones. Falling shrapnel from a ballistic missile interception in Abu Dhabi led to another civilian fatality yesterday morning, and tankers are being hit off the coast of the UAE. The tanker, hit some 23 nautical miles east of Fujairah while anchored, resulted in minor structural damage, but no injuries. An Iranian projectile hit near Australia’s Al Minhad Air Base earlier today, resulting in a small fire but no injuries.

Plus: Dubai International Airport continued to face severe operational bottlenecks following strikes, the Financial Times reports. After our airspace was temporarily shuttered Tuesday morning following an attack on a fuel tank earlier on Monday, and more reported attacks later in the night, flights restarted, though the airport continued to grapple with a backlog of cancellations and severe delays.

Daily port loadings have also been taking a hit: Loadings in Fujairah plummeted by 66% during the week of 9 March, falling significantly from the 1.9 mn bbl / d seen a week prior, Lloyd’s List reports, citing data by market analytics firm Vortexa.

As we head into the long weekend, we look at if the Gulf might respond — as well as how and when — to Iran’s attacks in the coming weeks, including reports of the UAE offering up potential support of the US in securing the Strait of Hormuz.

AND- As the fallout from data center disruptions following the attacks on AWS’ data centers earlier in the month seemingly settles, we ask how foreign investors might approach investments in data centers in the region now — and what they might be looking for from governments in our neck of the woods.

Happening today

It’s interest rate day: The Fed will make its interest rate announcement later today — and tomorrow is equally big a day, with the ECB, Bank of England, and Bank of Japan doing the same. Central banks in China, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Sweden, and Switzerland are also meeting this week to set rates.

The Fed is widely expected to keep rates unchanged as it takes stock of the economic fallout from the war. Policy decisions moving forward might prove tricky. The war’s pressure on oil prices threatens to spike inflation, while the US labor market is also looking weak, so the case for looser vs. tighter economic policy might be much less clear than before.

WEATHER- Temperatures are thankfully cooling slightly from their earlier highs, rising to a high of 29°C in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and reaching a low of 20°C overnight.

Watch this space

LOGISTICS — Dubai + Oman activate green corridor to bypass logistics bottlenecks: Dubai and Oman Customs have introduced a temporary joint corridor to expedite procedures for sea and air cargo, according to a statement (pdf). Shipments originally bound for Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port or Dubai International Airport will be rerouted through Omani ports and airports, before being transported via bonded trucks through the Hatta-Al Wajajah border crossing.

A joint push to safeguard GCC supply chains: Oman is leveraging its geography — located outside of Hormuz — to ensure that disrupted sea and air flows do not result in stranded cargo or empty shelves. For operators, this means diverted goods won’t face the standard double-handling or administrative delays of a second country’s customs. Instead, Omani authorities will verify seals and transit declarations to facilitate an easy move to Dubai.

What’s next? We can expect a surge in bonded trucking demand along the Oman-UAE axis. While the corridor is temporary, how long it stays operational will likely depend on how long the current regional disruptions persist.

And more rerouting through Oman… Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) will reroute its aluminum exports and raw materials through Oman’s port of Sohar in the coming days to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, three sources told Reuters. Alumina feedstock will then be transported by truck to either Dubai or Abu Dhabi for smelting.

IN CONTEXT- Aluminum prices hit a four-year high at USD 3.5k per metric ton last week, climbing 12% since the war echoed concerns of global market shortages. The Gulf hosts approximately 7 mn tons of aluminum production — representing about 9% of the world’s supply. EGA produces around 2.7 mtpa of primary aluminum in the UAE.

ENERGY — A 30-member national team and five technical committees will now steer a 2050 demand management plan for energy efficiency spanning 34 initiatives, Gulf News reports. The Energy and Infrastructure Ministry fast-tracked 16 initiatives across buildings, transport, industry, and agriculture, shifting focus toward the execution and coordination of energy and water consumption policies.

The targets: The plan plugs into the UAE’s updated Energy Strategy 2050, which aims to improve energy efficiency by 42-45% by 2030, triple renewable capacity, lift clean energy’s share of the mix to some 30%, and mobilize AED 150-200 bn in investments.

CAPITAL MARKETS — Shareholders of ADX-listed conglomerate International Holding Company (IHC) signed off on a fresh share buyback program worth up to AED 5 bn, representing roughly 0.6% of the company’s total shares, according to a bourse filing (pdf).

The move comes just three months after it wrapped another buyback program in December. Though it signaled at the time that it was done with further repurchases for the foreseeable future, the board is now looking toward a capital reduction via share cancellation if the shares aren’t sold in two years’ time.

A vote of confidence in its own shares: In the cold logic of capital allocation, a buyback is a company’s way of signaling that its own equity offers a better ROI than any external allocation or dividend. By returning to the market soon after its previous program, IHC is signaling that it still views its current share price as a markdown to its intrinsic value.

Market reax: IHC’s shares fell 0.2% yesterday to AED 390.2. It’s down 2.4% YTD.

BANKING — CBUAE readies resilience package to fortify banking sector: The Central Bank of the UAE has greenlit a five-pillar Financial Institutional Resilience Package to insulate the banking sector from global volatility, state news agency Wam reports.

Under the program, banks will have improved access — up to 30% — to their reserved reserves, extra loans in AED and USD, more leeway in keeping liquidity thresholds, and can more easily dip into extra capital buffers. They will also have more flexibility in postponing loan classification for clients in financial stress.

The big story abroad

Major escalations have kept the regional war on the front pages, chief among them was the killing of Iran’s top security official Ali Larijani by an Israeli airstrike. Larijani — a longtime architect of Iran’s security policy — is the most senior regime member killed in the war after former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, to whom he was a close advisor.

Israel also killed General Gholam Reza Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard’s all-volunteer Basij — a paramilitary volunteer militia.

Meanwhile, a top US counterterrorism official resigned over Washington’s war on the Islamic Republic. Joe Kent — the director of the US National Counterterrorism Center — stepped down yesterday, claiming that “Iran posed no imminent threat to [the US]” and attributed the operation to “pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby.”

The war has sent US gas prices beyond USD 3.75 a gallon for the first time since October 2023, Reuters reports, citing data by fuel price tracker GasBuddy.

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Market watch

Middle East crude benchmarks are printing at record highs: Dubai hit USD 153.25 / bbl for May loading cargoes, while Oman futures touched USD 147.79 / bbl, Reuters reports, citing Platts. The premium to Dubai swaps surged to USD 56 / bbl from just USD 0.90 in February, with Oman showing a similar spike.

The demand side is already reacting: Crude flows to Asia dropped to 11.7 mn bbl / d in March from some 19 mn bbl / d in February. With Dubai pricing the bulk of Gulf crude into Asia, the spike is forcing buyers to either hunt for alternatives or simply process less. Meanwhile, the spread with Murban, sitting at USD 111.76 / bbl, is stretching credibility, exposing how disconnected the benchmark has become from actual tradable barrels.

The physical market is collapsing underneath the benchmark: Gulf crude exports fell by some 60-70% this week versus February levels, with flows dropping to as low as 7.5-9.7 mn bbl / d from some 25-26 mn bbl / d. Producers are shutting in output as storage fills up — with floating storage swelling to more than 50 mn barrels from some 10 mn pre-war — forcing cuts estimated at 7-10 mn bbl / d across the region.

The real issue sits within the benchmark itself, as a shrinking pool of trades sets global prices. Platts dropped three grades tied to Hormuz flows, leaving Oman and Murban to anchor the pricing window. Traders say the Market on Close window is effectively dominated by a single buyer, with TotalEnergies lifting 24 cargoes, or 12 mn barrels this month — enough to shape the curve. Platts is now reviewing its methodology.

What’s next for the Gulf in this war?

Gulf states are reportedly urging Washington to “not stop short” in its military campaign against Iran, fearing repeat future attacks if Tehran’s offensive capabilities remain partially intact, Reuters reports. It remains unclear, however, what the Gulf’s involvement in the war could look like, or if it will get involved at all, as Iran continues to escalate its attacks on the region.

A response from the UAE was never off the table: Officials including Anwar Gargash, the president’s diplomatic advisor, have been warning for a while that they can “no longer sit idly by,” as the massive cost of defense and the risk of permanent deterrence erosion render a purely defensive reaction unsustainable.

REMEMBER- The cost disparity is serious. As we’ve reported, traditional air and missile defense systems work, but they cost a fortune compared to low-cost asymmetric swarms. Already, it’s been nearly three weeks of interceptions, each of which costs around USD 4 mn, Amandeep Ahuja, head of research at Confluence Consultants, tells EnterpriseAM.

On top of this, significant damage and disruption have been done to key pillars of GCC economies — from aviation and ports to financial services, and, of course, the Strait of Hormuz disruption.

Some involvement could be coming on that front: Gargash separately said that the UAE could be involved in a US-led effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports.

The dilemma remains: While Washington is pressing GCC countries to join the offensive, “we’re seeing that Gulf states are not at the moment suggesting any inclination towards joining the war because the economic and reputational costs of it would be too immense,” Ahuja said.

So what are the “red lines” for Gulf military retaliation?

What would push Gulf states over the edge? The thresholds that would prompt the GCC to get actively involved are “if very critical assets, like desalination plants, are under increased attack, or incidents involving civilian casualties, because Gulf states have positioned themselves as a safe haven,” Ahuja said.

IN CONTEXT- So far, eight casualties have been reported in the UAE as a result of the war, with the most recent reported in Abu Dhabi after a missile struck a Palestinian national in Al Bahyah.

Military options on the table

Gulf countries have several different military options, including granting the US full access to bases and airspace, Senior Fellow for Middle East Policy Hasan Alhasan wrote in a note for the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). While the UAE has continuously rejected any participation in the war, Saudi Arabia has acknowledged providing logistical support for US air patrols.

More active and direct retaliation is also on the table, Alhasan noted, adding that the GCC could deploy land-attack cruise missiles — or the UAE’s equivalent Black Shaheen — allowing for deep strikes into Iranian territory without entering its airspace. They also operate air platforms with combat radii ranging up to nearly 1.9k km.

Targeting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ economic, logistical, or energy infrastructure is another option, the report noted.

While these options exist, it is “unclear whether they possess sufficient inventories of weapons and munitions to sustain an extended military campaign against Iran,” Alhasan noted.

Regional leaders are increasingly diversifying their arsenals, supplementing US hardware with technology from Europe, South Korea, China, Turkey, and Russia, Nicholas Heras, senior analyst and program head for the State Resilience and Fragility Program at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy, tells EnterpriseAM. He suggests, however, that the Gulf will keep purchasing top-tier US military hardware, rather than making a total shift away from the West.

Ground war scenario?

For now, GCC states will likely support through continued information sharing, but if the US were able to force the Iranian regime from its coast through a ground invasion, specialized UAE and Bahraini units could be deployed to occupy and secure Iran’s key energy facilities to prevent further regional threats, Heras said.

Ahuja maintains that the current priority of Gulf states remains domestic safety. “UAE authorities would much rather go down the route of diplomacy and negotiations and [...] there is no real inclination to be a part of this war,” she noted.

The future of US-Gulf relations

While at an economic level, the US-GCC relationship remains deep and mutually beneficial, the war could prompt strategic realignment among regional leaders when it comes to relationships with the US and Israel, Ahuja noted.

However, Heras argues that definitive US military success in Iran “would be a soothing balm for US-Gulf relations,” serving to reassure GCC states of Washington’s reliability.

Uncertainty and heightened risk are weighing on the UAE’s data infrastructure prospects

Attacks on the Gulf during the war have been unprecedented in many ways, hitting countries that have for years been viewed as “safe havens” for wealth, for industries like finance and tech, for businesses, and for people.

The UAE has so far managed the crisis effectively by hammering on the message of business continuity, ensuring workarounds are in place to keep shelves stocked and business moving, and managing to intercept many of the missiles and drones targeting the country. However, the question of data security has become a major concern now that data centers are being treated as legitimate military targets.

Rewind to a few weeks back: Earlier this month, drone strikes caused “structural damage” and power failures at Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in Dubai and Bahrain. These unprecedented attacks have thrown into question how the region — which has spent years cultivating its reputation as a stable, high-tech hub — will navigate the massive risks now facing its critical data center infrastructure. The attack disrupted services for dozens of regional banks and businesses — from First Abu Dhabi Bank and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to the EnterpriseAM website.

This comes as the UAE is in the process of building infrastructure with the help of some of the biggest tech firms in the world, with massive projects like the 5 GW Stargate data center cluster currently under development in Abu Dhabi. Microsoft has also just recently committed to spending up to USD 7.9 bn through 2029 on AI and cloud infrastructure. This is in addition to projects in the pipeline from local firms like Khazna, which plans to bring over 1 GW of additional AI-ready capacity across the UAE, Saudi, and Italy.

How the war — and the risks it has exposed within the UAE’s data center infrastructure — will affect the country’s image as a data center hub remains to be seen. “It depends on how long the war will last,” renowned security professional and author Bruce Schneier tells EnterpriseAM. (Schneier is also a fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center and chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt. He has been named a “security guru” by the Economist.)

“There’s significant uncertainty, so it’s going to boil down to how risk-averse you are, and the risk is going up because so much is not known,” Schneier said. The uncertainty in and of itself is the problem: “Uncertainty is expensive and risky. Business doesn’t like uncertainty,” he added.

The long-term impact on the Emirates’ position could be “significant, and not in a positive direction,” cloud infrastructure and security specialist Jeff Cooper tells us. He noted how AWS has encouraged companies hosting data on their servers to migrate workloads out of the Middle East entirely and characterized the broader operating environment as unpredictable.

“Multinationals could quietly pull back in the long term,” Cooper added, noting they could pivot toward Europe.

The problem goes beyond just reputation: Data centers are notoriously capital-intensive, so the physical damage done by the attacks on AWS facilities won’t be cheap to fix, Cooper said. Data centers cost bns of USD to build, and that’s not to mention the massive economic costs associated with disruptions to companies’ digital services, costing them mns of USD in revenues.

Still, the factors that made the Emirates a draw — location, energy, and connectivity — are still there, but at a higher risk premium, Cooper added.

So, what can be done at this point when it comes to data?

As we’ve reported earlier, using edge locations and avoiding highly centralized clusters of compute infrastructure is something policymakers and firms will need to think about. Cooper echoed this, adding that geographic redundancy in lower-risk regions is another answer, though it doesn’t protect existing facilities — it “changes the calculus for future investment decisions significantly,” he noted.

The downside? Depending on a business’s needs and how much data or operational time it can afford to lose, “the engineering and operational overhead required to maintain

continuous synchronization between two active systems adds meaningful expense on

top of the hardware and hosting costs alone,” Cooper explained.

The more cost-effective solution is what’s called an “active-passive setup” — as opposed to an active-active one mentioned above — which maintains a primary system and a standby that might be fully powered down to reduce costs and brought online when needed, though some downtime would be expected, he said.

Edge computing can allow companies to run primary compute in a lower-risk region such as the EU and then deliver a fast, responsive experience to Gulf users through caching and lightweight local processing, offering another viable option for those in the UAE, because “if the edge location is disrupted, traffic can be routed back to the primary region with minimal impact to the end user,” he noted.

Where government data is involved, the case for data embassies is now stronger than ever. It’s “not just a good option, [it is] a prescient one” that can help protect against a government becoming “digitally paralyzed” if its physical, domestic infrastructure gets attacked, Cooper explained.

The Estonia blueprint: Back in 2017, Estonia backed up its tax registry and land borders in Luxembourg in a bid to protect itself against the threat of wars, cyberattacks, and natural disasters through the concept of a digital embassy.

Uh, Enterprise, is that like a physical embassy… but you get services done online? No. A digital embassy — or a data embassy — allows countries to host backups of their sovereign data in high-security facilities abroad while maintaining their own exclusive jurisdiction over that data. This ensures a state remains “digitally functional” — capable of running its tax registry, court systems, and treasury — even if its physical territory or domestic infrastructure is compromised.

The UAE has been eyeing the concept for a while now, with discussions with India in January for a potential arrangement to make digital embassies feasible.

The main challenge is in the timing, Cooper says. Digital embassy set-ups depend on bilateral agreements, which take time to hash out and ratify. Plus: The regulatory framework is still lacking in the UAE, and there are many regulatory implications associated with the concept.

Access to data is a key point: For a data center to provide access to a foreign subscriber’s data stored in that center, there needs to be a final binding order issued by a competent court or authority in the subscriber’s state, Al Tamimi & Co partner Andrew Fawcett tells us. The request would be vetted by the court or an equivalent in the hosting country, which acts as a gatekeeper function. Data can also be encrypted, giving flexibility in terms of who can access what, Cooper says. All of those details would need to be ironed out in a binding agreement — something that takes time to agree on.

While the embassy holds government data, it protects private commerce. If the UAE’s central bank data is backed up in a data embassy, the banking system stays “live” even if local servers are hit. A private bank can have the best backup in the world, but if the central clearing system is offline, it can’t move a single AED.

The recovery (and protection) of physical infrastructure is the bigger problem

“Data is easy […] there’s ways to protect data,” Schneier said, but protecting physical infrastructure during wartime is a different ballgame — and it’s something corporates can’t be responsible for on their own, he added.

“Industry has always been a legitimate target in wartime, but it’s on governments to protect industries — companies can’t fight wars and they can’t bear the burden of hardening their infrastructure against wars,” he said.

Backstopping by regional governments is “not a stretch […] particularly given how central digital infrastructure has become to their economic diversification strategies,” Cooper said. “That could take the form of government-backed ins., investment guarantees, or formal risk-sharing

agreements,” he explained. The principle here is what matters, Cooper said — major cloud companies will need assurances from the government to continue to invest in a region where this type of risk exists, he added.

The key thing moving forward? Classifying data centers as the critical infrastructure they are, Cooper said. “Data centers are now built to survive a drone strike,” according to Cooper. Options like structured hardening, which include underground construction, reinforced blast-resistant shells, overhead netting, and tensioned cable systems — all recommended by the Pentagon’s own counter-drone guidance, issued in January, he added. These are achievable, but they are expensive, he noted.

The second option is active defense, Cooper explained. That means electronic jamming, drone detection and intercept systems, kinetic countermeasures — measures often deployed at military installations. “This raises the immediate question: who authorizes them, who operates them, and under what [legislative] framework does a private company operate defensive weapons systems in a foreign country?”

Ins. is another part of the problem: “One key limitation is that many commercial ins. policies, including cyber policies, contain exclusions for war or war-like acts,” Associate Analyst at GlobalData Charlie Hutcherson told EnterpriseAM. That breeds further uncertainty, Hutcherson added, while Cooper noted that the government could need to step in one way or another. (Read: Today’s Planet Finance, detailing the global shortage of ins. for multi-bn USD mega data center projects.)

Zayed National Museum gets recognition + Forbes’ 100 most valuable companies are out

Abu Dhabi’s Zayed National Museum has been named one of Time’s World’s Greatest Places 2026, joining the publication’s annual list of 100 destinations judged to offer standout experiences globally, according to an Abu Dhabi Media Office statement.

Why it matters: The recognition lands less than four months after the museum opened in December as the centerpiece of Abu Dhabi’s cultural push on Saadiyat, giving the emirate’s newest flagship cultural asset an unusually fast international endorsement. Inside, visitors find six permanent galleries spanning 300k years of history, along with headline pieces including the Abu Dhabi Pearl, the Blue Qur’an, and a full-scale Magan Boat reconstruction.

Forbes’ 100 Most Valuable was UAE-heavy: UAE-listed companies led Forbes Middle East’s 2026 ranking of the region’s 100 most valuable companies, with 35 firms making the list, edging past Saudi Arabia’s 34. GCC companies accounted for 88% of the ranking, while UAE names claimed five spots in the top 10, led by energy, finance, and holding firms.

Who made the cut at the top? IHC ranked second with a market cap of USD 238.6 bn, followed by Taqa in fourth (USD 87.9 bn), Adnoc Gas in sixth (USD 75.4 bn), First Abu Dhabi Bank in ninth (USD 56 bn), and Emirates NBD in 10th (USD 53.5 bn).

Cloudera adds a Gulf lead

American data and AI company Cloudera tapped Nick Loumakis (LinkedIn) as VP for the UAE and Turkey, tasking him with leading its regional sales push as it leans further into growth in the Middle East, according to a company release. Loumakis brings two decades of experience across data, analytics, and enterprise software in EMEA, including regional sales leadership roles at Qlik and Liferay.

Why now? Cloudera is doubling down on a region it already describes as “one of the most dynamic and fast-growing markets for data and AI innovation.” Group VP South-META Ahmad Shakora said the appointment should help “deepen strategic partnerships” across the region, building on last year’s MoU with Saudi Aramco and the opening of a Saudi office.

The AI sector’s latest challenge? Ins.

Building out the AI boom is one thing, but insuring it is another — and it’s making lending in the sector more challenging. Lenders looking to fund multi-bn-USD, multi-GW AI projects are struggling to secure enough ins., the Financial Times reports. Blackstone and KKR are among those opting out of taking on AI-linked debt on the grounds of a lack of comprehensive coverage, the salmon-colored paper said.

The risks: Data centers are vulnerable to a host of events, from natural disasters to possible disruptions to water and energy supplies. A 45-minute power outage alone could wipe out half a year’s revenues, Parametrix’s Jonathan Hatzor said. This, coupled with a lack of ins. coverage, is positioning funding data centers at a level of exposure that many investors are wary of taking on, especially as the lack of full coverage may become an issue when construction loans are set to be refinanced.

Some developers have been trying to mitigate the risks, building out data centers in areas with more temperate weather patterns, but, as we’re all too aware in our neck of the woods, it’s hard to mitigate against geopolitical risks.

Hyperscalers aren’t helping, with huge investments and large-scale projects driving up ins. costs. Megaprojects are often some of the most underinsured, Kirkland & Ellis partner Kimberly McGrath said. Meanwhile, Marsh broker Kate Fairhead noted that these projects distort the market by taking on more risk on their balance sheet.

Current ins. mechanisms in place for under-construction projects are offering partial coverage. Meta’s USD 30 bn data center campus in Louisiana has about USD 4 bn worth of coverage, Clifford Chance’s Gianluca Bacchiocchi said. However, when it comes to high-profile projects with a lot of investor interest, potential backers have to accept a certain level of risk if they want to be involved.

The coverage conundrum isn’t the only worry plaguing the sector, with fears continuing to spiral around a possible AI bubble. Key AI firms have seen valuations surge, and investors have been throwing money at projects that have yet to deliver equivalent returns. Only 10% of agentic AI projects are seeing measurable returns, according to Deloitte. The IMF has also recently warned of growing AI investments, echoing the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. Despite this, Nvidia has recently posted revenues that beat expectations, assuaging doubts somewhat.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asia-Pacific markets are mostly in the green in early trading this morning as investors await the Federal Reserve’s decision later today — the central bank is widely expected to leave interest rates as they are. Similarly, US stocks are set to open in the green later today, with futures a sea of green.

ADX	9,556	+1.0% (YTD: -4.4%)
DFM	5,506	+4.1% (YTD: -9.0%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,483	+3.2% (YTD: +8.3%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.5% o/n	3.6% 1 yr
TASI	10,946	+0.6% (YTD: +4.3%)
EGX30	46,055	+1.9% (YTD: +10.1%)
S&P 500	6,716	+0.3% (YTD: -1.9%)
FTSE 100	10,404	+0.8% (YTD: +4.8%)
Euro Stoxx 50	5,769	+0.5% (YTD: -0.4%)
Brent crude	USD 103.42	+3.2%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 3.04	+0.2%
Gold	USD 5,003	-0.1%
BTC	USD 74,189	-0.9% (YTD: -15.3%)
Chimera JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.62	+0.6% (YTD: -3.6%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	150.60	0.0% (YTD: -0.9%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	22.37	-4.9% (YTD: +50.3%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX rose 1.0% yesterday on turnover of AED 1.6 bn. The index is down 4.4% YTD.

In the green: Two Point Zero Group (+8.5%), E7 Group (+8.3%), and AD Ports Group (+7.7%).

In the red: Rak Properties (-5.0%), Apex Investment (-4.9%), and Umm Al Qaiwain General Investment Co. (-4.9%).

Over on the DFM, the index rose 4.1% on turnover of AED 1.6 bn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was up 3.2%.

CALENDAR

MARCH

19-20 March (Thursday-Friday): Eid Al Fitr, public holiday.

26-28 March (Thursday-Saturday): Social Capital Conference, Dubai.

28-29 March (Saturday-Sunday): Emirates International Congress on AI & Visionary Leadership in Transforming Healthcare, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

31 March - 2 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Arab Media Summit, Dubai.

31 March-2 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Investopia, Abu Dhabi.

APRIL

6-9 April (Monday-Thursday): Dubai AI Week, Dubai.

7-8 April (Tuesday-Wednesday): Dubai AI Festival, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

7-9 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Future Health Summit, Adnec Center Abu Dhabi.

7-9 April (Tuesday-Thursday): Middle East Energy, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

13-15 April (Monday-Wednesday): AIM Congress, Dubai World Trade Center.

13-15 April (Monday-Wednesday): The International Glass Manufacturing Show, Dubai.

14-16 April: (Tuesday-Thursday): International Property Show, Sheikh Zayed Rd, Dubai.

21-23 April (Tuesday-Thursday): UITP Public Transport Summit, Dubai.

28-29 April (Tuesday-Wednesday): Innovation Summit Middle East & Africa, Abu Dhabi.

29 April (Wednesday): Digital Transformation Summit, Sofitel, Abu Dhabi.

MAY

4-8 May (Wednesday-Saturday): Make It in the Emirates, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

8-24 May (Saturday-Sunday): Dubai Esports and Games Festival, Dubai.

11-13 May (Monday-Wednesday): AI Everything Global, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

11-15 May (Monday-Friday): Dubai Future Finance Week, Dubai.

12-14 May (Tuesday-Thursday): Airport Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

19-20 May (Tuesday-Wednesday): Capital Market Summit, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

19-22 May (Tuesday-Friday): Abu Dhabi Water and Energy Week, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

20-21 May (Wednesday-Thursday): Arab Competition Forum, Dubai.

JUNE

3-4 June (Wednesday-Thursday): Annual MENA Investor Conference, Ritz-Carlton DIFC, Dubai.

15 June - 15 September (Monday-Thursday): Dubai Mallathon, Dubai.

JULY

31 July (Friday): Large businesses achieving annual revenues equal to or above AED 50 mn must appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation.

OCTOBER

4-10 October (Sunday-Saturday): World Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

Signposted to happen sometime in October 2026:

Abu Dhabi Space Week, Abu Dhabi.

NOVEMBER

9-10 November (Monday-Tuesday): Annual government meetings, Abu Dhabi.

10-12 November (Tuesday-Thursday): Dubai International Electric Vehicle Exhibition & Conference, Dubai World Trade Center.

DECEMBER

2-4 December (Wednesday-Friday): UN Water Conference, UAE.

Signposted to happen in 2026:

Investopia Global Talks, Tashkent.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

1 January: Deadline for large businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1Q 2027: Completion of the first phase of Hassyan seawater desalination project;

1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): World Governments Summit.
31 March: Small businesses with annual revenues of less than AED 50 mn are obliged to contract with an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
31 March: Government entities are required to appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
21-22 April (Wednesday-Thursday): Token2049, Dubai.
1 July: Deadline for small businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1 October: Deadline for governments to implement e-invoicing;
Abu Dhabi’s solar and battery energy facility, combining 5.2 GW of solar capacity and 19 GWh of battery storage, is set for commissioning.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2028:

Artificial Intelligence Summit.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2029:

Sibos 2029 organized by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), Dubai;
The commissioning of the seventh phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

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THIS MORNING: Dubai, Oman team up to bypass logistics bottlenecks + IHC signs off on buyback program up to AED 5 bn